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A wonderful son

Isa 9: 5 – 7

Rev. Peter R Green, Sunday morning, 17 Dec, 2006

EIGHT HUNDRED years before Christ, the prophet Isaiah spoke of a coming child who would be named “wonderful counsellor, mighty God, everlasting father, Prince of peace.”

How was Isaiah’s prophecy so detailed?

It is a message of hope for Israel, but it is a message for the entire world. It’s about a child who will grow to be the most amazing person in history. Christians have always said that only Jesus truly fulfils that promise.

Today is our son’s birthday. Luke turns 35 today. I still remember that day: the rush, the urgency, the waiting, and, finally, The Kid.

You have so many hopes for what your child may become. But it is all potential. It’s just like Isaiah says:

Unto us a child is born

Unto us a son is given.

This is no mythical character, bursting fully armed onto the world scene. It’s a real, flesh–and–blood person, being born, growing up, finally taking his place. In the book of Genesis a mysterious character, Melchizedek, the King of Salem, appears out of nowhere, and disappears from history without any further mention. All we know of him is that Abraham gave tithes and offerings to him.

The promised son of Isaiah’s prophecy is not like that.

Even we Christians sometime can’t see the human ordinariness of Jesus. There was uproar in the US recently when a student newspaper printed mocking images of Jesus to see if Christians reacted in the same way as Muslims did to cartoons of Muhammed.

One cartoon showed Jesus totally naked on the cross, in a way that would have been humiliating to any person. There was some reaction to that picture. Though no students were murdered and no buildings burned down.

But the soldiers did strip Jesus of his clothes before crucifying him. He was a human male, with all the appropriate bits. How humiliating to die so exposed on the cross!

If you don’t believe that, of course you are a heretic.

When we sing,

Bearing shame and scoffing rude

In my place condemned he stood...

we are talking about a real person bearing real suffering. We are talking about a child, a son, who grew to be a man, and, even in death, revealed God.

From Isaiah’s viewpoint, the child he sees in his prophecy is born now, and all the rest is future. The Government shall one day be upon his shoulder, his name shall one day be called Wonderful Counsellor, the Mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.

So Isaiah tells of a child who grows to rule. The Government shall be on his shoulder.

But we know that there are good rulers and there are bad rulers.

In the 1640s, the English people thought King Charles was so bad that he was arrested, tried, found him guilty of treason and executed.

About 12 years ago, the Australian people had had enough of the Keating Government. They voted John Howard in.

Far back in history, the Israelite mobs killed King Ahab and Queen Jezebel for leading the nation astray from God.

Not all rulers are good.

But what kind of ruler would this child turn out to be?

Isaiah describes him in four ways:

• Wonderful Counsellor

• Mighty God

• Everlasting Father,

• Prince of Peace.

Each says something very important and very powerful about this coming child.

Wonderful Counsellor

In ancient times, Kings employed counsellors, and, in a sense, they still do today.

Anyone in a position of leadership needs advice. So, for example, when people phone me and say, “I can fix the church floor very cheaply,” or “Would you like to buy a Christmas advertisement in our paper?” I think, “We need the floors fixed,” or “It would be good to have an ad in the paper.” But I ask our secretary or treasurer or pastoral worker first, because it is good to have other people’s wisdom. I could approve it, but I don’t do it without counsel.

In this setting, Isaiah isn’t thinking about the psychological counsellor who talks to us about our feelings and options so that we can make our own decisions. This is the political counsellor who gives advice to the decision makers.

Isaiah talks about the Government being on this child’s shoulders, so he means a political leader who really understands what kinds of decision to make. A Wonderful Counsellor is one who really knows what he is doing. And the strange thing here is that this is not a Counsellor who works for a king; this is a king who knows how to advise himself, who doesn't need any other adviser.

Think of some of the things Jesus said which had political implications. He spoke of turning the other cheek. We live in a world where nations take vengeance on nations.

Think about how the world changed after the attack on the World Trade Towers on 11 September 2001. In the first shock, President Bush spoke like a statesman. He said that the American people would seek justice. There is nothing wrong in Christians seeking justice. But then he went on to demand vengeance. And the mess that is Iraq is a direct result of this change from justice to vengeance.

Jesus also spoke of liberation for prisoners and release for captives.

We live in a world where more and more people are being imprisoned for what used to be a minor offence. Every election time you hear politicians in a bidding war to see who can be the most harsh on crime. Jesus’ way is not to break the bruised reed and not to quench the smouldering wick. If there is the tiniest bit of something worth preserving, he brings it to live.

Mighty God

There could be arguments against the idea that the child of Isaiah’s prophecy is Jesus, if you just looked for a wonderful counsellor.

When you look for someone who fits the description of “Mighty God”, you can’t go past the man we know as Jesus of Nazareth.

If you were a cynic you might take his miracles and remove the few which might have psychological explanations and one or two where a cynic might argue that it was mere coincidence, and you are still left with someone who could heal, who could bring the dead back to life, who could control the forces of nature with a word, who could do with a word far beyond what a medical or psychiatric specialist could achieve with years of hard work.

If you take his teachings, you will find two streams. He was not someone who was introducing a completely new sense of morality, but clearly built on what had gone before: no murder, no adultery, no false witness, no stealing.

But there is another stream, a radically new and different stream. That stream is his emphasis on motive rather than performance, on blessing rather than judgment, on the transforming power of mercy.

In a world which assumed that doing the right thing in the right way would keep the gods on side, Jesus presented God as one who is already on our side and exasperated by the way we ignore him.

In a world where people assumed that the rich and the powerful had God’s blessing and that the poor and powerless had been bypassed, Jesus presented God as one whose interest is in the unwanted of society, who would rather see a rich man share his blessings and join the poor than see a rich man keep taking more and more to himself. To Jesus, it is the poor, the peace–loving, the pure–hearted, who have God’s blessing: the rich and powerful don’t need God’s blessing because they already have what they want.

In a world which was content with a remote God who controlled the forces of nature but left humans to get on with their lives, he declared and lived as a manifestation of a God who is with his people and will never leave or forsake them.

If there was one man who has radically changed the world’s idea of God, it was Jesus. And we read repeatedly that

...all the people were amazed because he taught with authority and not as the scribes did.

There was one man in history who claimed a unique relationship with God and, by his actions, showed that his claims were genuine.

Everlasting Father

Yet again, this child promised through Isaiah is seen in a unique relationship with God.

We must never forget that the Christian idea of God’s coming in human form was almost totally foreign to the Jews, and could only be seen as blasphemy.

In the same way, they would have struggled with the idea of a human leader’s being an Everlasting Father.

Some Christians assume that the Jews have no concept of God as Father, but that is wrong. If you read the Old Testament, you will find that God presents himself to Israel as a loving Father who cares for the nation as a Father cares for his children. What is unique about Jesus’ teaching is the way he personalises God as the heavenly Father of each and every one of us, though we wilfully abandon him and go our own way.

It is vital to know that the Jews saw God as Father of the nation, because, again, Isaiah’s description of this royal child is a shocking one. How can a human being stand in the place of God as Father of the people? Or how can a mortal human be everlasting?

They say that the national leaders under the wicked King Manasseh ultimately rejected Isaiah’s prophecies, and that he was murdered by being sawn in two. Teachings like these would have led to that kind of rage against him.

But if God has come in human form, if Jesus is telling the truth when he says,

I and the Father are one

...or if the murderous Jewish mob was right when it said that he had made himself one with God by claiming that God was his father, then Jesus in a sense lays claim to being the everlasting Father of Isaiah’s prophecy.

And when Jesus returns and rules eternally, not just as the Messiah on David’s throne, but as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, then he will truly be a father to his people in the place and in the will of God his heavenly Father.

Prince of Peace.

The final term used for this wonder-child is Prince of Peace: sar shalom, in the Hebrew.

Jesus did say,

I come to bring, not peace, but a sword.

But we need to see that in its context. We never see Jesus carrying a weapon. He is angry several times: angry with those who refuse to show care for the crippled and sick because they are too wrapped up in their own religious duties, angry with those who give up on grieving families, angry with those who turn faith into a money–making opportunity. Yes, he does overturn tables and drive out animals from the temple with a whip made of knotted cords. He is no passionless Buddha. He is passionate about the needy, the poor, the sick.

But he does not advance his cause by war, and, whatever you might say about any other religion, you must recognise that Jesus never taught war, and that Christians who go to war to promote their faith betray the gospel and the example of their Lord. That is different from going to war to protect people: I think that Britain did its Christian duty in declaring war on Germany when Germany breached international treaties and invaded Czechoslovakia.

What Jesus clearly did teach was that he would be divisive, and that there would be some who would seek to stamp out any memory of Jesus and his teaching by whatever means they could use. So he did bring a sword. There was no cause for complacency if you were to follow him, and there still is none.

As I pointed out last week, the first meaning of peace is that, through faith in Jesus, we are no longer subject to judgment, and no longer running from God’s wrath.

My grandfather Taylor used always to say how much he valued Methodist teaching, because of its emphasis that being a Methodist was open to all who wished to flee from the wrath to come.

But the point is that we flee from the wrath to come by turning to the Judge and suing for peace through Christ our sacrifice and our mediator.

Peace with God is the first level of peace, and Jesus is supremely prince of peace with God.

But there is another level of peace, one yet to be fully revealed. In Old Testament thought, peace was never a mere absence of war. Peace was tied up with fruitfulness, with every man sitting under his own fig tree, with abundant harvests, and the land enjoying good times.

As Sar Shalom, as Prince of peace, Jesus promises an end to war and a restoration of common wealth, when fruitfulness comes back and all is put right.

Endless Government

^{ISA 9:7} Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end.

He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom,

establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever.

The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.

Isaiah’s message is one of great hope. It is echoed by the angels at Jesus’ birth. It is declared to all who will accept it. As Jesus fulfils the ancient predictions, so we are confronted with a choice: is he the one? If so, will we follow him? Will we declare our loyalty to the Prince of Peace and work for the establishment of his rule over all people?

Jesus said it would be hard. He said,

If any one would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

When you take up a cross, that is permanent. You don’t die for a little while. You die, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

Jesus is the coming king of Isaiah’s prophecy. Yet,

Bearing shame and scoffing rude

In my place condemned he stood,

Sealed my pardon with his blood —

Hallelujah! What a Saviour!

What can we do but come to him and follow him forever?

AMEN

© Peter R. Green 2006. Permission is granted for quotation in full for non-commercial purposes provided that authorship is acknowledged and this copyright notice is displayed with the text. Portions also copyright The Bible, NIV (Zondervan Ltd.)