When John the Baptist was in prison, he sent his disciples to ask Jesus whether he was indeed the promised Messiah. He was perhaps wondering that, if Jesus was the Messiah, why did he not save him from prison. Jesus answered John’s question indirectly by alluding to this passage in Isaiah 35: “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor” (Matthew 11:4, 5). Jesus was assuring John that the new age had arrived and that he was bringing it to bear on people’s lives. The fact that John was suffering did not negate this. We live in the new age described by Isaiah here in chapter 35, but this new age is only realised in the world as we choose to implement it. We are the body of Christ. What Jesus began, we are called to continue, so that his streams might indeed flow in desert places giving life where there is only death and hopelessness. You are a giver of life. You are the herald that God sends to gather up his people. You are an instrument of the new age. Does your life express what you read in Isaiah 35? Are these things happening in you? Are these things happening through you? Give yourself over to this purpose and live a fruitful life.
Give yourself over to Jesus’ mission.
Read Isaiah 35
