Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
Many churches that follow a traditional calendar in their activities will regard this upcoming Sunday as the third Sunday in the season of Advent. In the first, they focused on themes of hope and expectation. Last Sunday was about promise and fulfillment. Looking over the suggested Scripture readings for the third Sunday, the theme of restoration is prominent.
The people of God who had managed to hold on to their faith at the time of Jesus of Nazareth were in need of restoration, severely so. Beginning with the captivity in Babylon, at the time of the book of Daniel, they had been oppressed and harassed by four successive world empires.
After the Babylonians came the Medes and Persians. These were ousted by the fierce Greeks under the swift generalship of Alexander the Great. The Greek reign over Israel was so bloody and tyrannical that when the Romans finally booted them out, many Jews were tempted to believe the Romans were the messengers of God’s grace toward them, and had, for all practical purposes, established the kingdom of God on Earth.
This pro-Roman faction among the Jews shows up as the sect of the Sadducees in the Gospel accounts. Their basic issue with Christ’s preaching was that, if people followed it, the Romans might feel a need to come and crack some heads in Israel, and their (relatively) comfortable lifestyle would be reduced to shambles.
Their nightmarish past with the Greeks had made them eager to live quietly under the oppression of the Romans. It wasn’t great, but it was night-and-day better than it had been. This trauma response made the offer of Christ’s restoration sound dangerous and upsetting. Living under the iron boot of Rome was enough for them.
But the prophets had promised them actual freedom. God had prophesied about making sure all their previous losses were repaid. Ruined cities would be rebuilt, teeming with laughing children like a field teeming with well-kept flocks. Those who robbed and destroyed would be cast down, and restitution extracted from them.
Isaiah, for instance, prophesied about this day of restoration in Isaiah 61 (one of the Advent readings). Jesus then applied this same text to himself in Luke 4, saying, “Today, this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
The offer was clear. Here I am. The time is now. Today, the promised restoration is yours.
Less than 10 verses later, they all tried to murder him.
And you? How does the offer of Christ’s restoration strike you today, this Advent season? Hopefully, like a piping mug of something smooth on a snowy day.
Or, maybe your past troubles have convinced you that a day without the walls burning down is about all you can hope for.
The good news is this, but it will challenge your faith: God has something better for you.
The promised Messiah, who died and was raised, still offers restoration. He’s still in the business of rebuilding ruins. He’s still the king of justice, who will make sure that no one gets away with anything. The books will all be balanced and the debts will be paid.
May this season be healing to you.
Gordan Runyan is pastor of Tucumcari’s Immanuel Baptist Church and author of “Radical Moses: The Amazing Civil Freedom Built into Ancient Israel.” Contact him at:
