Tonight we have a pre-season bible study of the Gospel of Luke and will be reading selections from Isaiah 56-66. This liturgical year from the first Tuesday of Advent (December 3, 2024) through the first Tuesday of Easter (April 22, 2025) we will read through the entirety of Luke’s Gospel. After Jesus’s baptism and desert temptations, the first story Luke tells us about Jesus is his reading of this section of Isaiah (Isa. 61:1-2) at the synagogue in Capernaum. For Luke, Jesus is the fulfillment of these final chapters of Isaiah.
The Book of Isaiah:
As we have previously discussed, modern scholarship generally understands the book of Isaiah to have three parts. The first part, Isaiah 1-39, are the words of the 8th century B.C. (700s) eponymous prophet who lived in the royal court in Jerusalem in the Kingdom of Judah during the time of various kings and when the Assyrians threatened total destruction. Our prophetic readings in Advent generally come from this section.
The second part of the book, Isaiah 40-55, is the words of a prophet who lived during the Babylonian Captivity (598 BC-538 BC) when the Babylonians captured Jerusalem and exiled their leaders to Babylon. This prophet gives us the Suffering Servant Songs that we read during Holy Week.
The exile ended and the Jews were allowed to return to Jerusalem and begin rebuilding the Temple when Cyrus of Persia conquered Babylon in 538 B.C. The third part of the book, Isaiah 56-66, was probably written during this time, along with the prophets Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. This prophet writes about the re-establishment of a historical Jerusalem but also of a coming new Jerusalem where God’s mercy extends not only to the Jews but the whole world, including the economically marginalized and even the Gentiles.
Jerusalem:
In the third part of Isaiah, Jerusalem plays a central role. The words “Jerusalem” or “Zion” are mentioned 16 times within these chapters, and are the only geographical place given. (“Israel” is mentioned several times but only as a description of an ethnic group and their God.) Jerusalem is described as a place of desolation (resulting from Babylon’s destruction). Isa. 64:10. But, for the prophet, it will be a place where God will come as Redeemer and put his spirit and his words within his people. Isa. 59:20-21. Jerusalem is the place of God’s consolation of the bereaved and the place of God’s ultimate vindication. Isa. 62:1-7, 66:10-14. For the prophet, God’s actions regarding Jerusalem are not only in this age, but in the age to come. Isa. 60:19-20, 65:17-25.
Jerusalem also plays a central role in Luke’s Gospel. Luke’s Gospel begins in Jerusalem with Zechariah (John the Baptist’s father) serving in the Temple. In the other synoptic gospels of Mark and Matthew, Jesus only first makes it to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. In Luke’s Gospel, however, Jesus is presented in the Temple in Jerusalem on the eighth day after his birth and later visits the Temple when he is twelve. Luke 2:22-51. Also, unlike Matthew and Mark, the disciples experience the risen Jesus in Jerusalem and are told by him to stay in the city. Luke 24:34, 49. (In Isa. 61:3, the verse after the one Jesus reads in the synagogue in Capernaum, says that God will comfort those that mourn in Jerusalem and give them garlands (of celebration), not ashes (of mourning).) It is from Jerusalem (Luke also wrote Acts) where Luke has the church’s beginning at Pentecost and where God puts his spirit and his word into his people. Acts 2.
The Gentile Nations:
Both our Isaiah readings and Luke’s story build up to the incorporation of the Gentiles (all non-Jews) within God’s saving grace. At the ingathering of God’s, the prophet proclaims “All nations shall come to your light/and kings to the brightness of your rising.” Isa. 60:3, See, Isa. 56:8, Isa. 62:2. Likewise, when Jesus reads from the scroll in Capernaum, Jesus also says that he comes even (or primarily) for Gentiles. Luke 4:25-27.
The Book of Isaiah ends with the prophet proclaiming “I [God] am coming to gather all nations and tongues; and they shall come and shall see my glory.” Isa. 66:18b. Luke’s story likewise ends with the apostles going out to all the nations to behold the Glory of God in Christ. Acts 8:29, 9:15, 10:22. Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promise to bring all people to his holy city of (the New) Jerusalem.
Dinner is at 6. The menu is gumbo with Bananas Foster. Discussion about 6:45. Compline by 8. Hope to see you here!
While Peter was still saying this, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. And the believers from among the circumcised who came with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles. Acts 10:44-45.