Foreshadowing

The scriptures referred to are Isaiah 9:2-7.

Recently I have seen 3 stories with intricate plots. One was the HBO series Game of Thrones, based on an unfinished series of massive books teaming with characters and subplots. Another was the HBO series Watchmen, a continuation to the mind-blowing graphic novel about costumed heroes. The third was Knives Out, a movie that both embraces and subverts the Agatha Christie type of murder mystery.

A lot of people who were big fans of Game of Thrones at first became increasingly upset with how the TV series developed after going beyond the source novels. A lot of interesting subplots were dropped or hastily resolved. And many felt disappointed with the finale which, among other things, did not seem to fulfill one character's prophesied fate.

On the other hand, Watchmen not only felt like the spiritual successor to the original story, everything it set up paid off. When rewatching the series with my wife I picked up on how many things that eventually took place were in fact foreshadowed by earlier events and conversations. When the biggest plot twist was revealed it was no deus ex machina. It was hiding in plain sight.

Similarly Knives Out played fair, giving us all the clues as it went along. If you paid close attention and interpreted things properly you had a chance of solving the mystery, even though the plot made some impressive twists. And if you didn't see it coming, when everything was explained, you were satisfied when the truth came out.

Why am I talking about these things on Christmas? Because the event we are celebrating tonight is the first big plot twist in the story of God's plan to save us. It took a lot of people by surprise, and many didn't believe it. But if you pay attention to the clues and the foreshadowing it all makes sense.

Each of the stories I mentioned began with a problem. Each really started with a death that affected the lives of others. That kicked off the main problems to be resolved: finding a just king, establishing a just society, deciding who got a fabulous inheritance. Along the way there was treachery, bravery, love and self-sacrifice. And we find all of those in the story of God's mission to save us.

The problem God has to solve develops in the first 3 chapters of the the first book of the Bible. In chapter one God creates everything and pronounces it good. And he creates human beings in his image. Chapter two flashes back to the creation of humanity and gives us more detail. It shows us paradise and the first two human lovers. Chapter three shows how the humans use the good gifts God gave them, intelligence and free will, to make bad decisions and then to cover that up. Death is introduced into the world, and distrust, between man and God and between the humans. The former paradise becomes corrupt and violent and so God reboots it. He makes a covenant with Noah and tells him humanity's part of the agreement is never to murder. Because human beings are made in God's image. They have inherent worth.

But humanity continues to misuse and abuse and at times neglect God's good gifts and each other. So God chooses a man, Abraham, who trusts him enough to leave his home and civilization for a distant land God promises will be his. And God works through Abraham and his descendants to shape a people who get God's message about who he is and what we should be. God chooses Abraham's second grandson, Jacob, and his twelve sons. When their descendants become slaves in Egypt, God liberates them. He makes a covenant with them. If they love and obey him and love their fellow human beings, including those who are in need, they will be a great nation and God will be their king. An anointed priesthood is to keep the people true to this covenant.

Eventually the people demand a regular human king like the other nations. Warning them first about the dangers of giving someone such power, God grants their request. Samuel anoints David, who becomes the archetypal king of Israel. But his flaws and those of his son Solomon lead to a later splitting of the kingdom into two. God anoints prophets to reiterate his message of loving him and loving each other. He promises dire consequences if the kingdoms don't do this and restoration and forgiveness if they do. And he promises to send a Messiah, a king he himself will anoint who will rule with justice and mercy. The people don't listen. Their kingdoms descend into idolatry, greed, injustice and debauchery. And eventually each kingdom suffers defeat and exile.

Once again God brings his people back to the promised land. But they are no longer free. They are subjugated by first one and then another of the empires around them. Now they heed the words of the prophets and they earnestly desire the promised Messiah, God's Anointed One. And the rabbis study the passages about him in the Hebrew Bible. They see that it all started way back in Genesis chapter 3, where God tells the tempter about one of the offspring of Eve: “he will crush your head and you will strike his heel.” (Genesis 3:15) So, a wounded savior. Later in Genesis, before there was a kingdom of Israel, Jacob prophesies “The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs; the nations will obey him.” (Genesis 49:10) And Micah predicts the Messiah will be born in Bethlehem, David's city. (Micah 5:2)

Our passage from Isaiah tells us the Messiah will sit on David's throne. But it says a lot more. It gives us important clues to his identity in the names he is called.

The first is Wonderful Counselor. This is a good thing for any king or ruler to be, someone who is extraordinarily wise. At the time of Jesus such rulers were absent. Herod the Great was a paranoid and violent king, who killed his sons and wives to keep his throne. Augustus was a politically astute emperor but it was fatal to be on the wrong side of his ambition. The adopted son of Julius Caesar, Augustus killed the natural son Caesar had by Cleopatra. Augustus did bring stability to the empire but as Roman historian Tacitus wrote, “There had certainly been peace, but it was a blood-stained peace of disasters and assassinations.” Later, during Jesus' ministry, the governor of Judea was Pontius Pilate, a brutal ham-fisted soldier who was eventually removed for slaughtering the people he was governing. The ruler of Galilee was Herod Antipas, one of Herod's surviving sons, who had John the Baptist beheaded for criticizing his incestuous marriage to his brother's ex. The emperor Tiberius started out well but, as Tacitus wrote, “...he was infamous for his cruelty, though he veiled his debaucheries...Finally, he plunged into every wickedness and disgrace, when fear and shame being cast off, he simply indulged his own inclinations.” In a world ruled by such evil hot-heads, small wonder people yearned for a wise and cool-headed king.

The next 2 titles Isaiah attributes to the Messiah are startling: Mighty God and Everlasting Father. This goes beyond hyperbole. Why would a merely human Messiah be called Mighty God and Everlasting Father if he were not also divine? The traditional Jewish take on these titles is that they are merely throne names and do not describe the person holding them. And yet Daniel says of the Messiah, “In my vision at night I looked, and there was before me one like a son of man, coming on the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.” (Daniel 7:13-14) God gives him glory and sovereign power and an eternal kingdom? Sounds pretty god-like. By the way, “Son of Man” was the designation Jesus used most frequently for himself. So we could dismiss these titles, Mighty God and Everlasting Father, as mere words or we could see them as vital clues.

Finally Isaiah prophesies that the Messiah will be the Prince of Peace. All rulers promise peace but it usually comes at the price of spilled blood, that of their soldiers and of the people they conquer. And in Hebrew, the word for peace, shalom, means not merely the absence of conflict but complete well-being. By that definition, it isn't much of a peace if it is won and maintained by shedding the blood of others, in violation of the oldest covenant. But what if the peace were established by the king sparing others and letting his own blood be shed? Such self-sacrifice would usher in a kingdom where people become citizens not by being forcibly conquered but by voluntarily joining out of gratitude and love for such a gracious and giving king.

There are many other prophesies throughout the Hebrew Bible referring to other characteristics of the Messiah. In the 53^rd chapter of Isaiah, there is a long passage about God's suffering servant that says, in part, “But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that bought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:5) At the time this passage was confusing. But after Jesus rose from the tomb, it all made sense, like a flashback that reveals the true plot of the story.

Spoiler Alert: In Watchmen, the HBO series, it is revealed that a god-like being was living among the people in the story all along. It was a major surprise but the clues were there from the beginning. Most of us did not pick up on them. And the secret identity of the god-like being was not at all obvious. Just as you would not expect the Mighty God to manifest himself as the baby of a poor Jewish handyman, to be found lying in an animal's feeding trough. Nor is the path of his life what you would expect. He does not become rich and powerful. He is not acknowledged as a king, except mockingly by his enemies. He never raises a sword; in fact, he tells his followers to put theirs down. He doesn't die bravely in battle but hanging helplessly on a cross, the most painful and shameful death a brutal empire could devise for those they considered traitors. This shocks and dismays his followers, who did not properly interpret the clues.

At the end of Knives Out, the detective explains the evidence and tells us what really happened. In real life, it is Jesus who does this for his amazed disciples. In Luke's account of the two who, heading to Emmaus, encounter unknowingly the risen Jesus, it says, “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.” (Luke 24:27) This would be like the murder victim explaining why and how he died. But death cannot hold the Lord of Life. The God Incarnate, who raised again to life the synagogue leader's daughter, and the son of the widow of Nain, and his friend Lazarus, cannot be expected to stay dead himself.

It's a good story but if it ends there, how is it relevant to us? In Watchmen, it turns out the powers of the god-like being can be passed on. And the series leaves us guessing if they have been. In contrast, in the beginning of the book of Acts, God's Holy Spirit, who empowered Jesus, is poured out upon his followers. And they go into all the world preaching the good news of the love and forgiveness and healing found in Jesus the Christ or Messiah. Having witnessed the resurrected Jesus, his followers no longer fear death. They proclaim life everlasting.

But then the story takes a break after the first century of the movement. And it flashes forward to the distant future. After witnessing the death throes of the old creation, we see a resurrected paradise for God's resurrected people. John writes, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne say, 'Now the dwelling of God is with humans, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.' He who was seated on the throne said, 'I am making everything new!'” (Revelation 21:1-4) Everything will be wrapped up. Justice will be done. The king will be on his throne. The people will be renewed and live happily ever after with Jesus living among them once more.

But what happens in the gap between the past and the future? What happens now, in the time when we are living? That's what's exciting. The Author has left this bit of his plan for us to work out. Like a movie, we all have our parts. We have all the clues. We know the ending. We have the stage directions to love God and love others, including our enemies and the outcasts of society. Jesus has given us his Spirit, who distributes to each of us the gifts we need to do the job. We are even given freedom to improvise, provided we do not stray from the theme of the story.

And the theme of this story we find ourselves in is love. God is love. He made us in the image of his love. God made us to enjoy and live eternally in the love of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Yet we decided we could run this world better than the Creator, and we made an unholy mess of it. We have achieved some truly great things and we have perpetrated some horrific atrocities in the process. And we have sewn the seeds of our own destruction. The empires of Alexander, Rome, Egypt and Babylon are now dust and ruins. Only God's kingdom, which starts in our hearts, will endure.

And the God who is love has told us that again and again. He has woven the theme throughout all history. It will turn out as he planned: a world without the pain and suffering and injustice and death we bring upon ourselves. How will he do it?

Never underestimate a God who decides to make the pivotal part of his plan entering into his creation as a baby. A God who lays aside his invulnerability to become vulnerable. A God who builds a kingdom, not on the blood of others, but on his own. A God who goes through hell so we won't have to and who rises to life again so we too will rise to eternal life.

To the worldly wise, God becoming a human would seem a ridiculous risk. To those in power, it looks like weakness. Turning over this project to humans also looks like a risk. But 2000 years ago, God risked it all for us. Surely we can do the same for him.