Wednesday of the Fourth Week of Lent

Lectionary: 246

In a time of favor I answer you,

on the day of salvation I help you;

and I have kept you and given you as a covenant to the people,

To restore the land

and allot the desolate heritages,

Saying to the prisoners: Come out!

To those in darkness: Show yourselves!

These words from the Prophet Isaiah introduce today's gospel about Jesus and his father. He is the favored Son, kept and given as a covenant to us. And we in our turn are the favored people. The Lord has kept us and given us as a covenant to the Earth and all its peoples. 

The blessings given to the Son are recognized as gifts to the Church. We can protest about our unworthiness -- there's no harm in that -- but our insistent demurral doesn't change our standing in God's presence. His favor is more persistent than our resistance. If he says we're worthy, we are worthy. No more discussion!

I find the coupling of this Isaian passage with John 5:17-30 very comforting. Often during Lent, I don't expect much comfort for myself or the Lord. He is marching toward Jerusalem and he looks to neither right or left as he goes; and we want to go with him.

Somewhere during my theological studies, 1971-74, I read an essay by Walter Brueggemann about King David. He believed that the story of the Patriarch Joseph in Genesis was shaped by the more recent example of the once and future king, the shepherd king who was destined to return as messiah. David was a legendary warrior, national champion, and model king. More importantly, he was faithful to the Lord who had called him from shepherding sheep to leading the nation. 

A man of decision when the disparate tribes of Israel needed to form a single nation or be consumed by threatening neighbors, David took the reins first as general of an army, and then as king. He legislated, governed, and judged without hesitation or apology. 

He believed the Lord had chosen him over Saul. If he made mistakes, he accepted the Lord's rebuke. Even when his sin -- the murder of Uriah -- was a severe violation of the warriors' code of honor and a national scandal, he repented sincerely, accepted his punishment (the death of his and Bathsheba's son), and continued to govern. 

Brueggemann described David liked the son of a businessman who has built his company from the ground up. When the senior retires, he hands the corporation to his son with every confidence the son will do well. The two often meet to discuss current developments and challenges, and how to continue building the business; but the father does not second-guess his son, nor does the son raise issues about the mistakes his father might have made during those early years. 

Finally, if memory serves me correctly for I cannot find the essay fifty years later, Brueggemann suggests that Jesus is the Son of God in the mode of David and his predecessor, Joseph. We hear of that supremely beautiful relationship in today's reading from John 5. 

Like his Father, Jesus gives and restores life, rules, and judges in the manner of biblical judges. Later, in the twelfth chapter of John, we "overhear" their conversation:

“I am troubled now. Yet what should I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But it was for this purpose that I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name.”

Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it and will glorify it again.”

This word, of course, is for everyone who belongs to the Lord, for we must all grow into the maturity of Joseph the Patriarch, David the King, Joseph the husband of Mary, Mary the Mother of God, and Jesus. As the Son of God explains, 

“This voice did not come for my sake but for yours. Now is the time of judgment on this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself.”

The Father is more than satisfied with his Son; he is delighted. And, in his Son, God is also deeply pleased with us. 

In us God is glorified; in him we are saved.