Advent 12

The Second Friday of Advent, December 12, 2008

Isaiah 7:10-25 

A young woman is with child, and she will bear a son, and will call him Immanuel.  By the time that he has learnt to reject evil and choose good, he will be eating curds and honey; before that child has learnt to reject evil and choose good, desolation will come upon the land before whose two kings you cower now. 

This is the conclusion of the assurance given to Ahaz in yesterday’s reading.  This is what will happen to his attackers, why he need not go to war:  the two attacking nations are soon to be powerless, desolate. 

I am fascinated by the phrase “learnt to reject evil and choose good,” because I grew up thinking of Jesus as always choosing good, from the first.  But of course that’s not true. 

At the age of twelve Jesus chose not to tell his parents that he was going to the temple to hang out with the religious leaders; and his parents, when they realized Jesus wasn’t with them, tore back to Jerusalem, concerned for their young son for many of the same reasons modern parents would be today.  When Mary scolded Jesus, he sassed her, saying she should have known he’d be in his father’s house.  

My favorite image of Jesus learning is found in Matthew 15:21-28, where a Gentile woman asks him to heal her sick daughter.  Jesus doesn’t even acknowledge her.  But when the disciples try to push her away, Jesus says, loud enough for her to hear, that he didn’t come to the Gentile dogs—can you imagine?  The insult doesn’t faze her.  The Gentile woman looks Jesus in the eye and says that even the dogs eat the crumbs under the (Jews’) table. 

And here is the miracle:  Jesus changes his mind.  He heals the woman’s daughter.   

The persistence and faith of a desperate Gentile mother opened Jesus’ eyes to a previously rejected ministry to non-Jews.  The Gentile woman opened Christ’s eyes to the likes of you and me. 

Growth and change are signs of life.  What is in stone is generally fossil.