Scripture: Isaiah 9:2-4; Matthew 4:12-16; Judges 7:1-25; Luke 10:30-37; Matthew 6:34 Series: Epiphany
Pastor uses football’s ‘prevent defense’ as an extended metaphor: just as teams cautiously mitigate late-game leads instead of playing boldly, we tend to merely mitigate rather than confront injustice. Drawing on Isaiah 9 and its fulfillment in Matthew 4, and on Gideon’s faith-driven 300 at the ‘day of Midian,’ he argues the Christian response to injustice is not anxious mitigation but the light of Christ. Because Christ has done everything for us, we are freed from worry about tomorrow (Matthew 6) and freed to love the people right in front of us, breaking the oppressor’s rod on our own hearts.
Illustrations: prevent-defense-football, chicago-bears-playoffs, dikaiosyne-justice-righteousness, gideon-day-of-midian, oil-lamp-refilling, christ-filled-bucket-list, heb-costco-passersby
January 25
Isaiah 9:2-4 Matthew 4:12-16
Broken Rod
The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness— on them light has shined. You have multiplied exultation; you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as people exult when dividing plunder. For the yoke of their burden and the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian. - Isaiah 9:2-4
Now when Jesus heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: “Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali, on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the gentiles— the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death light has dawned.” - Matthew 4:12-16
Football is an interesting sport, becomes very essential to the game. The scores in the first half don’t matter as much as the scores in the second half because it depends on how much time is left. It literally takes 10 seconds for the fastest person in the NFL to run across the field. Time has an impact. So usually a team that has a lead late in the game plays defense differently than they would earlier in the game. Early in the game. Most teams are trying to prevent a first down. They don’t want the team to keep the ball and keep late in the game. A lot of teams don’t focus on the first down. They focus on scoring. They play what’s called a prevent defense. I hate the prevent defense. If a defense is playing well throughout a game, they should keep on playing well instead of go into an unfamiliar formation that lets the other team keep on moving the ball. Even in the NFL. These guys are human. First down is a little bit of failure for a defense. The Chicago Bears this year in the NFL playoffs have become very well equipped at playing against prevent defense. They play a boring game of football early, and then they play their style late because they know they’re just going against a prevent and they will score easily. Many of us play a prevent defense against injustice. Many of us play a prevent defense against wickedness. We’ve mitigate it. We don’t confront it just in this world. How should we face injustice in our own life? Justice and injustice are deep concerns for the prophet Isaiah throughout the 66 chapters. The justice of God and the injustice of humanity and how to respond to injustice over and over again Is brought up. Justice is an important term in the Bible. In Greek, the word for justice dikai. Sunai is the same word for righteousness. So when I’m translating in in the Paul class, I flip them a lot. Whenever it most translations put justice, I put righteousness and vice versa because the connotations in English of justice and righteousness are very different. Justice is usually concerned with dealing with other people and macro aspects of the world, whereas righteousness is often spiritualized entirely. We think of justice in the global sense and righteousness in the local sense. Justice also is a much more secular term. You can think about it in a worldly way. We have a justice system. We have a department of justice. There isn’t a department of righteousness. The prophet is concerned with justice and injustice and the poor response of the people. But Isaiah lifts up this moment from the book of Judges, judges chapter seven, you the Bible, please, please turn there earlier. Judges is, is early in the Bible after the five books of Moses and Joshua comes judges and judges. Chapter seven has Gideon, the mighty man of God who is judging Israel and the Midianites are a threat. So God so takes the army and God says, no, there are too many. So 10,000 go home. And God again says there’s too many. So the rest go home until there’s only 300 to attack the mighty force, they’re outnumbered. The only way they could find victory is if God is on their side. It’s an act of faith. This is the day of Midian that Isaiah speaks of in Isaiah chapter nine. For the yoke of their burden and the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian, the rod of the oppressor has been broken. Now, On that day, Gideon and his army did not run a pre-vent defense. They acted boldly in a way that there would be a consequential result. They acted by faith. There Are oppressors today, picture in our world and in the smaller picture closer to our home. There’s injustice today. There are people who don’t deserve it, who get a lot, and there are people who deserve more and get nothing. How do we respond to injustice in this world? How do we respond to injustice in our lives? In Matthew chapter four, Jesus, it’s moving from his baptismal experience towards the Sermon on the Mount, which is going to take up a good chunk of the text. He hears that John the Baptist has been arrested and he gives word concerning this quoting. He has moved from Nazareth where he grew up to Capernaum on the north side of the sea of Galilee. Following the words, Isaiah, The people who sat in darkness have seen great light. And for those who have sat the shadow of death. Light has dawned, what is the light? Where is the light? This is, this is our point. The Christian response to injustice has to do with the light of Jesus, not to do with mitigation and pre-venge. This is how injustice continues to spread. When we don’t shine light, when we mitigate, when we say it’s not our problem, when we give away first down after first down, we turn away. We walk away like the Levi and the priest and the Parable of the Good Samaritan. We all do it, but we’re honest with ourselves. We’ve all walked away. We don’t have to run the preventive, but there is light. The light shines in the Darkness. The light shines in our lives And offers us a way to live that outshines the injustice in our hearts. You are loved by God. You are forgiven by God, confess, confess, your sins could be forgiven. The light of Christ has not that everything you do is good, but that Christ has done everything for you. So you don’t need to win the game. You don’t need to run the prevent defense with your heart. You can play free. You can live freely. Team’s play pre worried about this play, but the next play, they’re so focused on what’s gonna come after. They can’t deal with the immediate. It’s a strategy of anxiety. It is creating anxiety where the Sermon on the Mount, the next chapter in Matthew, speaks directly against anxiety. Do not worry about tomorrow. The only way you cannot worry about tomorrow is by faith. By faith that the Holy Spirit has already been present with you. It is an act of faith to say today has trouble of its own. Do not design your life around tomorrow, but to day out of the light of Jesus Christ. That’s how you break the rod of the oppressor on your heart. ‘cause the oppressors on our hearts keep us trapped and fearful lies about tomorrow, about our own inadequacy, about our lack of power, about the things we need. The things we think we need in the light of Christ is that we already have everything we need. You already have it. You have already filled your bucket list. Christ has filled your bucket list. You have done enough and all each and every small joy. We find this life is a bonus next to the greatest joy of being chosen and loved by God. So no oppressor’s rod can stand by that. That’s, that’s the internal stuff, reminded it in our response. We were reminded of the light to keep shining the light, the way we keep shining the light. We gotta keep it lit. We gotta switch up the candles, right? We gotta pour more oil. And in Jesus’s time, it was candles that were lit and oil lamps and oil lamp can run out of oil unless you refill it. We need to refill the oil. Do that Together in prayer, in devotions, In worshiping together and reading the Bible together, singing songs of praise together and in serving together. That’s it. It’s so important. Serving together, giving of ourselves together. When we are faced with the injustice of our world, the light we are given is not the light to fix every problem, but to see the world with the eyes of Jesus and to know by faith that God’s ultimate justice will be complete. So we don’t have to have control over all the different eventualities, but the freedom to start right where we are in our own lives. The people we see daily, the people in our family, in our community, the people we see on the street, these people we pass in, HUB and Costco, the people we see at restaurants, and to be liked to them and to not think of acting as a Christian, acting justly or justly as a burden, but the freedom. The freedom. The people in our lives, whomever they may be, the freedom to not pass by people in need because we are not worried about tomorrow to let that burden go. The oppressor’s continually blasts out tomorrow. Go to where about tomorrow. What’s gonna happen tomorrow? What’s gonna be the case? What’s gonna do? What are you gonna do? What are you gonna do? What are you gonna do? That is the rod that is broken by the light Christ. May we embrace God’s freedom for us? May we step into it together In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.