Today's Readings: Isaiah 30:19–26; Psalm 147; Matthew 9:35–10:8
In my early years of campus ministry, we had a student involved at the Table named Jason, who I both loved and hated at the same time. I loved Jason, because he was a faithful part of our ministry, a likeable personality, and an all around good guy. I hated Jason because he was one of those guys who was good at everything he did. He was incredibly smart. He was a gifted musician (on just about any instrument). He was handy. He was an excellent rock climber. Jason was even good at random things that nobody’s really good at, like wakeboarding.
Do you know anyone like that? Someone for whom life just seems to come easy? Whatever they pick up, they master. Whatever they attempt, they succeed in it. And it seems—at least from the outside—like they don’t even have to try. Things just come naturally to them. People like that can be frustrating because it reminds the rest of us how bad we are at stuff.
Of course I’m joking about hating Jason (he was a great guy), but I do hate being bad at things. I hate it when things don’t come naturally to me. When it feels like no matter how hard I try at something, I keep making the same mistakes over and over again
If you ever spend much time reading the Old Testament (especially the Prophets), you get a sense that God’s people knew what that was like. As a nation they were really bad at keeping their covenant with God. Faithfulness just didn’t come naturally to them. But unlike many of us in our failures, they really didn’t seem too frustrated about this. This is how God describes them in Isaiah 30:9:
They are a rebellious people, lying children, children unwilling to hear the instruction of the LORD.
This was the state of Israel for many years, and it ultimately led to their ruin. But Isaiah eagerly looks forward to a day when this will not be so. Later in that very same chapter, he says a time will come, when God’s people will see their Teacher (God) clearly. “And your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, ‘This is the way, walk in it,’ when you turn to the right or to the left.”
One of the great hopes of the Messianic age was not just that the Messiah would save his people from their sin, but that he would save his people from their sinning. That he would cure them of their chronic unfaithfulness, by making it possible for them to hear and obey their Teacher with new hearts (Ez 36:26-27).
Jesus fulfilled that hope, because in his coming to earth, he made a way for the Spirit of God to dwell in the hearts of his people, changing us from the inside out, enabling us to be faithful to him. One of the overlooked gifts of Christmas is that the coming of God’s Son meant the coming of God’s Spirit. The hope of a new life.
