April 1, 2007 Palm Sunday

Source Scriptures: Isaiah 50:4-9, Luke 12:4,11,12, Luke 18:31-34, Luke 19 and Jesus weeping, Luke 20 (Parable of Tenants)

I was listening to a radio station on my ITunes program not too long ago called Groove Salad, self-described as a “chilled plate of ambient beats and grooves” and they played a nifty song that integrated some tunes that facilitated the mind wandering all over the place and inserted some John F. Kennedy quotes in the mix as well; two of those stuck out to me;

“Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” And

“We choose to go to the moon and to do other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard. There’s a sense that anything is possible.”

Now, I’m not old enough by almost two decades to have experienced or remembered JFK’s life, but in some sense I’ve gotten a chance to experience him and the restless decades of the 1960s and 70s vicariously through my grandmother and my mom.

In some sense, JFK wasn’t around long enough or at least was idealized enough before his assassination that they didn’t know he was a rampant womanizer whose ideals often didn’t line up with reality,but it seemed he carried some significant convictions and a fresh, invigorating outlook on life and power that caused enough to people to get on board with his agenda that he became the youngest president ever. This is a tremendous accomplishment in itself (people’s comments about Obama “lacking experience), not to mention that he was a nominally Catholic president elected from a nominally Protestant country that carried a deep sense of suspicion of Catholicism from the very founding of the initial thirteen colonies in the New World that became America.

But JFK’s youthful energy and fresh approach not only gained him a good number of allies in his life but a solid number of enemies, including the powerful enemy of J. Edgar Hoover, the power-mongering head of the FBI at the time, a guy you didn’t want to have against you because of his reputation of destroying whomever got in his path. Without delving too deeply into conspiracy theories, investigations into JFK’s assassination in 1963 a significant number of persons working in very covert and subversive ways to undermine his presidency before they eventually shot him.

Now, if you know me at all, you’re probably thinking, “Why in the world is Nate talking about JFK in the context of looking at this Isaiah passage?” That might be one question of yours, and another deeper question might be, “Why in the world is Nate, a follower of Jesus, even daring to link the leader of a secular modern nation-state with a faithful prophet seeking faithfulness in exiled Israel?” Now I’m not going to take the comparison too far here, but it seems to be a fairly consistent reality in history that the structure of society, the desire for comfort of citizens of that society, and a general dislike of the idea of change, all contribute to a desire to keep the things the same, don’t upset the apple cart, so to speak, to choose safety and low-risk decisions over idealism, risky ideas, and radical change. I think it’s safe to say that most governments don’t mind their people thinking, as long as they don’t turn that thinking into radical action in a way that turns the system on its head. John F. Kennedy was certainly idealistic, willing to take big risks, and generally positive about the impact of some of the social upheaval of the 1960s, and it seems that this commitment of his was enough of a threat to the some powerful enough people in American society that they decided to swing the balance of power back in their favor, assassinating Kennedy.

This sort of thing wasn’t unheard of in the 1960s and 70’s, certainly, as the murders of Medgar Evers and Martin Luther King stained the landscape of America. It seems to be a general rule that prophetic voices are often seen as a threat period, especially for those who happen to hold the power at the time. This sort of struggle is a timeless one, and one intensely relevant to our Scripture here today.

(Read Isaiah 50:4-9)

Historical Arc of Isaiah:

Isaiah chs 1-39 written around 730 b.c. (All begin with an attack on arrogance and an appeal for justice and end in a hymn or prophecy of salvation, and are addressed to the people of Jerusalem. Chs. 40-55, however, are often known as the Babylonian chapters. They are distinctive in the book historically and in their style, and are for that reason called “Second Isaiah.” Written to the exile community in Babylon (rise of King of Cyrus of the Medes and Persians is described (45:1-3)) as well as the fall of Babylon (ch 47) and the return of the exiles to Jerusalem in a new Exodus (48:20-21 thru 52:11-12) The concept of healing and victory through the suffering of ‘the servant of the LORD’ marks out this section as unique in biblical prophecy. Chs 56-66 are mainly concerned with the return of the exiles to Jerusalem and the building of a new society there. (historical arc finishes here at late 400s b.c.)

- 250 year historical arc, then, here

The historical background places this episode around 522 b.c. where Darius the Mede has taken control of Babylon, and sent a group of Israelites back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple. The book of Ezra speaks of Zerubbabel as the Jewish leader at this time in Jerusalem. This is important because Haggai 2:23 shows the Haggai saw Zerubbabel as continuing the line of the preexilic Davidic dynasty, which, it was believed, God had promised would last forever. The picture of the Davidic king as God’s signet ring echoes what was said of Jehoiachin earlier (Jeremiah 22:24)

Zerubbabel. The name, meaning ‘offspring of Babylon,’ of a descendent of David who returned from the Babylonian exile (Ezra 2:2) to become governor of the Persian province of Judah under Darius I (522 b.c.) He was a grandson of Jehoiachin, the exiled king of Judah. Zerubbabel and Joshua the high priest were responsible for the completion of the building of the Temple. Hopes for the restoration of the nation were probably attached to him because of his ancestry. Haggai 2:23 calls him the ‘servant of Yahweh’ and the one he has ‘chosen.’ Zerubbabel appears in the genealogies of Jesus in Matthew 1 and Luke 3:27.

40-55 written by an unknown prophet to encourage the despairing Israelite exiles in Babylon as well as the first waves of them to return to the city of Jerusalem, a shell of its former self and a place of relative desolation. Isaiah 50:4-9 is also known as the third “Servant Song” in a series of four in Second Isaiah that emphasize the role that “God’s servant” is to play in conveying God’s word and righteousness and expectations to the world; this third song in some relevant ways prefigures the strong imagery that is conveyed in the fourth servant song we find in Isaiah 52 to 53 that we are so familiar with, which suggests that the servant will be despised by those around him and will deeply suffer for his commitment to the LORD.

On some level as we look at this passage, it seemed that in his pursuit of faithfulness, the prophet was stuck in a sort of Catch-22; the people hated that they were still functionally in exile and desired to be independent from foreign rule, but the cold, hard reality of the exile weighed heavily in their awareness. The situation is made even more complex because, if historical scholars are correct, this prophet’s ministry took place on the bridge between the older generation of Israelites who remembered the exile and the younger generation that found themselves relatively comfortable, well-off, and living in a fertile, cultured economy, only for some to be forced to return back to the land of their fathers. So, whether one was older, clinging to what was considered a utopian dream of a return to the Promised Land, or younger and more “pragmatic”, recognizing the business opportunities available in Babylon that wouldn’t exist in the Israelite land that was a shadow of its former self, the idea of a return to the top of the heap in relation to other nations around seemed like a pipe dream.

And so, if one was a prophet at this time, you would have know this was going to be a hard sell to the people, both old and young. And that turned out to be an understatement. Even though the prophet speaks here right after chapter 50 where the LORD makes the claim that he has the power to deliver Israel from their unfaithfulness, then here gives “the word that sustains the weary” from the LORD, and later in chapter 51 announces to the people the good news, GREAT NEWS that the LORD’s righteousness draws near speedily and salvation is on the way, he faces intense opposition from the people; undergoing beatings on his back, his beard being ripped out from his face, and mockers spitting on him.

Yet in the midst of this persecution, the author places unfailing trust in the LORD as sovereign over the limited ability of the enemies of the LORD to carry out their schemes, saying, “It is the Sovereign LORD who helps me, who is he that will condemn me?” and in verse 8, “Who is my accuser? Let him confront me!” It is almost as though the author is daring his opponents to challenge him.

Standing alone and with his face set like flint, he willingly accepts angry abuse. The Servant suffers because he has taken a stand for the LORD, for what is right. It is not inconceivable that because of the still-standing memory of the Babylonian destruction of Jerusalem and dismantling of the monarchy and state, there were many inhabitants of the region who embraced Babylonian religion because they believed the Babylonian Gods were stronger than the God of Israel. In their conversion to the Babylonian Gods, it seems likely that the Servant of this passage, ironically, faced the strongest opposition from his own people who had cast aside their historic faith.

So who is this leader, this Servant, anyways? At this time, there were only several prominent leaders: Zerubbabel, Joshua the high priest, Haggai, and Zechariah. In Isaiah chs 49 to 54, twice the single leader speaks, with our Scripture today being one of them, and once the person is described as having been brutally killed in chapters 52 and 53. The leader is clearly one who must face confrontation with oppressive authorities and endure them patiently as Zerubbabel does in Ezra chapters 4 and 5. The building of the temple only took 5 years to complete once the people really started to work hard on it, but ominously, following Zerubbabel’s initial work in Jerusalem with Joshua to start rebuilding the temple, he disappears from the scene strangely abruptly. If we run with this possibility, Zerubbabel’s documented refusal to knuckle under to the pressures of those who wanted to slow the work on the temple resulted in his being threatened and then executed as the opponents looked to assert their power and back up their threats.

If this is true, Isaiah 50 in its historical context illustrates the suffering of Zerubbabel that comes before his death in 53, and provides a compelling picture for us of the effect of radical faithfulness and a willingness to go to the point of death in commitment to the LORD.

There are several significant parallels going on in this passage, then, with connections to the past and to the future. The challenge of persecution of the prophets by their own Israelite countrymen was not a new phenomenon (this challenge had some history and would continue into the future), and the language of the Servant “setting his face like flint” in faithfulness to the LORD provides powerful foreshadowing of the ministry of Jesus when we are told in Luke 9:51 that, “As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem,” and the remainder of Luke’s Gospel focused on Jesus approaching Jerusalem knowing very well what would happen to him there at the end of his journey

He claims to be the Messiah, the one faithful Israelites expect will restore them back to the top of the heap, but instead of acting like a king, consolidating power, and initiating violent revolution like they expected, he reminds them he has come to serve, and they should too. He is supposed to ride the momentum of the support of the crowds to enter triumphantly into Jerusalem on a war horse, not a donkey. He is supposed to rise to the throne as the next king in the line of David, but he says instead:

“We are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophets about the Son of Man will be fulfilled. He will be handed over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, insult him, spit on him, flog him and kill him. On the third day he will rise again.” The disciples did not understand any of this. (Luke 18:31-34)

"I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more…"When you are brought before synagogues, rulers and authorities, do not worry about how you will defend yourselves or what you will say, for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that time what you should say.” (Luke 12:4, 11, 12) I don’t know about you, but being brought before authorities and killed doesn’t sound like the sweet deal the disciples thought they were getting into in the beginning.

(Israel thought he was coming to destroy all the pagan nations, when because of their unbelief, ISRAEL was the one destroyed by God)

Luke 20 Parable of the Tenants (he will come and kill those tenants and give vineyard to others)

Climax: As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it and said, "If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes. The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side. They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God's coming to you." (Luke 19)

That is a significant reminder to us today; we don’t like change, we don’t like someone telling us what to do, and we want Jesus to be who we want him to be…and because of that, we often accept and live into the easy things he said and rationalize away his harder teachings and expectations for us.

But the Servant and Jesus had one significant thing in common; they understood that transformation and true power of change could only come through a radical commitment to God and loving others enough that you tell the truth even if you face brutal consequences. And that is a powerful message today