Did you notice the refrain in this passage? "For all this his anger has not turned
away,
and his hand is stretched out still." Isaiah describes complete devastation, there will be fiery destruction, famine, ruined cities, ravaged and scorched countryside where there should be crops in the field. They will turn on one another, they will have nowhere to hide, crouching among the ruins. They have failed to love one another, they have been unrighteous, unjust, uncaring for those they have a responsibility to protect and provide for, the widows and orphans and the poor. In our day, have we cared for these? We have government programs that do such things and I wonder if we have decided that is enough, that we no longer have responsibility for them, our taxes have provided. Is that enough or are we called to reach out in other ways? The church has another responsibility, a higher one.
and his hand is stretched out still." Isaiah describes complete devastation, there will be fiery destruction, famine, ruined cities, ravaged and scorched countryside where there should be crops in the field. They will turn on one another, they will have nowhere to hide, crouching among the ruins. They have failed to love one another, they have been unrighteous, unjust, uncaring for those they have a responsibility to protect and provide for, the widows and orphans and the poor. In our day, have we cared for these? We have government programs that do such things and I wonder if we have decided that is enough, that we no longer have responsibility for them, our taxes have provided. Is that enough or are we called to reach out in other ways? The church has another responsibility, a higher one.
Today we get Matthew's perspective on John's mission. Matthew focuses on John's condemnation of the
leaders of God's people. More than the
other Gospels Matthew will share these prophetic insights with us. He remembers John's words of rebuke for the
Pharisees and Sadducees as they come to him.
When they come to Jesus it is with another agenda and with John it is
the same. We know that later Jesus will
ask them to give an accounting of their understanding of the Baptist's mission
and they will not be willing to tell the truth.
John, however, is a prophet and, like the prophets he condemns the
leaders. He speaks of judgment and of
unquenchable fire. He says that the test
is bearing fruit.
Despising authority leads to all manner of sin. We reject God's law and His authority and
allow our passions and desires to rule over us in the belief that we are in
charge. We equate these things with
control of our own lives and Jesus always taught that these things have
mastered us. We are called to live at a
higher level, to respond to God's Word and His will. Sex has become our master in the past fifty
years, the one thing that must be obeyed at all costs, sexual desire is somehow
who we are as people but Peter says that this is the way of the lower creation,
the animals, not those created in the image of God. We have a higher call, a more noble call, we
are able to live from another place. We are
to teach the world that better way, just as Jesus did, the path of self-denial,
the way of the cross.
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