Father Richard points to Jesus’ first sermon, when he quotes the prophet Isaiah to emphasize a message of inclusion:
Isaiah is the Hebrew prophet Jesus quotes directly when he first introduces himself in the synagogue in Nazareth:
The Spirit of God has been given to me,
YHWH has anointed me.
He has sent me to bring good news to the poor,
To bind up hearts that are broken,
To proclaim liberty to captives,
Freedom to those in prison,
To proclaim the Year of Favor from the Lord.
(Luke 4:18–19, quoting Isaiah 61:1– 2)
Jesus, like the prophet he quotes, reveals not only his self-confidence but also his likely and intended audience. His message of good news is not likely to be sought after or heard by the comfortable and the secure, he seems to say, but by the poor, the captives, the blind, and the oppressed—which fully explains Jesus’ behavior throughout the rest of his ministry.
Notice that Jesus deliberately does not quote the final line of the full, yet contradictory, Isaiah passage: “to proclaim a day of vengeance from our God.” It’s almost as though Jesus is tired of making God into one who limits and threatens, instead of the limitless one whom the passage has just talked about, and so different from the glorious vision of the New Jerusalem Isaiah has just described in the whole of chapter 60. Jesus refuses to let Isaiah end with caution and fear. Fortunately, we see that Isaiah does not stay there, either. Later in the book, he exclaims:
I am ready to be approached by those who do not consult me,
Ready to be found by those who do not seek me.
I say, “I am here. I am here!” to a nation that does not
even invoke my name. (Isaiah 65:1)
This sounds like so much availability and generosity from God’s side, perhaps too much for us to hope for. And yet this is where Isaiah lands for the rest of the prophecy, until the very final verse (66:24) where he makes a seeming allusion to the fires of Gehenna. But in Jewish teaching, the metaphor of fire doesn’t focus on eternal punishment. In the whole Bible, fire is almost entirely a “refiner’s fire” of purification in this world, not a fire of torture in the next.
The final chapters of Isaiah entertain themes of universal liberation and salvation for all, beginning with eunuchs and foreigners (56:1–7), along with agnostics and the barely interested (65:1–7), continuing with hints of universal salvation (through much of chapter 65), and moving into a total cosmology with a “new heavens and a new earth” (65:17; also 66:22). These images will return again at the end of the New Testament (Revelation 21:1). Thank God the Bible ends with an optimistic hope and vision, instead of an eternal threat that puts the whole message off balance and outside of love.
Reference:
Adapted from Richard Rohr, The Tears of Things: Prophetic Wisdom for an Age of Outrage (Convergent, 2025), 123–126.
Image credit and inspiration: Geentanjal Khanna, Untitled (detail), 2016, photo, Unsplash. Click here to enlarge image. Unearned and unmerited generosity is an element or extension of the divine, revealing itself in our lived experience—spontaneous, unplanned, sometimes messy, as small as a drop of water—requiring open hands to receive it.
Story from Our Community:
My mother just passed away at 100 years old after losing her home in the Palisades fire in Los Angeles. The process of working with family members and filing insurance claims has challenged me, especially since I was struggling with the loss of my own home. I have relied heavily on the AA mantra, accepting what we cannot change, the courage to change what we can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Repeating this wisdom to myself has restored my sanity during this chaotic time. In her final year of life, my mother lost all her possessions but gained eternal peace.
—Mimi J.
