Our readings today may leave us feeling conflicted. “Rejoice!” (Isaiah 66:10-14c) Really?
There seems little to rejoice about as we look out at a world racked by war and poverty. We know this is “normal”, violence and hate are not unusual over human history. What perhaps hurts more is that attitudes of hate and violence, anger and contempt, are found in so many places and impacting more and more relationships, from international to interpersonal.
In such times how can we join with the psalmist in saying
Shout joyfully to God, all the earth,
sing praise to the glory of his name;
proclaim his glorious praise
Say to God, “How tremendous are your deeds!” (Psalm 66:1-3, 4-5, 6-7, 16, 20)
What Jesus taught us, more even by his actions than his words, is that the power of God, those deeds for which we rejoice, does not achieve success measured in money, or military campaigns, or control over other people, or the comfort of living behind walls.
Jesus died. The power of God lies in the cross. What does that mean? Paul explained it to the Galatians: “the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” Because of the cross there is a new creation, we live in a new, a different world (Galatians 6:14-18).
When Jesus sends out his disciples on their first missionary journey, they come back all jazzed up: “wow that was cool, we really could do great things in your name” (Luke 10:1-12, 17-20 ). And we, like they, can perform acts of kindness and generosity which can ward off the demons of evil for a little while. But as Jesus then explains, that’s not really the point. Yes we should fight the battle against evil in the world we find around us, but the great deeds of God are not in the outcome of those battles. The only battle that really matters is the battle of the cross. And that is not our battle. That battle was already won for us. Death no longer has power over us.
So we will continue to struggle in the world of pain, and hate, and death, just as Paul did – but that is not the arena of our victory, the victory Jesus passed on to us. Our victory is to be certain that God loves us and we are with him forever. That is why we rejoice.