Robert Barron - The Promise of Emmanuel
Peace be with you. Friends, many mythologies and philosophies in the ancient world hold that time is cyclical. What I mean is it just goes round and around, never really getting anywhere, but just the constant repetition. A bit like the change of the seasons or the revolution of the planets, that time is just cyclical. Think of the modern philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, who spoke about the eternal return of the same. It’s that idea. So here it is, it’s going to go around and around and then return to where it was before. Cyclical view. Many people today I think hold to a kind of meaningless view of time, that time is just one thing after another. It’s not really coming from anywhere in particular, it’s not going anywhere meaningful, it’s just one thing after another. Well, to both those finally despairing understandings of time, the Bible says no.
The Bible has a purposive sense of time. Time is moving in a direction; it’s moving toward a fulfillment. Now, see, why? Why? Because of God. God is not hovering somewhere way beyond the world, indifferent to it. No, God is the author of creation, which means he’s the author of time. And that means time has a purpose. It’s got a trajectory, it has an energy, it’s moving somewhere. And see, we Christians hold the trajectory of time is precisely toward Christ. St. Paul spoke about Christ as the recapitulation of all things and of all time. Everything moves toward him. And that means in his historical coming but then even more so in his second coming at the fulfillment of the age. Time is purposive, it has a trajectory, it’s meaningful.
Now, here’s an analogy. Time is just a jumble of one thing after another? Think of the time that’s implied in a novel. A novel that’s written by someone, and he’s telling a story that’s unfolding. Now, no novel is just going to share a jumble of one thing after another. No, a good novelist is telling a narrative that’s moving toward some kind of fulfillment. And what’s often in great novels is a kind of rhyming quality. What I mean is, something here anticipates something there, and something at the very end, ah, now you see how that fulfilled what came earlier and earlier still. There’s a meaningful, purposive thrust to time within a novel. God is the great author of creation. He’s the author of time, and therefore we shouldn’t be surprised that we find these very interesting and curious rhymes within time.
Okay, with all that in mind, I want to look at the readings now for this wonderful culminating Fourth Sunday of Advent. We start with Isaiah. So Isaiah’s the great prophet of Advent. Reference is being made here to Ahaz. Ahaz is a young king, unsure of himself, facing a great crisis. And Isaiah the prophet comes to him to encourage him, and he says, «Ask the Lord for a sign and he’ll give you one». And Ahaz, who’s lost his faith, he’s lost his sense of God, he’s been relying on earthly powers to solve his problems, he goes, «Oh, no, no, I’m not going to ask. I won’t tempt the Lord». See, it sounds like praiseworthy humility, but it’s not. It’s someone that’s lost his sense of God’s purpose. So Isaiah says, now listen to him, «Listen, O house of David»!
So he’s referring to Ahaz, descendant of David. «Listen, O house of David! Is it not enough for you to weary people, must you also weary my God»? He’s saying, «Why are you insulting God with this»? «Therefore the Lord himself will give you this sign: the virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel». You won’t ask for a sign, Ahaz; you’ve lost your faith. But God never gives up on Israel. He never gives up on the human race. So God’s going to give you a sign, and this is that mysterious sign, that the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and will name him Emmanuel. Okay, I said that in a novelist perspective, time rhymes. One thing will call back to another, will anticipate something else. Well stay with Ahaz now and go back behind Ahaz to his ancestor King David. And the prophet Nathan is addressing David. You’ll find it in 2 Samuel chapter seven, one of the most pivotal chapters in the whole Bible.
What does Nathan say to David? «God will put a descendant of yours on the throne, and his reign will last forever». Do you hear the rhyme? What was promised to Ahaz was anticipated long before, when God makes a promise to David. Again, the promise of a child, the promise of a son whose reign will be without end. Ahaz calls out to David, David calls out to Ahaz. There’s a kind of trajectory running from David to Ahaz. Even in what seems like just the jumble of history there’s this meaningful thrust and trajectory. Okay, so Ahaz, we’ve gone back to David to find an echo. Now we turn to the Gospel to hear this remarkable echo of both David and Ahaz in the future.
Listen. Matthew tells us that an angel is announcing something extraordinary. «Joseph, son of David,» he says, «do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her». Remember the promise made to David of a descendant of his, the promise made to Ahaz: this son, this child to be born. «All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet». And now listen, we go right back to what Isaiah said to Ahaz: «Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means 'God is with us.'»
That’s the promise Isaiah made to Ahaz. It echoed the promise that Nathan made to David, and now it’s completely fulfilled centuries later in the arrival of this child born of a virgin. You see how beautiful, everybody? History is not just a jumble of things, not just one darn thing after another, not just the eternal return of the same turning around in a cycle. No, no, history moves. It moves forward toward a fulfillment, from David to Ahaz to Joseph and to Jesus. God is about something. Everybody, think about this, in light really of what I said last week about the winter and spring rains. Often our lives can seem like a jumble or just one darn thing after another or just a cycle going round and around, and we can lose our sense of God’s purpose.
But don’t lose that sense. The reason we read the Bible is we hear in the Bible echoes and rhymes, anticipations of what God is about in our lives. God did not give up on Ahaz, he did not give up on David, did not give up on Joseph. But God is about the business of achieving his saving purpose. True in our lives too. Now, I want to go just briefly to look at the second reading. They’re so rich this week. The first one from Isaiah, and then the fulfillment of that in the Gospel. But listen now, reading two is from the very beginning of Paul’s letter to the Romans. So St. Paul, most likely writing this letter in Corinth, he writes to this little church in Rome. It always strikes me, because now Rome is such a vibrant center of the Catholic Church, but in Paul’s day it was a little tiny church that gathered probably in someone’s home in the Jewish quarter of Rome. And to that little community he writes this letter, which has been transformative for centuries.
But here’s what he says now in the opening line. Listen: «Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God». David, there’ll be a descendant of yours on the throne and his reign will last forever. It’s a king that’s being promised. Ahaz, here’s a sign God will give you. The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son. A king is promised to Ahaz. And then the angel to Joseph: this is to fulfill what the prophet said. The virgin shall give rise to a child, and he will be the ruler of the nations of the world. A king is promised. What’s the right relationship to a king? Obedience.
How does Paul introduce himself? Mind you, mind you, Paul, who is Rabbi Saul before he was converted, Rabbi Saul who knew all these texts I’ve been referring to, he had them in his blood and his bones. So he knew, when he met the risen Christ, who he was. He knew that he was the one promised to David. He knew he was the one promised to Ahaz. And therefore he knew himself to be, listen again, the «slave of Christ Jesus». The right relationship to the king is one of obedience. And then beautifully, «called to be an apostle». «Apostello» in Greek means «to send».
Who’s Paul now? He’s not claiming his own prerogatives. It’s not his ego that matters. It’s not his projects that matter. No, no. He’s the slave. He’s the obedient servant of the king, and the king has sent him on a mission. See now, everybody, listen to me, listen. This is where all this comes to bear on our lives, because our histories stand in continuity to this great biblical history. David to Ahaz to Joseph and Jesus to Paul, and that trajectory continues now to us. We don’t consider Jesus just some distant and mildly interesting historical figure. Uh-uh. He’s the long-awaited and long-promised king. And we, like Paul, now accept our vocation to be his servants and to be sent, «apostello», to be sent according to his purposes. See, friends, if we can grasp this, if we can understand this dynamic of salvation history, we’re ready for the coming of the Lord at Christmas. And God bless you.