ニューイングランドの母校から、２０１７年イースターへ向け旅の導き その4

ニューイングランドの母校から、２０１７年イースターへ向け旅の導き　その4
Gordon-Conwell's Holy Week Devotional 2017
Day 4: Wednesday, April 12

The Promise of the Winter Buds
Isaiah 61:1-11

Winters in New England have moments of exquisite beauty, as our lovely 2016 Christmas Devotional, “Journey to the Manger” demonstrated. Days when the trees are frosted, the sky is powder blue and the sun glistens on the snow banks show forth God’s glorious handiwork.

But other days can be grey, slushy, bitter cold, and winter drags on, feeling a lot like Narnia before Aslan returned. On such days, I’ll sometimes take a break to venture out to our lone fruit tree (all we have room to grow). As I approach, it looks so forlorn. Bare limbs show all their scars and some have broken off in the wind. Against the troubled sky, it looks dead. But when I come up closer, I discover those limbs heavy with buds – so full of promise of leaves and peaches and new life to come next year.

When Jesus revealed his mission by reading Isaiah 61:1-2a, he astonished the synagogue congregation at Nazareth. Luke tells us the initial response was positive: “all spoke well of him and were amazed at his gracious words” (4:22, TNIV). But when Jesus applied the Scripture to their wintry hearts (4:23-27), they hauled him out of town to throw him off a cliff! Had Jesus read all the way to Isaiah 61:10, he may not have gotten as far as the cliff, if his hearers realized he was announcing himself as the Messiah “clothed” in salvation and righteousness! They saw death where Jesus offered life.

The King James version expresses Isaiah 61’s last verse beautifully: “For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all nations” (61:11). Messiah’s justice and praise would be manifested to all.

Jesus Christ’s triumph over death fulfilled what the buds in the schoolroom of our seasons have been illustrating: the springtime of hope in renewal of life for all who believe in him.

William David Spencer, Th.D.
Distinguished Adjunct Professor of Theology and the Arts