CT - Catholic Telegraph

God comes to save you

Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time (B), Isaiah 35:4-7a.

This Sunday's reading is from the first part of The Book of the Prophet Isaiah. Most of the material in these early chapters of the book date back to the time of Isaiah of Jerusalem, i.e., the last part of the eighth century and the first part of the seventh century B.C. However, some of the material seems to be from a later time. This Sunday's reading is a case in point. It seems to date from the time of the exile, i.e., from the sixth century B.C.

These verses are part of a rather long poem about Israel's deliverance from its captivity in Babylon. It is a lyrical description of the joy that will accompany the people as they return to their homeland.

Our reading opens with a proclamation of general reassurance. "Don't be afraid. God is coming to rescue you." Next the prophet speaks of deliverance in terms of physical disabilities. "The blind will see. The deaf will hear. The lame will dance. The mute will sing." Finally the prophet expresses God's care for His people in terms of one of the most basic needs of the arid middle-eastern landscape, the need for water. In every imaginable way, in every imaginable place there would be life giving water: streams, rivers, pools, springs. They would not be thirsty on their way home!

In this passage God gives His people a message of comfort and hope. He consoles and encourages them as they look forward to their return home. In three different sets of images (i.e., in general promises addressed to the people's fear, in promises about their physical deficiencies, in promises about abundant water in a context in which the dryness of the desert was a basic reality) God tells His people that He will take care of them. He will see that they get to where He wants them to be no matter how great the obstacles may seem. God is concerned with their final well-being and will do whatever it takes to see that they reach the goal that His loving care has set for them.

The basic message is enunciated in the first section of our reading: "Fear not. God is coming to save you." Scholars have observed that the Gospel of the Old Testament, its pervasive message, is God's determination to save His people. He strives to save them from present oppression. But God also plans to lead them into a new, transformed, unending era of peace and well being. It is not just a material or physical salvation to which God leads them.

In the Gospel reading (Mark 7:31-37) we see Jesus bringing to fulfillment the promises that God had made in the prophecy of Isaiah. The poetic prediction that God had addressed to the exiles was now being carried out. Jesus brings hearing and speech to the afflicted man. The central significance of Jesus' action is not just the restoration of the man's senses. The central significance of what Jesus did was its implicit proclamation of the arrival of the kingdom of God. Those in need were being relieved of their burdens and thus were being brought to the final state of well-being that God had planned for them.

Jesus ran a risk when He cured people. The risk was that those who witnessed His miracles would begin to look on Jesus merely as some sort of physician who could do things that other doctors couldn't do. Jesus was not a physician. Jesus was the Son of God who worked miracles to teach people that their Lord was in their midst and that the promises God had made to His people long ago were not only still valid but were now in the process of final fulfillment.

God looks after the weak and the frightened, those who are handicapped in any way, those suffering from fatigue and thirst. God looked after His people during their exile in Babylon and kept them conscious of His care for them in the words of His prophets. God offered His people new evidence of His care and concern for them in the teaching and the miracles of Jesus.

God looks after us, too. God promises us deliverance from the various limitations and weaknesses we endure in our time of exile here on this earth. God leads us to confidence through the words and works that the Lord Jesus carries out in our lives. These two passages from Isaiah and Mark are not just about a political event in the sixth century B.C., not just about a deaf mute who was cured in the first century of the Christian era. The central teaching of these readings is also about us, about the Lord's involvement in our present and in our future. "Fear not. God comes to save you!"

For reflection and discussion

How has God cared for my needs and deficiencies?

How is God leading us to His kingdom now?