Day 220: Prophecy Fulfilled

Isaiah 61:1-11 The identity of the messenger in Chapter 52 is made more clear. He would bring good news to those who are suffering, and he would free and cure them of their infirmities. He would bring about a spiritual renewal that accompanied great joy and would fulfill all the promises made to the patriarchs. This harbinger of so much good is the truly anointed one, the Christ, who brings salvation to the world and comfort to the poor and afflicted. (CCC 716)

Ch 61:1-2 These verses were read by Christ in the Temple as he began his public ministry, whereupon he stated, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing,” indicating that he is the promised Messiah (cf. Lk 4:18-21). His title, “Christ,” means “anointed one,” which indicates the fullness of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. (CCC 436, 695, 714, 1286)

Ch 61:6 Israel as a whole was chosen to become “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Ex 19:6). Among the Tribes of Israel, priests were chosen from the Levites to officiate in ceremonies of worship and sacrifice. The baptized faithful enjoy a share in Christ’s priesthood called the common priesthood of the faithful. Among baptized men, some are called to the ministerial priesthood by which the sacred minister acts in persona Christi capitis (“in the Person of Christ the Head”). An important function of the priesthood of the New Covenant is the celebration of the sacramental liturgies. (CCC 1118-1120, 1539, 1547, 1552, 1591-1592)

Ch 62:1-12 Speaking in Jerusalem directly, this prophecy compares again God’s love to paternal and spousal love. God’s love, in many instances, is compared to the love of a bridegroom for his bride. God, through his prophet, urged his people to be vigilant in preparation for the last day. (CCC 219, 1611)

Ezekiel 20:1-32 The people of Judah and Israel found themselves ridiculed frequently by the various nations because of the defeats they had suffered throughout history. The pagan nations would make light of their faith and taunt them on account of their suffering and God’s ostensible indifference. Given the fact that the worship of the one true God was at the heart of the Jewish religion, the worship of idols flew in the face of the Mosaic Covenant. Only through a severe purification could God bring his people back to their commitment to the Mosaic Law. (CCC 2811-2812)

Ch 20:33-49 After recounting the history of his people, the Lord promised to reunite his people and make a new covenant restoring Israel once again.

Blazing flame: The devastating fire (which will turn into a sword at the beginning of the next chapter) represents Babylon, who invaded and defeated the surrounding nations. 

Green tree...dry tree: The righteous and the wicked will all suffer the effects of the Babylonian conquest. 

(*The Didache Bible RSV-CE Ignatius Edition, 2006)

• GOSH YOU GUYS!

• Isaiah Chs 61 and 62 are SO PHENOMENAL!

• In our LECTIONARY, the list of readings at Sunday Mass and Daily Mass

• Isaiah is READ A LOT

• It’s all SO SO GOOD

• It’s all SO SO POWERFUL

• It’s all SO SO IN MANY WAYS FAMILIAR

• One of the things that is so helpful for us is THE CONTEXT

• THE CONTEXT IS INCREDIBLE!

• Isaiah 61:1-2, “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good tidings to the afflicted; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God...”

• This is JESUS when he goes into the synagogue in Luke Ch 4

• Jesus reads from the scroll of the Prophet Isaiah

• Jesus says, “This Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing this day.” !!

• We’ve been on this journey for 220 days

• WE KNOW THIS HAS BEEN HUNDREDS AND HUNDREDS OF YEARS IN THE MAKING

• All the way up to Isaiah

• AND HUNDREDS AND HUNDREDS OF YEARS AFTER THAT

• Jesus walks into the synagogue and says, “This Scripture passage is FULFILLED in your hearing TODAY.”

• And it makes us REALIZE

• OH MY GOSH, LORD GOD!!

• WHAT AN INCREDIBLE GIFT IN LUKE 4:18-19

• This Scripture is FULFILLED IN CHRIST

• So what is it?

• It’s all about BLESSINGS

• Isaiah Ch 61 is Good Tidings for the Afflicted

• God is saying, “I the Lord hate robbery, hate wrong, I love justice, I hate evil, I love goodness, therefore I hate sin and therefore I will faithfully give them their recompense and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.”

• This highlights God’s PROMISE to make an EVERLASTING COVENANT

• At the LAST SUPPER, what does Jesus say?

• He takes the chalice of wine and TRANSFORMS it by his power of his Word and the power of the Holy Spirit into the Sacrament of his Blood

• “This is the blood of the NEW AND ETERNAL COVENANT.”

• THE EVERLASTING COVENANT

• WHICH IS INCREDIBLE

• WHICH IS SUCH A GIFT FOR US

• Isaiah Ch 62 the CONTEXT helps us SO MUCH

• This is Isaiah preaching and speaking in the LORD’S VOICE

• Isaiah 62:1-2, “For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until her vindication goes forth as brightness, and her salvation as a burning torch. The nations shall see your vindication, and all the kings your glory…”

• REMEMBER THE CONTEXT

• We have been journeying for so long with Isaiah

• All this DESTRUCTION

• All this DIVIDED KINGDOM

• All this ASSYRIANS COMING IN AND GETTING PUSHED BACK

• All this BABYLONIANS COMING IN AND DOING THEIR DAMAGE

• We recognize that here is the Prophet and God speaking through the Prophet saying, “For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest”

• Why?

• Because Zion is under attack

• Because Jerusalem is under attack

• God is saying SO POWERFULLY, in Isaiah 62:3-4, “You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God. You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate; but you shall be called My delight is in her, and your land Married…”

• It’s worth reflecting on this

• GOD HAS SWORN THAT HE IS GOING TO REJOICE OVER YOU!

• God says, “So shall your God rejoice over you.”

• One thing Fr. Mike skipped over in Isaiah Ch 61 is the “SWITCHEROO”

• SWITCHEROO is a technical Biblical term 😉

• Isaiah 61:3, “...grant to those who mourn in Zion-to give them a garland instead of ashes…”

• God will give them a CROWN instead of ASHES

• Ashes are a sign of MOURNING

• Garlands are a sign of JOY

• Here is a WEDDING FESTIVAL

• Isaiah 61:3, “...the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit…”

• So think of those THREE SWITCHEROOS

• GARLANDS/CROWN INSTEAD OF ASHES

• OIL OF GLADNESS INSTEAD OF MOURNING

• MANTLE OF PRAISE INSTEAD OF A FAINT SPIRIT

• Isaiah 61:3, “...that they may be called oaks of righteousness…”

• WHAT A GIFT THAT GOD IS PROMISING TO HIS PEOPLE IN THIS WAY!!

• On to Ezekiel Ch 20

• It’s a long chapter

• The Lord is coming to Ezekiel (Fr. Mike said Isaiah but...well you know 😉) to speak to those elders who have presented themselves before Ezekiel asking, “What does God have to say to us?”

• God is almost like, “How dare you?”

• God gives them a SYNOPSIS of their lives, a SYNOPSIS of the People of Israel

• God says, “I chose you and you were UNFAITHFUL. I chose you AGAIN and you were UNFAITHFUL. I chose you AGAIN and you were UNFAITHFUL. You rejected my ordinances. You did not walk in my statutes.”

• Ezekiel 20:16, “...and profaned my sabbaths; for their heart went after their idols…”

• This is a KEY THING for Ezekiel and the ENTIRE BIBLE

• Did you notice in Ezekiel Ch 20 and also throughout the entire book, we noticed the POWER and IMPORTANCE of KEEPING THE SABBATH

• This was important not only for the People of Israel

• This IS important for CHRISTIANS

• This is IMPORTANT FOR US

• Sabbath is the NUMBER 7

• It denotes not only SATURDAY 

• It denotes the word COVENANT

• IT IS THE SAME WORD

• It is the NUMBER OF COVENANT

• Ezekiel 20:12, “...I gave them my sabbaths, as a sign between me and them…”

• The SIGN of the COVENANT is the SABBATH

• YOU BECOME FAMILY WITH EACH OTHER WHEN YOU MAKE A COVENANT WITH EACH OTHER

• So God says, “I made a covenant with you and the sign of that is the SABBATH.”

• “The sign of that is YOU GET TO REST.”

• “The sign of that is YOU ARE NO LONGER SLAVES.”

• “The sign of that is YOU TAKE THAT TIME AND YOU WORSHIP ME ON THIS DAY.”

• We recognize the IMPORTANCE OF THE SABBATH because it is a SIGN OF THE COVENANT

• It is a sign of BEING IN RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD

• We can’t just overlook this and say, “Well that was Saturday that was the Old Testament.”

• Christians worship God on SUNDAY (Except for Seventh Day Adventists, but that’s another discussion for another day...say on Day 366, ok? 😉)

• There’s a REASON FOR THAT

• It’s because the day of the LORD’S RESURRECTION was on a SUNDAY

• THE LORD’S DAY HAS SURPASSED

• THE LORD’S DAY HAS BECOME THE NEW SABBATH

• THE LORD’S DAY HAS BECOME THE NEW DAY OF CREATION

• Because it’s the EIGHTH DAY

• It STILL is a sign of the COVENANT for us to WORSHIP and REST on Sundays

• The People of Israel that Ezekiel is preaching to, and the Lord God is talking to

• It wasn’t just because they were DOING EVIL THINGS TO EACH OTHER

• It wasn’t just because they were BEING UNJUST

• Although that was one of the accusations leveled against them

• It was also because, “They did not walk in my ways, says the Lord God, and my sabbaths they greatly profaned.”

• It’s worth it for us to just recall that for ourselves and ask the question

• What are the two primary tasks of the sabbath?

• TO WORSHIP

• TO REST

• WORSHIP means to live as someone who BELONGS TO THE LORD

• REST means to live as someone who IS NOT A SLAVE

• I get to ask myself this same question

• Do I live like that?

• Do I live Sabbath like this?

• Do I live Sunday like this?

• Is it TRULY the Lord’s Day?

• Where I give God the WORSHIP HE ASKED FOR?

• Where I enter into REST?

• NOT RESENTFULLY?

• NOT GLOOMILY?

• NOT LEGALISTICALLY?

• BUT FREELY?

• REMEMBER…

• NOT A SLAVE

• YOU GET TO BE FREE

• YOU GET TO REST ON SUNDAY

• You can see with the emphasis that Ezekiel and the rest of The Bible places on Sabbath, you can see that the Pharisees were NOT like the evil ogres that got it all wrong in terms of wanting to keep the Sabbath HOLY

• BUT…

• They missed out on the HEART OF THE SABBATH AS WE LEARNED BEFORE (Want a refresher on what we learned, two days after we learned it? Go read Day 218: Each Will be Judged in the Bible in a Year Study Guide 😁)

• Keeping that in mind, we are still called to keep the Lord’s Day holy

• We do that by giving God the WORSHIP HE ASKED FOR

• We do that by ENTERING INTO REST

• Sometimes in such a great way that rest involves FAMILY 

• Sometimes in such a great way that rest involves FRIENDS

• There are MANY PEOPLE who are ALONE on Sundays

• We go to church by ourselves

• We pray by ourselves

• We go home by ourselves

• PLEASE…

• If that is YOU, please know that our prayers are with you

• The prayers of this community are with you too

• YOU ARE NOT ALONE

• YOU ARE NOT ALONE

• YOU ARE PART OF THIS COMMUNITY

• WE ARE PRAYING FOR EACH OTHER

• WE ARE PRAYING FOR YOU

• ESPECIALLY IN THOSE LONELY TIMES

• ESPECIALLY WHEN THOSE LONELY TIMES HAVE BECOME DIFFICULT TIMES

• PRAY FOR EACH OTHER 

• PRAY FOR FR. MIKE

Prayer by Fr. Mike: “Father in Heaven we give you praise and glory. We thank you so much for this day. Thank you for your Word. Thank you for this opportunity to be together. Thank you for constantly calling us back to yourself. Thank you for constantly...sigh...gosh Lord, your Word in Isaiah of promise, your Word in Isaiah of consolation, your Word in Isaiah of yes, destruction and horrible things have to happen, but it’s all so that we can come back to you and you can bless us. So help us come back to you and please bless us this day. Especially bless the members of this community, God, who stand in particular need of your help right now. Who stand in particular need of our prayers. Who stand in particular need of your Grace. Give them your Grace this day and every day. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.”