Identity and function
Commentary
In discussions of modern architecture we often hear the expression that form follows function. A building is designed according to the use that will be made of it, and so an office building will be designed differently from a museum, an apartment building differently from a church.
In a real sense, the baptism of our Lord and our own baptisms as well point somewhat in the opposite direction. The function follows not form but identity. Who Jesus was determines the significance of what he did (or God did through him). Who we are as the baptized children of God sets the foundation for what we do in and with our lives.
Our lessons for this Sunday focus on identity but rather quickly move to the consequence, namely, the function that derives from the identity. While the discussion will revolve around the identity and function of the Servant in Second Isaiah and of Jesus of Nazareth, as preachers we want to reflect on how all the discussion relates to who we are and what we do in the world.
Isaiah 42:1-9
The first four verses of our pericope comprise the first of four so-called servant songs in the writings of Second Isaiah. The other three appear at 49:1-6; 50:4-11; 52:13--53:12. Taken all together, they represent one of the great enigmas for biblical scholarship, namely, the identity of the servant of the Lord. It is possible that the servant in all four songs is not the same personality. Certainly the function of the servant changes from one to the other. It is difficult, however, to ignore entirely the traditional interpretation that -- at least in some of the songs -- the servant is the exiled Israel. In fact, in the chapter prior to our first song, in material not part of any song, the Lord addresses the people in exile as "Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen" (41:8; cf. also v. 9).
That the early church confessed Jesus to be the servant of the Lord (along with the apostle Paul, it should be added) is evident in our Gospel from Matthew 3. While we will discuss that connection later, we shall focus here on the function of the servant and the nature of God.
The song is indeed a speech from the Lord who appears to be introducing his servant to someone else. Who is being addressed? The collection of sermons from the one we call affectionately Second Isaiah begins with the record of his call to be a prophet in chapter 40. Apparently the prophet was given the privilege of eavesdropping on a conversation taking place in the heavenly court. While it is difficult to determine where the quotation marks begin and end and to ascertain who is talking to whom, the end result is that the prophet is called to preach and the message is clear: "the word of our God will stand forever."
In like manner the addressees in this servant song appear to be the members of the heavenly court who surround the throne of God. The Lord here is introducing his "servant," his "chosen." (The Septuagint adds the words Jacob and Israel, consistent with 41:8.) The Lord also indicates that "I have put my spirit upon him," and as a result he is empowered to perform the assigned function: "to bring forth justice." It is impossible to be ambiguous about that role since it is repeated three times -- to the nations, in the earth, the coastlands (vv. 1, 3, 4).
That the servant mission of justice is directed to the nations, that is, the Gentiles, points us to other passages in Second Isaiah which involve the nations. Usually those other passages are trial speeches in which God takes to court the imposters who pretend to be god, that is, the idols of Babylon. Imagine a court scene as you read 41:1-7, 21-29; 43:8-16; 44:6-8. They are all intended to demonstrate that the nations, among them the Babylonians, worship gods that are not gods and that the only God is Yahweh, the Lord. In this light "justice" is the judgment on the nations for worshiping false gods and the truth about God as it will be revealed in the servant's mission. This revelation is the servant's function!
Verses 5-9 comprise a speech of the Lord to someone who is called to be "a covenant to the people, a light to the nations." Having mentioned the nations and the coastlands in the preceding verses, it is not surprising here that the Lord identifies himself as the Creator of the heavens and the earth and of all that lives upon the earth. The role of Yahweh as the Creator occurs on several occasions in the preaching of Second Isaiah (see 40:21-23, 28; 44:24; 45:12, 18). That role gives Yahweh both the right to use even Cyrus the king of Persia as his instrument of salvation and to claim exclusively there is no other god.
Since there is nothing other than the context to suggest it was spoken to the servant, it is not clear who the addressee really is. Whoever it was -- the servant, Israel, the prophet, even Cyrus -- the Lord has called this person or figure (see the calling of Cyrus at 45:4) the responsibility of serving as "a light to the nations" (see that role as the servant's at Isaiah 49:6), "to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon" (see that role as belonging to the prophet Third Isaiah at 61:1). Whoever that person is, the identity of the Lord is abundantly clear: "I am the Lord, that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to idols" (v. 8). This claim to exclusivity, we have already said, is the point of the trial speeches. The insistence on exclusive rights to glory is directly related, a theme that is also common in Second Isaiah (see 43:21; 48:9-11).
Finally, the claim by Yahweh that "the former things have come to pass" is probably an allusion to the prophecies of judgment on Israel and Judah which have been realized, and so, because of the Lord's ability to deliver what was promised in the past, the people can be certain that the "new things" God promises, that is, salvation, are assured. This ability to speak and deliver, to "walk the talk," is precisely the issue that distinguishes Yahweh from the idols in the trail speeches (see above all 44:6-8).
When the reader connects the role of the servant in verses 1-4 to "bring forth justice to the nations" regarding the identity of God with the role of the one called in verses 5-9 to execute transformations for the oppressed to the glory of God, one can only wonder: Who can possibly accomplish all that?
Acts 10:34-43
This pericope represents the second major sermon by Peter. The first, of course, was the sermon he delivered on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:14-36). His audience on that occasion was the "men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem" (v. 14), and his sermon included quotations from the Old Testament, a proclamation of what God had done in Jesus Christ, particularly raising from the dead the one whom they had crucified. Peter included on that occasion that he and the other apostles were eyewitnesses of the resurrection and that the Holy Spirit just prior to his sermon was promised to Jesus by the Father. When the apostle concluded the sermon, his hearers asked him and the other apostles, "Brothers, what should we do?" The question offered Peter the opportunity to call for their repentance and baptism and to promise them the benefits of forgiveness and the gift of the Holy Spirit (vv. 37-42).
In our pericope from Acts 10 the major difference is the nature of the audience. It is Gentile rather than Jewish, and the author of Luke-Acts has prepared us readers for the switch. Prior to the opening verse of our passage, the author reported the strange doings that brought Cornelius the centurion and Peter the apostle together. An angel instructed Cornelius, a God-
fearer, that is, a Gentile who had been converted to Judaism, and a vigilant pray-er, to send to Joppa for Peter who was staying at the home of Simon the tanner. Apparently the same angel -- although it is not said -- had to prepare Peter for the delegation from Cornelius, and so Peter fell into a trance in which he saw a gigantic sheet filled with all kinds of animals and birds and reptiles. Insisting on his dietary taboos, Peter would not eat the common and unclean meal, even though he was especially hungry. A voice announced to him that if God made it, it cannot be unclean. Peter did not know what to make of the vision and the voice until the delegation from Cornelius came knocking at the door. The rest of the story, as they say, is history: Peter accompanied the delegation back to Caesarea to the home of Cornelius.
All that background explains the opening words of Peter's sermon: "I truly understand that God shows no partiality." It was an understanding that Peter could grasp only through the work of the Holy Spirit, and once that truth had been realized Peter could preach essentially the same sermon he delivered to the Jewish audience in chapter 2. He spoke about the ministry of Jesus which began following his baptism when God anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power (that reference is not in Acts 2), about all that God did through Jesus -- his ministry of teaching and healing and exorcisms, about God raising him from the dead after the people had crucified him, about the apostles as eyewitnesses of the resurrection. Peter cited the Old Testament prophets as bearing witness to him and promised that whoever believes in him will receive forgiveness of sins in his name. When the sermon was completed, the Holy Spirit fell on the people just as the Spirit fell on the Jews in chapter 2, and the people here, as then, were baptized.
The comparison -- and differences -- between the two sermons demonstrates that while Peter did not preach a "canned sermon," he did exhibit a consistency in his sermon outlines. Indeed, if one compares the sermon Paul preached in the synagogue at Antioch of Pisidia (Acts 13:16b-41), the content of that sermon is essentially the same as Peter's. Whether this similarity of structure and content is due to the fact that the author of Luke-
Acts wrote all of them down for us or whether apostolic preaching was that consistent -- no matter the audience or the preacher -- there is a lesson for us all: the action of God in Jesus Christ, especially in terms of the resurrection, with the promises from the Old Testament and with all the benefits that action provides us, is what preaching is all about. That content turns a speech into a sermon.
What is unique about this version of the common sermon and why it is selected for this particular Sunday is the reference to the baptism of Jesus in verse 37 and God's anointing "Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power" in verse 38. Apart from the synoptic gospels, references to Jesus' baptism by John are hard to find. Even here Peter chose his words carefully: John preached baptism but God was the actor; God anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit and with power. The baptism of Jesus was not for the forgiveness of sins, but for the empowerment of Jesus so that he could perform his ministry of "doing good and healing all that were oppressed by the devil." Why after all would Jesus need John's baptism?
Matthew 3:13-17
The five verses of our pericope are loaded for interpretation. We shall begin by comparing these verses to the parallels in Mark and Luke. By doing so we will see the common tradition as well as the new twist by Matthew in order to answer the question about why Jesus was baptized by John.
According to Mark, usually regarded as the oldest of the synoptic gospels, Jesus "came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan" (Mark 1:9). The occasion is reported without question or ambiguity. We can only imagine that it must have happened because the report raises a multitude of questions, chief among them, why? John had been "preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins" (Mark 1:4). If Jesus were indeed truly human, that is, human as God intended humans to be, sinless, faithful, obedient, why did Jesus need to be baptized? Mark never bothered to answer the question that the early church surely raised.
Luke took an interesting approach to the problem. That author introduces the readers to John in ways which are quite similar to Mark and Matthew. Then Luke concludes his John section with the note that Herod had shut "up John in prison" (3:20). Then in the next verse Luke records "when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized" (3:21). By reporting John's imprisonment prior to Jesus' baptism, Luke leaves ambiguous who baptized Jesus. We can see perhaps the same concern expressed by the same author in Acts 10 where John is mentioned as preaching baptism but God anointed Jesus with the Spirit.
Matthew deals with the problem Mark raised more directly. Prior to the act of baptism Matthew has John ask the question first century Christians must have been asking: "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?" Jesus' response indicated it is fitting "in this way to fulfill all righteousness." The clarity of the answer does not immediately jump off the biblical page.
In the Old Testament the righteousness of God has primarily to do with the salvation of God. In the preaching of Second Isaiah, above all, one can translate the word for righteousness as "victory." It is the victory of God that accomplishes the salvation for God's people from their exile in Babylon. Righteousness is therefore the activity that springs from the covenantal relationship God established with Israel through Abraham, Moses, and David. God's righteousness is the means by which God's justice is achieved, and that divine justice will be the distinguishing mark of the kingdom of God to come. On the human side, to strive "for the kingdom of God" goes hand in hand with seeking "his righteousness" (Matthew 6:33). It seems that what is fitting to "fulfill all righteousness" is to participate in the salvation work of God which inaugurates God's kingdom, and so Jesus, himself righteous and obedient to his Father, submits to baptism by John.
As Jesus emerged from the water, all three synoptics report that the heavens were opened and the Spirit descended on him like a dove. The opening of the heavens is a common expression to report a vision. Jesus promises Nathanael that he "will see heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man" (John 1:51). Luke reports that when Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit, faced his execution, he said, "I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God" (Acts 7:56). What Jesus saw when the heavens opened was the descent of the Holy Spirit. What he heard was the voice of God announcing his identity and his mission.
Mark and Luke report that the words from heaven were directed to Jesus ("You are ..."), and there is no indication anyone else heard them. Matthew, on the contrary, records the words in the third person as though they constitute a public announcement: "This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased." Matthew's version sounds more like the introduction of the servant of the Lord at Isaiah 42:1: "Here is my servant ... in whom my soul delights." The expression of pleasure in Matthew (and the other synoptics) is quite different from the Septuagint rendering of the Hebrew words; however, the Hebrew could have been translated into the Greek words used by the early church. Further, the endowment of the Spirit "alighting on him" just prior to the announcement also calls to mind the divine speech at Isaiah 42:1: "I have put my spirit upon him."
Matthew's story of Jesus' baptism certainly leads to the conclusion that Jesus is the Servant of the Lord who, without crying or lifting his voice in the street and prior to growing faint and being crushed, will establish justice for the nations. That justice is the salvation act of God which demonstrates the fidelity of God to promises and covenant made in the past. The identification of Jesus as the Lord's Servant moves the reader from who he is to what God will accomplish in and through him. That connection between identity and function is so important that all three synoptics will repeat the same formula, although to a different audience, at the Mount of the Transfiguration.
While Matthew's use of the third person rather than the second in this announcement connects the heavenly message more directly to Isaiah 42:1, the identity issue in Mark and Luke might be more complicated, even more profound. In their words "You are my Son" rather than "This is my Son," the allusion might be more directly connected to the words the Davidic king spoke on the day of his coronation in Jerusalem: "He said to me, 'You are my son; today I have given you birth' " (Psalm 2:7). By that connection the identity of Jesus is not simply that of the servant of the Lord but of the Messiah of the Lord (see Psalm 2:2, 6). That identification would fit well with all the synoptics, for each one wanted to demonstrate that Jesus was indeed the Messiah. Further, the addition of the word "beloved" to the coronation formula raises still another identity, because the combination "beloved son" occurs in the entire Septuagint only in Genesis 22. Three times in that chapter the expression is God's (as here in the baptism account), and it defines Isaac in the story about his sacrificial death. Remember that Jesus, like Isaac, was the child promised by God, a child born miraculously, and now a child to be sacrificed.
Has Matthew's shift to the third person obscured the other two backgrounds, namely that of the Messiah and that of Isaac? Or did Matthew's change clarify what the others intended, namely, to focus on the image of the servant? Perhaps the question is one we will need to pose to Matthew when we gather around the eschatological table. In the meantime, preachers might consider the possibility that the divine announcement from the heaven at Jesus' baptism and again at the Transfiguration offer a threefold identity with respective functions: Servant who establishes justice/salvation for the world; Messiah who will rule over God's kingdom; Isaac who will be sacrificed.
In either case, a sermon on this occasion might do well to bring the issues home to the audience. We are baptized as children of God and sisters and brothers to one another. That is our identity, and it is "sealed by the Holy Spirit." No sooner than we are defined do we get our functions: members of the priesthood we share in Christ Jesus, fellow workers in the kingdom of God.
It would appear that is the way our Divine Architect designed us.
FIRST LESSON FOCUS
By Elizabeth Achtemeier
Isaiah 42:1-9
The lectionary often begins a reading at the end of one poem and includes the beginning of another. Such is the case here. 42:1-4 forms the climactic last stanza of the long poem concerning the trial with the nations which begins in 41:1. 42:5-
9 is the opening stanza of the poem that encompasses 42:5-17. Thus, we will initially deal with 42:1-4 and then 42:5-9.
42:1-4 is the first of the well-known Servant Songs in Second Isaiah. It immediately raises the question, "Who is the Servant?" There have been years of scholarly discussion about the question, but in my view and that of many others, the Servant represents corporate Israel, as in 41:9 and 44:1-2. However, the Servant is not Israel in Babylonian exile, as she actually is. Rather, the Servant is Israel as she is meant to be, Israel as the Lord will transform her to be, Israel as God will use her in his future salvation of the nations.
It is exceedingly important to realize therefore that Jesus Christ in the New Testament becomes the embodiment of the Servant, summing up in his incarnate person all that Israel was meant by God to be. For example, Christ becomes the Son of God, called out of Egypt (Matthew 2:15), as Israel was the called adopted son (cf. Hosea 11:1), and Christ is the true vine (John 15:1), as Israel was the vine (Psalm 80:7). Christ is not a replacement for Israel, but rather is the corporate personality, the fulfillment and summing up, of the intended Israel of the Old Testament, continuing God's work of salvation across the centuries. His connection with Israel is not to be overlooked by the preacher. In the Old Testament, God chooses Israel as his Servant to carry out his purpose, and Jesus of Nazareth becomes, in the New Testament, that Servant. The witness to God's work is continuous across the two testaments, and God's one purpose of salvation runs through the whole biblical story.
Because our Lord Christ became the Servant, the description of him, given in Isaiah 42:1-4, is exceedingly important for us. Obviously this Isaiah text has been chosen as the stated lesson for this Sunday when we celebrate the baptism of our Lord because it says that God has put his Spirit upon his Servant, and it is at his baptism that the Spirit descends from heaven upon Jesus (cf. the gospel lesson). Thus, Jesus the Servant is "chosen" by God, is upheld by God, and is a delight to God -- all stated in 42:1, which parallels 41:9.
According to 42:1-4, then, the primary work of the Servant is to establish God's "justice," God's mispat, in all the world. Three times the word appears in these four verses. And here it could properly be read as God's "rule," God's sovereignty over all the earth. The nations are called to trial in Isaiah 41:1-29, and the final verdict of the court in 42:1-4 is that God's rule, God's order for life, will be the governance that the Servant will establish throughout the earth, enabled by the Spirit of God given to him (cf. Isaiah 11:2-4). It is no accident, therefore, that Jesus comes preaching the Kingdom or the Kingship of God. God's way will become the rule of life for all nations.
The Servant will not establish God's rule by force of arms, however, nor will persuasive public preaching be his main role (v. 2). Rather, his mercy toward the "bruised reeds" -- the hurting of this world -- and his tenderness for those whose lives are almost extinguished like a sputtering wick will be his modes of expression (v. 3) -- surely motifs that found their fulfillment in Jesus' forgiveness and healing and sacrifice for us all upon the cross.
Verse 4 of our poem then picks up the words "bruised" and "burn dimly" from verse 3 and uses them in the Hebrew to say that the Servant will neither fail ("be bruised") nor be discouraged ("burn dimly"). The time of his work may be long and the obstacles to his ministry be great, with only a slim chance of success, but nevertheless, the Servant will prevail and finally establish God's rule over all. In New Testament terms, the kingdom will in fact come and God's order for human life will indeed be established. Such is the promise to us of both Old and New Testaments.
Verse 5 of 42:5-9 begins a new poem and opens with the hymnic praise of the Creator of the world. This God, who sends his Servant to us, is able to establish his rule because he is the powerful Maker who spread out (literally, "beat out to a thin surface") the vastness of the heavens, who laid out the earth upon the waters, and who gave his animating breath to all humans and creatures (cf. Psalm 104:29-30; Genesis 2:7). The God of history is also the Almighty Creator of all -- a frequent note in Second Isaiah.
But that Almighty Lord is also the King who, in his Son, has "emptied himself, taking the form of a servant" (Philippians 2:7), and that Servant is called "in righteousness," that is, in God's will to save. ("Righteousness," throughout the Bible, is the fulfillment of the demands of a relationship.) God guides the Servant by the hand and keeps him. And then God gives the Servant as a "covenant to the people" (v. 6). In short, Jesus Christ is God's pledge to us of his presence with us and of his salvation of us. He is "the light" for us and for all peoples, shining in our present darkness (cf. Isaiah 9:2; John 1:4-9; 8:12, et al). He is the one who can liberate humanity from its bondage to the world's forces and to sin and death (v. 7).
There is no doubt about it. The God who has sent the Servant, Jesus Christ, is the one and only Lord (v. 8). There is no other god besides him, no other deity who is glorious in might and love, no other god who is to be praised and worshiped. And as in the New Testament, the Servant of the one true God, Jesus Christ, is the one way to God and the incarnation of God's truth and of God's very Person (John 14:6).
As evidence of the sole lordship of God, Second Isaiah frequently points to God's rule over the span of history. In the court case with the nations (41:22), the Lord challenges the nations' gods to tell what is going to take place in history. But of course they cannot do so, because only the Holy One of Israel rules over all the events of time. So, too, here in verse 9, God points to the fact that he has foretold what has happened in the past. He has promised, and it has come true. He has decreed, and it has taken place.
Now, in Second Isaiah's present, God promises a new act of salvation to come. As in Isaiah 43:19, exiled Israel is to look not to the saving acts of the Lord in the past, but to another new act of salvation that will deliver her from Babylonian exile, while it will at the same time gather up all of God's past promises and bring them to completion (cf. Isaiah 40:8; 55:10-11). It is for that new saving act that Israel is to wait (Isaiah 40:31).
Certainly Israel of the sixth century B.C. was released from Babylonian exile by Cyrus of Persia, as promised by Second Isaiah (45:1, 13). But the new age of God's order did not find its complete fulfillment in Second Isaiah's time through the instrument of the Servant Israel. Instead, we have to look to the final Servant, to Jesus Christ, whose forgiveness, mercy, and liberation are indeed being proclaimed to all nations. Through Christ's continuing work in our world, he is bringing in God's promised kingdom. Through him, God is establishing his worldwide rule that will finally cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.
In a real sense, the baptism of our Lord and our own baptisms as well point somewhat in the opposite direction. The function follows not form but identity. Who Jesus was determines the significance of what he did (or God did through him). Who we are as the baptized children of God sets the foundation for what we do in and with our lives.
Our lessons for this Sunday focus on identity but rather quickly move to the consequence, namely, the function that derives from the identity. While the discussion will revolve around the identity and function of the Servant in Second Isaiah and of Jesus of Nazareth, as preachers we want to reflect on how all the discussion relates to who we are and what we do in the world.
Isaiah 42:1-9
The first four verses of our pericope comprise the first of four so-called servant songs in the writings of Second Isaiah. The other three appear at 49:1-6; 50:4-11; 52:13--53:12. Taken all together, they represent one of the great enigmas for biblical scholarship, namely, the identity of the servant of the Lord. It is possible that the servant in all four songs is not the same personality. Certainly the function of the servant changes from one to the other. It is difficult, however, to ignore entirely the traditional interpretation that -- at least in some of the songs -- the servant is the exiled Israel. In fact, in the chapter prior to our first song, in material not part of any song, the Lord addresses the people in exile as "Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen" (41:8; cf. also v. 9).
That the early church confessed Jesus to be the servant of the Lord (along with the apostle Paul, it should be added) is evident in our Gospel from Matthew 3. While we will discuss that connection later, we shall focus here on the function of the servant and the nature of God.
The song is indeed a speech from the Lord who appears to be introducing his servant to someone else. Who is being addressed? The collection of sermons from the one we call affectionately Second Isaiah begins with the record of his call to be a prophet in chapter 40. Apparently the prophet was given the privilege of eavesdropping on a conversation taking place in the heavenly court. While it is difficult to determine where the quotation marks begin and end and to ascertain who is talking to whom, the end result is that the prophet is called to preach and the message is clear: "the word of our God will stand forever."
In like manner the addressees in this servant song appear to be the members of the heavenly court who surround the throne of God. The Lord here is introducing his "servant," his "chosen." (The Septuagint adds the words Jacob and Israel, consistent with 41:8.) The Lord also indicates that "I have put my spirit upon him," and as a result he is empowered to perform the assigned function: "to bring forth justice." It is impossible to be ambiguous about that role since it is repeated three times -- to the nations, in the earth, the coastlands (vv. 1, 3, 4).
That the servant mission of justice is directed to the nations, that is, the Gentiles, points us to other passages in Second Isaiah which involve the nations. Usually those other passages are trial speeches in which God takes to court the imposters who pretend to be god, that is, the idols of Babylon. Imagine a court scene as you read 41:1-7, 21-29; 43:8-16; 44:6-8. They are all intended to demonstrate that the nations, among them the Babylonians, worship gods that are not gods and that the only God is Yahweh, the Lord. In this light "justice" is the judgment on the nations for worshiping false gods and the truth about God as it will be revealed in the servant's mission. This revelation is the servant's function!
Verses 5-9 comprise a speech of the Lord to someone who is called to be "a covenant to the people, a light to the nations." Having mentioned the nations and the coastlands in the preceding verses, it is not surprising here that the Lord identifies himself as the Creator of the heavens and the earth and of all that lives upon the earth. The role of Yahweh as the Creator occurs on several occasions in the preaching of Second Isaiah (see 40:21-23, 28; 44:24; 45:12, 18). That role gives Yahweh both the right to use even Cyrus the king of Persia as his instrument of salvation and to claim exclusively there is no other god.
Since there is nothing other than the context to suggest it was spoken to the servant, it is not clear who the addressee really is. Whoever it was -- the servant, Israel, the prophet, even Cyrus -- the Lord has called this person or figure (see the calling of Cyrus at 45:4) the responsibility of serving as "a light to the nations" (see that role as the servant's at Isaiah 49:6), "to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon" (see that role as belonging to the prophet Third Isaiah at 61:1). Whoever that person is, the identity of the Lord is abundantly clear: "I am the Lord, that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to idols" (v. 8). This claim to exclusivity, we have already said, is the point of the trial speeches. The insistence on exclusive rights to glory is directly related, a theme that is also common in Second Isaiah (see 43:21; 48:9-11).
Finally, the claim by Yahweh that "the former things have come to pass" is probably an allusion to the prophecies of judgment on Israel and Judah which have been realized, and so, because of the Lord's ability to deliver what was promised in the past, the people can be certain that the "new things" God promises, that is, salvation, are assured. This ability to speak and deliver, to "walk the talk," is precisely the issue that distinguishes Yahweh from the idols in the trail speeches (see above all 44:6-8).
When the reader connects the role of the servant in verses 1-4 to "bring forth justice to the nations" regarding the identity of God with the role of the one called in verses 5-9 to execute transformations for the oppressed to the glory of God, one can only wonder: Who can possibly accomplish all that?
Acts 10:34-43
This pericope represents the second major sermon by Peter. The first, of course, was the sermon he delivered on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2:14-36). His audience on that occasion was the "men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem" (v. 14), and his sermon included quotations from the Old Testament, a proclamation of what God had done in Jesus Christ, particularly raising from the dead the one whom they had crucified. Peter included on that occasion that he and the other apostles were eyewitnesses of the resurrection and that the Holy Spirit just prior to his sermon was promised to Jesus by the Father. When the apostle concluded the sermon, his hearers asked him and the other apostles, "Brothers, what should we do?" The question offered Peter the opportunity to call for their repentance and baptism and to promise them the benefits of forgiveness and the gift of the Holy Spirit (vv. 37-42).
In our pericope from Acts 10 the major difference is the nature of the audience. It is Gentile rather than Jewish, and the author of Luke-Acts has prepared us readers for the switch. Prior to the opening verse of our passage, the author reported the strange doings that brought Cornelius the centurion and Peter the apostle together. An angel instructed Cornelius, a God-
fearer, that is, a Gentile who had been converted to Judaism, and a vigilant pray-er, to send to Joppa for Peter who was staying at the home of Simon the tanner. Apparently the same angel -- although it is not said -- had to prepare Peter for the delegation from Cornelius, and so Peter fell into a trance in which he saw a gigantic sheet filled with all kinds of animals and birds and reptiles. Insisting on his dietary taboos, Peter would not eat the common and unclean meal, even though he was especially hungry. A voice announced to him that if God made it, it cannot be unclean. Peter did not know what to make of the vision and the voice until the delegation from Cornelius came knocking at the door. The rest of the story, as they say, is history: Peter accompanied the delegation back to Caesarea to the home of Cornelius.
All that background explains the opening words of Peter's sermon: "I truly understand that God shows no partiality." It was an understanding that Peter could grasp only through the work of the Holy Spirit, and once that truth had been realized Peter could preach essentially the same sermon he delivered to the Jewish audience in chapter 2. He spoke about the ministry of Jesus which began following his baptism when God anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power (that reference is not in Acts 2), about all that God did through Jesus -- his ministry of teaching and healing and exorcisms, about God raising him from the dead after the people had crucified him, about the apostles as eyewitnesses of the resurrection. Peter cited the Old Testament prophets as bearing witness to him and promised that whoever believes in him will receive forgiveness of sins in his name. When the sermon was completed, the Holy Spirit fell on the people just as the Spirit fell on the Jews in chapter 2, and the people here, as then, were baptized.
The comparison -- and differences -- between the two sermons demonstrates that while Peter did not preach a "canned sermon," he did exhibit a consistency in his sermon outlines. Indeed, if one compares the sermon Paul preached in the synagogue at Antioch of Pisidia (Acts 13:16b-41), the content of that sermon is essentially the same as Peter's. Whether this similarity of structure and content is due to the fact that the author of Luke-
Acts wrote all of them down for us or whether apostolic preaching was that consistent -- no matter the audience or the preacher -- there is a lesson for us all: the action of God in Jesus Christ, especially in terms of the resurrection, with the promises from the Old Testament and with all the benefits that action provides us, is what preaching is all about. That content turns a speech into a sermon.
What is unique about this version of the common sermon and why it is selected for this particular Sunday is the reference to the baptism of Jesus in verse 37 and God's anointing "Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power" in verse 38. Apart from the synoptic gospels, references to Jesus' baptism by John are hard to find. Even here Peter chose his words carefully: John preached baptism but God was the actor; God anointed Jesus with the Holy Spirit and with power. The baptism of Jesus was not for the forgiveness of sins, but for the empowerment of Jesus so that he could perform his ministry of "doing good and healing all that were oppressed by the devil." Why after all would Jesus need John's baptism?
Matthew 3:13-17
The five verses of our pericope are loaded for interpretation. We shall begin by comparing these verses to the parallels in Mark and Luke. By doing so we will see the common tradition as well as the new twist by Matthew in order to answer the question about why Jesus was baptized by John.
According to Mark, usually regarded as the oldest of the synoptic gospels, Jesus "came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan" (Mark 1:9). The occasion is reported without question or ambiguity. We can only imagine that it must have happened because the report raises a multitude of questions, chief among them, why? John had been "preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins" (Mark 1:4). If Jesus were indeed truly human, that is, human as God intended humans to be, sinless, faithful, obedient, why did Jesus need to be baptized? Mark never bothered to answer the question that the early church surely raised.
Luke took an interesting approach to the problem. That author introduces the readers to John in ways which are quite similar to Mark and Matthew. Then Luke concludes his John section with the note that Herod had shut "up John in prison" (3:20). Then in the next verse Luke records "when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized" (3:21). By reporting John's imprisonment prior to Jesus' baptism, Luke leaves ambiguous who baptized Jesus. We can see perhaps the same concern expressed by the same author in Acts 10 where John is mentioned as preaching baptism but God anointed Jesus with the Spirit.
Matthew deals with the problem Mark raised more directly. Prior to the act of baptism Matthew has John ask the question first century Christians must have been asking: "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?" Jesus' response indicated it is fitting "in this way to fulfill all righteousness." The clarity of the answer does not immediately jump off the biblical page.
In the Old Testament the righteousness of God has primarily to do with the salvation of God. In the preaching of Second Isaiah, above all, one can translate the word for righteousness as "victory." It is the victory of God that accomplishes the salvation for God's people from their exile in Babylon. Righteousness is therefore the activity that springs from the covenantal relationship God established with Israel through Abraham, Moses, and David. God's righteousness is the means by which God's justice is achieved, and that divine justice will be the distinguishing mark of the kingdom of God to come. On the human side, to strive "for the kingdom of God" goes hand in hand with seeking "his righteousness" (Matthew 6:33). It seems that what is fitting to "fulfill all righteousness" is to participate in the salvation work of God which inaugurates God's kingdom, and so Jesus, himself righteous and obedient to his Father, submits to baptism by John.
As Jesus emerged from the water, all three synoptics report that the heavens were opened and the Spirit descended on him like a dove. The opening of the heavens is a common expression to report a vision. Jesus promises Nathanael that he "will see heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man" (John 1:51). Luke reports that when Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit, faced his execution, he said, "I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God" (Acts 7:56). What Jesus saw when the heavens opened was the descent of the Holy Spirit. What he heard was the voice of God announcing his identity and his mission.
Mark and Luke report that the words from heaven were directed to Jesus ("You are ..."), and there is no indication anyone else heard them. Matthew, on the contrary, records the words in the third person as though they constitute a public announcement: "This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased." Matthew's version sounds more like the introduction of the servant of the Lord at Isaiah 42:1: "Here is my servant ... in whom my soul delights." The expression of pleasure in Matthew (and the other synoptics) is quite different from the Septuagint rendering of the Hebrew words; however, the Hebrew could have been translated into the Greek words used by the early church. Further, the endowment of the Spirit "alighting on him" just prior to the announcement also calls to mind the divine speech at Isaiah 42:1: "I have put my spirit upon him."
Matthew's story of Jesus' baptism certainly leads to the conclusion that Jesus is the Servant of the Lord who, without crying or lifting his voice in the street and prior to growing faint and being crushed, will establish justice for the nations. That justice is the salvation act of God which demonstrates the fidelity of God to promises and covenant made in the past. The identification of Jesus as the Lord's Servant moves the reader from who he is to what God will accomplish in and through him. That connection between identity and function is so important that all three synoptics will repeat the same formula, although to a different audience, at the Mount of the Transfiguration.
While Matthew's use of the third person rather than the second in this announcement connects the heavenly message more directly to Isaiah 42:1, the identity issue in Mark and Luke might be more complicated, even more profound. In their words "You are my Son" rather than "This is my Son," the allusion might be more directly connected to the words the Davidic king spoke on the day of his coronation in Jerusalem: "He said to me, 'You are my son; today I have given you birth' " (Psalm 2:7). By that connection the identity of Jesus is not simply that of the servant of the Lord but of the Messiah of the Lord (see Psalm 2:2, 6). That identification would fit well with all the synoptics, for each one wanted to demonstrate that Jesus was indeed the Messiah. Further, the addition of the word "beloved" to the coronation formula raises still another identity, because the combination "beloved son" occurs in the entire Septuagint only in Genesis 22. Three times in that chapter the expression is God's (as here in the baptism account), and it defines Isaac in the story about his sacrificial death. Remember that Jesus, like Isaac, was the child promised by God, a child born miraculously, and now a child to be sacrificed.
Has Matthew's shift to the third person obscured the other two backgrounds, namely that of the Messiah and that of Isaac? Or did Matthew's change clarify what the others intended, namely, to focus on the image of the servant? Perhaps the question is one we will need to pose to Matthew when we gather around the eschatological table. In the meantime, preachers might consider the possibility that the divine announcement from the heaven at Jesus' baptism and again at the Transfiguration offer a threefold identity with respective functions: Servant who establishes justice/salvation for the world; Messiah who will rule over God's kingdom; Isaac who will be sacrificed.
In either case, a sermon on this occasion might do well to bring the issues home to the audience. We are baptized as children of God and sisters and brothers to one another. That is our identity, and it is "sealed by the Holy Spirit." No sooner than we are defined do we get our functions: members of the priesthood we share in Christ Jesus, fellow workers in the kingdom of God.
It would appear that is the way our Divine Architect designed us.
FIRST LESSON FOCUS
By Elizabeth Achtemeier
Isaiah 42:1-9
The lectionary often begins a reading at the end of one poem and includes the beginning of another. Such is the case here. 42:1-4 forms the climactic last stanza of the long poem concerning the trial with the nations which begins in 41:1. 42:5-
9 is the opening stanza of the poem that encompasses 42:5-17. Thus, we will initially deal with 42:1-4 and then 42:5-9.
42:1-4 is the first of the well-known Servant Songs in Second Isaiah. It immediately raises the question, "Who is the Servant?" There have been years of scholarly discussion about the question, but in my view and that of many others, the Servant represents corporate Israel, as in 41:9 and 44:1-2. However, the Servant is not Israel in Babylonian exile, as she actually is. Rather, the Servant is Israel as she is meant to be, Israel as the Lord will transform her to be, Israel as God will use her in his future salvation of the nations.
It is exceedingly important to realize therefore that Jesus Christ in the New Testament becomes the embodiment of the Servant, summing up in his incarnate person all that Israel was meant by God to be. For example, Christ becomes the Son of God, called out of Egypt (Matthew 2:15), as Israel was the called adopted son (cf. Hosea 11:1), and Christ is the true vine (John 15:1), as Israel was the vine (Psalm 80:7). Christ is not a replacement for Israel, but rather is the corporate personality, the fulfillment and summing up, of the intended Israel of the Old Testament, continuing God's work of salvation across the centuries. His connection with Israel is not to be overlooked by the preacher. In the Old Testament, God chooses Israel as his Servant to carry out his purpose, and Jesus of Nazareth becomes, in the New Testament, that Servant. The witness to God's work is continuous across the two testaments, and God's one purpose of salvation runs through the whole biblical story.
Because our Lord Christ became the Servant, the description of him, given in Isaiah 42:1-4, is exceedingly important for us. Obviously this Isaiah text has been chosen as the stated lesson for this Sunday when we celebrate the baptism of our Lord because it says that God has put his Spirit upon his Servant, and it is at his baptism that the Spirit descends from heaven upon Jesus (cf. the gospel lesson). Thus, Jesus the Servant is "chosen" by God, is upheld by God, and is a delight to God -- all stated in 42:1, which parallels 41:9.
According to 42:1-4, then, the primary work of the Servant is to establish God's "justice," God's mispat, in all the world. Three times the word appears in these four verses. And here it could properly be read as God's "rule," God's sovereignty over all the earth. The nations are called to trial in Isaiah 41:1-29, and the final verdict of the court in 42:1-4 is that God's rule, God's order for life, will be the governance that the Servant will establish throughout the earth, enabled by the Spirit of God given to him (cf. Isaiah 11:2-4). It is no accident, therefore, that Jesus comes preaching the Kingdom or the Kingship of God. God's way will become the rule of life for all nations.
The Servant will not establish God's rule by force of arms, however, nor will persuasive public preaching be his main role (v. 2). Rather, his mercy toward the "bruised reeds" -- the hurting of this world -- and his tenderness for those whose lives are almost extinguished like a sputtering wick will be his modes of expression (v. 3) -- surely motifs that found their fulfillment in Jesus' forgiveness and healing and sacrifice for us all upon the cross.
Verse 4 of our poem then picks up the words "bruised" and "burn dimly" from verse 3 and uses them in the Hebrew to say that the Servant will neither fail ("be bruised") nor be discouraged ("burn dimly"). The time of his work may be long and the obstacles to his ministry be great, with only a slim chance of success, but nevertheless, the Servant will prevail and finally establish God's rule over all. In New Testament terms, the kingdom will in fact come and God's order for human life will indeed be established. Such is the promise to us of both Old and New Testaments.
Verse 5 of 42:5-9 begins a new poem and opens with the hymnic praise of the Creator of the world. This God, who sends his Servant to us, is able to establish his rule because he is the powerful Maker who spread out (literally, "beat out to a thin surface") the vastness of the heavens, who laid out the earth upon the waters, and who gave his animating breath to all humans and creatures (cf. Psalm 104:29-30; Genesis 2:7). The God of history is also the Almighty Creator of all -- a frequent note in Second Isaiah.
But that Almighty Lord is also the King who, in his Son, has "emptied himself, taking the form of a servant" (Philippians 2:7), and that Servant is called "in righteousness," that is, in God's will to save. ("Righteousness," throughout the Bible, is the fulfillment of the demands of a relationship.) God guides the Servant by the hand and keeps him. And then God gives the Servant as a "covenant to the people" (v. 6). In short, Jesus Christ is God's pledge to us of his presence with us and of his salvation of us. He is "the light" for us and for all peoples, shining in our present darkness (cf. Isaiah 9:2; John 1:4-9; 8:12, et al). He is the one who can liberate humanity from its bondage to the world's forces and to sin and death (v. 7).
There is no doubt about it. The God who has sent the Servant, Jesus Christ, is the one and only Lord (v. 8). There is no other god besides him, no other deity who is glorious in might and love, no other god who is to be praised and worshiped. And as in the New Testament, the Servant of the one true God, Jesus Christ, is the one way to God and the incarnation of God's truth and of God's very Person (John 14:6).
As evidence of the sole lordship of God, Second Isaiah frequently points to God's rule over the span of history. In the court case with the nations (41:22), the Lord challenges the nations' gods to tell what is going to take place in history. But of course they cannot do so, because only the Holy One of Israel rules over all the events of time. So, too, here in verse 9, God points to the fact that he has foretold what has happened in the past. He has promised, and it has come true. He has decreed, and it has taken place.
Now, in Second Isaiah's present, God promises a new act of salvation to come. As in Isaiah 43:19, exiled Israel is to look not to the saving acts of the Lord in the past, but to another new act of salvation that will deliver her from Babylonian exile, while it will at the same time gather up all of God's past promises and bring them to completion (cf. Isaiah 40:8; 55:10-11). It is for that new saving act that Israel is to wait (Isaiah 40:31).
Certainly Israel of the sixth century B.C. was released from Babylonian exile by Cyrus of Persia, as promised by Second Isaiah (45:1, 13). But the new age of God's order did not find its complete fulfillment in Second Isaiah's time through the instrument of the Servant Israel. Instead, we have to look to the final Servant, to Jesus Christ, whose forgiveness, mercy, and liberation are indeed being proclaimed to all nations. Through Christ's continuing work in our world, he is bringing in God's promised kingdom. Through him, God is establishing his worldwide rule that will finally cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.
