The Divine Agenda--December 18, 2025
"Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
and the ears of the deaf shall be opened;
then the lame shall leap like a deer,
and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy.
For waters shall break forth in the wilderness
and streams in the desert;
the burning sand shall become a pool
and the thirsty ground springs of water;
the haunt of jackals shall become a swamp;
the grass shall become reeds and rushes." (Isaiah 35:5-7)
As it turns out, God has an agenda. In fact, God is up front about it and just lays it out there for everyone to hear. God is committed to healing and bringing things to life.
This passage from the book of the prophet Isaiah, which many of us heard this past Sunday in worship, almost hits my ears like a press conference, where God (through the prophet, playing the role of press secretary) announces a new set of priorities and plans. And as Isaiah tells it, it is the policy of the Yahweh Administration (or, as we sometimes call it, the kingdom of heaven or the Reign of God) to help the hurting, to mend our wounds, and to fill our empty and barren desert spaces with signs of life. This, the prophet says, is what God is up to. These, Isaiah tells us, are the sort of things that matter to God. This is the divine agenda: not destruction and warfare, not violence and bloodshed, and not conquest and domination, but relief of suffering and restoration of creation.
Over the course of my four-and-half decades of life on this planet, I've lived through plenty of televised press conferences, official statements, and presidential addresses. You have, too, I'm sure. We've seen our share of Important-Looking People standing at podiums or sitting at ponderous desks, and we know their routines. We have seen their faces heavy with looks of gravitas, and we have heard the opening salutation, intoned almost like a liturgy: "My fellow... (Ohioans... or Citizens... or Americans...)." And we know what it is like to listen to the Official Agenda of the Day being set for us. We have heard the announcement of new wars... and the breaking of terrible and tragic news... and the warning of belt-tightening budget measures... or, in particularly rotten times, the scapegoating of new folks to be identified as "enemies" or "threats" for us to focus our hatred on and take the scrutiny off of the one behind the desk. We have lived through plenty of those times to know the whole routine.
And I suspect Isaiah had lived through plenty of that, too. Of course, for him, it was the official pronouncements of kings rather than presidents or governors, but he had seen more than his share of Official Agendas being pronounced for the people to hear. He had heard press releases announcing new taxes being levied to shore up Judah's armies in case the Assyrians came knocking. He had seen palace propaganda about how the new king would make everybody prosperous and restore the old glory days of King David and Solomon... only to be another disappointment. He had lived through declarations of war, denunciations of enemies, and promises from podiums about smiting their opponents and bringing back the "good ol' days". And in response, Isaiah speaks a different word. Isaiah reports on God's agenda, and even though at first blush it might sound like a list of policy positions and action items the same as any Official National Address he had heard before from the palace, on the prophet's lips, it is a whole new story. God's agenda is about bringing forth life rather than doling out death. God's agenda is about abundance out of dry desert ground, rather than the announcement of turning other people's homes into bomb-strewn wastelands in war. God's agenda is about healing the wounds of those who suffer, not about labeling a new cohort of villains to scapegoat. Isaiah is giving us the policy priorities of the Reign of God.
It is worth noting, too, that Jesus takes these images and descriptions as hallmarks of his own ministry and calling in the Gospels. Back on Sunday, and then in this past Monday's devotion, we heard the story of John the Baptizer sending messengers to ask Jesus if he really was the one they were waiting for. And we heard Jesus' reply, as well, which should sound familiar now that we've been looking at Isaiah 35. Jesus tells the messengers, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, those with a skin disease are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them" (Matthew 11:4-5). The restoration of life to those who are looking for healing. The freedom to move for those who had been constrained and constricted. To those who seek healing for their ears, their ears, their limbs, and their bodies, Jesus gives it freely. To those who were thirsty for good news like the desert waits for the rain, Jesus speaks it freely. Jesus sees himself as the embodiment of the press-release announcement of the prophet Isaiah, and so he points to those examples as evidence that he is bringing about the agenda of the Yahweh Administration.
We should note, too, as we hinted back on Monday, that John the Baptizer had had a rather different set of expectations of God's anointed one, the Messiah. He had been advertising fire and fury, wrath and destruction on God's enemies and the unrighteous. John had pictured something closer to the standard "Big Speech" from a demagogue at a desk: calling down condemnation on the ones labeled "enemies" and declaring God's vengeful war against the wicked, that sort of thing. Jesus, however, deliberately avoids that kind of imagery. He points instead to the ways that he brings life, because he is convinced that these are ultimately God's agenda in the world.
I wonder: when people hear and see us in the world, what impression do they get of God's agenda in the world? From what they see in us, do other people assume that God is embarking on a culture war, zapping the not-good-enough, and rounding up new "enemies "to be destroyed and new "threats" to be eliminated? Or do they see signs of God bringing the world to life? Do they see healing and wholeness, and the restoration of creation to bring forth abundance? Whether we like it or not, and whether we realize it or not, we are all walking spokespersons and press secretaries for God, too, like the prophet Isaiah. And what people hear and see from us they will presume points to the priorities and vision of God in the world. What sort of messages do you think we have been sending?
And, with Isaiah's vision guiding us now, what kind of message do we want to send today? What would it look like to do that... now?
Lord God, allow us to reflection your priorities in the world today for the watching eyes and listening ears around us.
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