GOD MAKES THINGS NEW

This talk was based on the passages:
Isaiah 35
Mark 7:24-37

Here’s what the West is like - it’s like people marching the streets with banners, shouting, “What do we want? Everything! When do we want it? Now!” We must get what we want, without delay, or someone will pay. People scream to get their will done. Patience - what’s that? So easily caught up in what’s happening now, we forget the past or future. Instant everything - that’s what we expect. But we’re blind, deaf and lame to the ways and will of God.

Ever since Eve saw that the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was pleasing to the eye, humans have become those who want what we shouldn’t want, and God goes out of our thoughts. Gimme gimme gimme - I DESERVE it! We fix our eyes on what we lack and think the Universe doesn’t love us. I also easily lack patience, want every problem sorted straight away, want my will to be done. I have eaten the fruit of the tree. But I don’t blame God. The badness in humanity and in me isn’t God’s fault. He is perfect and gracious. This gives us hope.

I want to start in Isaiah 35. Note the words expressing Israel’s situation: desert, hands that are tired, knees that tremble with weakness; blind, deaf, lame; burning sand, dry land. A place for jackals and lions, a people in need of rescue, sorrowing and grieving. What a mess! But it’s not hopeless, because God comes along with promises. God will make the deserts fertile. God will rescue them and punish their enemies. The blind will see, the deaf will hear, the lame will leap, the dumb will shout for joy. There’ll be a road called Holiness, a place of safety for those who do right, who’ll enter Zion with gladness and joy; forever happy, forever free from sorrow and grief. Did this ever happen in or around Isaiah’s day? Maybe in part.

Fast forward 700 years to our reading from Mark. Any liberation Israel had previously gained was long gone. The Romans were the latest oppressors on the block, who came and squashed their freedom. But the Romans aside, they weren’t free anyway. They were oppressed by evil spirits, by prejudice, by sickness. Deserts come in many forms. In the coming of Jesus the Christ, God’s at work. After 700 years, Isaiah 35 comes to life. “The blind will be able to see, and the deaf will hear. The lame will leap and dance, and those who cannot speak will shout for joy.” When John the Baptist was in prison and doubting if Jesus was the one God had promised to send, Jesus told him, (Luke 7:22-23), “Go back and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind can see, the lame can walk, those who suffer from dreaded skin diseases are made clean, the deaf can hear, the dead are raised to life, and the Good News is preached to the poor. How happy are those who have no doubts about me!” Jesus says His miracles and preaching show He’s the expected Christ. “What Isaiah wrote about - yep, that’s me.” That wait is over. He started to make all things new.

What happens in Mark 7? A non-Jewish Canaanite woman (a triple whammy of unworthiness) comes to the Jewish Christ. She sought Him with determination because He wanted to keep a low profile. She fell at His feet, begging Him to drive a demon out of her daughter. Jews considered non-Jews to be defiled rubbish. Jesus acts the part, effectively saying, “I came to save the lost sheep of Israel, not you. When Israel is saved, maybe then I’ll come and heal your daughter. It’s not right for me to give you what belongs to them.” The woman has none of it. She effectively says, “Not everyone in Israel accepts you. And those who do, have the wrong motive. Give me what they rejected.” This faith, courage and tenacity moved Jesus to set her daughter free. Matthew’s version has more detail. To the disciples, she was a nuisance to be gotten rid of. To Jesus, she was a woman of great faith. Her desert started to blossom. Jesus started making all things new. His disciples learned that Jesus will help anyone who asks Him. Come to Jesus and ask for His help; you’re not a nuisance.

Jesus moves on. A deaf man who could hardly speak was brought to Him. No quibbling or testing of faith this time. People begged Jesus to heal him, which He did. The desert for that man began to blossom. Jesus started to make all things new for him. This is just one example. The Gospels give many more. Remember also that Jesus did a lot more which wasn’t written down.

Is there anything else in Isaiah 35 that was fulfilled in the first coming of Jesus?

Verses 3 and 4: Give strength to hands that are tired and to knees that tremble with weakness. Tell everyone who is discouraged, “Be strong and don't be afraid! God is coming to your rescue, coming to punish your enemies.”

Jesus occasionally needed to speak words of encouragement to His disciples. “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather be afraid of God, who can destroy both body and soul in hell.” (Matt 10:28) “Don't be afraid when you hear of wars and revolutions; such things must happen first, but they do not mean that the end is near.” (Luke 21:9) “Peace is what I leave with you; it is my own peace that I give you. I do not give it as the world does. Do not be worried and upset; do not be afraid.” (John 14:27) The apostle Paul builds on this in Romans 8 (35,37): “Who, then, can separate us from the love of Christ? Can trouble do it, or hardship or persecution or hunger or poverty or danger or death? No, in all these things we have complete victory through him who loved us!” Wow! God has given us victory over many enemies. In the coming of Christ, God judged His enemies, be they death, sickness, humans, the Devil. This may be hard to see, yet we walk by faith. More on that later…

Verse 8 also hints of the first coming of Jesus: There will be a highway there, called “The Road of Holiness.” No sinner will ever travel that road; no fools will mislead those who follow it.

Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one goes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6) Jesus said, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” (Matthew 7:13-14, NIV) Simon Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words that give eternal life. And now we believe and know that you are the Holy One who has come from God.” (John 6:68-69) Jesus said, “I have already told you, but you would not believe me. The deeds I do by my Father's authority speak on my behalf; but you will not believe, for you are not my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never die. No one can snatch them away from me. What my Father has given me is greater than everything, and no one can snatch them away from the Father's care. The Father and I are one.” (John 10:25-30)

To summarise: Jesus claimed to be the way to God, the path to life, one with the Father God. So be His sheep. Listen to His voice. Receive eternal life. Let Him guide us in the right paths.

Now, there’s an elephant in the room - if Jesus is all we say He is, has done all we say He’s done, why do people still live messy, sinful lives, ignoring God, turning their backs on Him? Why do we still see wars, oppression, atrocities, wickedness in nations, governments and, dare we say, in the church or maybe even in ourselves? It’s 2000 years since Jesus came - why are we waiting?

Isaiah 35 ends: “Those whom the Lord has rescued will travel home by that road. They will reach Jerusalem with gladness, singing and shouting for joy. They will be happy forever, forever free from sorrow and grief.”

This part of Isaiah’s prophecy is still not yet fulfilled, after 2700 years. We’re still travelling home with Jesus. We haven’t yet reached that heavenly City, that new Jerusalem, where we’ll be happy forever, free from sorrow and grief. Rather than suggest a God who doesn’t keep His promises or doesn’t care, this speaks instead of a God who is patient. He’s a God who’s passed judgement, but not yet fully carried the sentence out. What do we want? Peace on earth. When do we want it? Now! What do we want? Justice. When do we want it? Now! What do we want? An end to evil. When do we want it? Now! We want it; so does God. So what’s He waiting for? Here’s what Peter wrote: “The Lord is not slow to do what he has promised, as some think. Instead, he is patient with you, because he does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants all to turn away from their sins.” (2 Peter 3:9) God prefers to be merciful, than vengeful. But He’s not a big softy who’ll let everyone into heaven in the end. Peter also writes of “the day when godless people will be judged and destroyed.” Until Christ returns in glory the gate is open, the road is there to be walked upon, Heavenly Jerusalem bids us welcome. At a time of God’s choosing, that gate will slam shut. There’ll be joy on the inside, terror on the outside. God beckons us to come. He invites everyone to be saved. We only have ourselves to blame if we turn down His offer of life in Christ. He will rescue His people fully. “If God is for us, who can be against us? Certainly not God, who did not even keep back his own Son, but offered him for us all! He gave us his Son—will he not also freely give us all things?” (Romans 8:31-32)

God has already made some things new for us. Christians have been born again, are new creations, partake in a new covenant through Christ’s death, live a new life in union with Christ, serve God in a new way of the Spirit. This means we live differently now, as new people in Christ. It means we patiently wait in faith, trusting in God’s promise that Christ will come again and make all things fully new. Then we will truly sing, with gladness, “we’ve come home”.

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