Commitment to God's Word
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Fr. Roger Vermalen Karban |
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The key statement of today’s three readings is contained in six words in Deutero-Isaiah’s first reading: “... the mouth of Yahweh has spoken!”
No biblical author before the sixth century BCE prophet of the babylonian Exile relies more on Yahweh’s word. God’s word is the only thing those in exile can fall back on. They no longer have a temple or formal liturgical rituals. They have only the word which God proclaims through the prophets; a word which demands that the Israelites do some strange things. “In the desert,” the prophet commands, “prepare the way of Yahweh. Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God. Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill shall be made low: the rugged land shall be made a plain, the rough country, a broad valley. Then the glory of Yahweh shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together ...” In other words, “Get the road ready. We’re going home!”
These are beautiful thoughts: a poetic description of an event for which the Chosen People have been praying for 50 years. Yet, when Deutero-Isaiah delivers his oracle, practically no one believes they’ll ever be set free. They have no army to fight for their freedom, and their Babylonian captors have no intention of issuing an emancipation proclamation. Yahweh’s promise that they’ll return to the Holy Land is their only reason for believing they’ll return.
Scholars who study the historical Jesus are convinced that Yahweh’s word is also the basis for his ministry. As an itinerant preacher he not only delivers that word, he also falls back on it for guidance and strength to carry out the hazardous work God has given him. It’s no accident that the Father’s Gospel stamp of approval on him and his ministry comes in the baptismal words, “You are my beloved Son, with you I am well pleased.” In this pericope, Jesus comes face to face with the most difficult truth followers of God must accept: God’s word is operating in my life.
Ironically, a commitment to God’s word not only leads Jesus to be baptized, it also helps him to discern more of that word. We can never forget Luke’s Gospel definition of the perfect Christian (personified in Mary). It’s someone who “hears God’s word and carries it out.” Only when Jesus carries it out does he discover the depth of that word. The problem is, he expects his followers to do the same.
That’s precisely what the author of the letter to Titus does in our second reading. he reminds his late first century church that, in many ways, they’re in the position of Deutero-Isaiah’s exilic community. Like their sixth century BCE counterparts, they have lots of history to fall back on. But it’s no longer Yahweh freeing their ancestors from Egypt; it’s Jesus who “... delivers us from all lawlessness and cleanses for himself a people as his own, eager to do what is good.” Though they believe Jesus accomplished these things, they have yet to experience the actual “... appearance of the glory of our great God and savior Jesus Christ.” Such an appearance comes to them only in the form of God’s word. They live their daily lives in the same circumstances in which non-Christians live. From all appearances, there’s no difference.
Yet, Jesus’ word makes everything different. In the midst of everything else, Christians live convinced that they’re “justified by his grace.” Belief in that word creates the proper relationship between us and God. As the writer puts it, we’ve become “heirs in hope of eternal life.” From all outward appearances, we’ve yet to break into eternity; but we have God’s word that we have. If that word was good enough for Jesus, it should be more than enough for us.
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