Peter Misselbrook's Blog
Oct 30 2019 - Isaiah 61 – The year of the Lord's favour

Jesus, the Servant of the Lord, used these words to announce the beginning of his public ministry. When he had been baptised in the river Jordan by John the Baptist, the Spirit of God descended upon him in the appearance of a dove. He was then led by the Spirit into the desert where he spent some time preparing for his ministry through conflict with the devil. Having stood firm against all that the devil could throw at him, Luke tells us that, "Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit" (Luke 4:14). There, in the synagogue of Nazareth, his home town, he was asked to read the Scriptures and give a word of exhortation. Jesus read from Isaiah 61:

The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
    because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
    and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
    to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour. (Luke 4:18-19)

Jesus then rolled up the scroll and declared, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing" (Luke 4:21). Jesus was saying that he is the one of whom Isaiah spoke in this passage of Scripture. He had come as the Servant of the Lord, equipped with the Spirit of God and anointed by God to proclaim good news to the poor. He had come to bind up the broken hearted, give freedom to those held captive by sin and by the devil. He had come to comfort those who mourn. Those who might have thrown ashes on their heads as a token of mourning have, in him, exchanged their ashes for a beautiful and glorious crown. He has come to lift people from the darkness of despair and to give them hope which will fill their mouths with praise.

All of these promises in Isaiah 61 find their fulfilment in the ministry of the Lord Jesus, God's anointed, his Christ. Think of the way that Jesus ministered to the variety of people of his day. Think particularly of the crowds who followed and surrounded him: the sick who were healed, the lame who jumped up and walked, the blind who were given sight, the sinners who were forgiven, the poor who were fed, the dead who were raised to life, those possessed by evil spirits who were set free. Think also of what Jesus has done for you. Jesus is the one in whom God has looked with favour on his people and blessed them beyond measure. Surely we echo the words of Isaiah:

I delight greatly in the LORD;
    my soul rejoices in my God.
For he has clothed me with garments of salvation
    and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness. (Isaiah 61:10).

And, in fulfilment of the words of this chapter, Jesus has called us into a priestly ministry to continue the ministry of the Servant in seeking to bring the world to God and God to the world (Isaiah 61:6, reflecting Exodus 19:5-6 and 1 Peter 2:9). Verse 11 pictures a fruitful garden in which seeds take root, plants break out into verdant growth and produce a plentiful harvest. This is a picture of what God will now do across the "barren wastelands" of this earth as "the Sovereign LORD [makes] righteousness and praise spring up before all nations". We, as servants of the Servant King have been recruited as labourers in God's great harvest field and are called to proclaim the same good news to the world in all its poverty and need.

Father God, thank you for the wonderful life and ministry of Jesus our Saviour. Help us, by the power of your Spirit, to follow him in proclaiming and being good news for a sad world. May our words and actions be used by you to comfort those who mourn and fill them with praise rather than despair. May many find freedom, salvation and joy in the Lord Jesus Christ. 

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Oct 30 2020 - John 2:1-25 – Transformation and renewal

This extraordinary chapter of John’s Gospel contains two very different stories, yet in both we see that Jesus has come to transform and renew the life of his people.

The chapter begins with John’s account of Jesus’ first sign which he performed at Cana in Galilee. Jesus and his disciples had joined in the celebration of a wedding. For whatever reason (whether because Jesus and his disciples had swelled the number of guests or whether due to poor planning or simple poverty), the celebrations had run out of wine. Jesus turned the water used for ceremonial purification into wine – the very best of wine and a vast quantity of it – to the delight, no doubt, of all of those at the feast. This was a sign of the kingdom; indeed, it was more than a sign, it was a taste of the kingdom.

The last of Jesus’ signs, the end of all his transforming work, will also be a wedding feast – the Marriage Supper of the Lamb, an occasion when tears are transformed to laughter, pain transformed into delight and death is swallowed up in life. What an intoxicating day that will be.

By this first sign, Jesus demonstrates that the kingdom in all its celebration and rejoicing is not something to be enjoyed solely at his return. It has burst into the middle of history with Jesus’ coming. The bridegroom has arrived and the bride will rejoice in his presence.

This wonderful sign is followed by an account of a visit by Jesus to the temple in Jerusalem. There he found that the outer court had been turned into a marketplace full of cattle, sheep, doves and moneychangers. Jesus made a whip out of cords and drove the sheep and cattle from the temple courts and overturned the tables of the moneychangers sending their money flying. He was determined to drive out all that was designed for mere human profit rather than for God’s glory. When asked by what authority he had performed these things he replied, ‘Destroy this temple and I will raise it up again in three days.’

The temple was a sign that pointed to him: he is the true place where God meets with us; he is Emmanuel. He is the one in whom the presence and glory of God is seen in all its fullness and the one in whom the human will is entirely devoted to doing the will of God. He is the one in whom the old is put to death so that the resurrection life may appear.

We who belong to him are also called the temple of God, both individually and corporately, for his Spirit lives in us. We need the Lord to come to his temple again and again to drive out all that does not glorify God, all that should have no house-room in the temple of God. We always need him to fill us afresh with resurrection life.

In these two stories of Jesus we see that he has come to transform and renew. His transforming presence changes the water of the ordinary into the wine of the kingdom. He brings joy and celebration. But his presence is not always a comfortable presence for he comes to cleanse and refine and that may require painful action as he drives out of our lives all that cannot share a home with him.

Lord Jesus, you have come to me and made your home within me. Continue that work you have begun within me of transforming me into your likeness. Overturn all my schemes for living for myself rather than you. Drive out all those things which bring dishonour to your name and make me a fit dwelling place for your glory. Fill me with your presence that I may become the place where others meet with you the living God.

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Peter Misselbrook