Jesus Edits Isaiah
Vengeance Doesn't Make the 2nd Draft
Towards the end of the ancient book of Isaiah, the prophet speaks words of hope to the people of Israel. Having recently returned from a long exile, they’re expecting complete restoration, back to their former glory. Unfortunately, reality is not meeting their expectations. In the midst of this disappointment, Isaiah brings some very good news to them, saying:
The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners,
2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor
and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,
3 and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
instead of ashes,
the oil of joy
instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
a planting of the Lord
for the display of his splendor.
Isaiah 61:1-3 (New International Version)
About five-hundred years later (the same amount of time from the Italian Renaissance to today), on a Saturday, Jesus heads up to his hometown and walks into the local church. When he stands up in the congregation to read, he’s handed the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Jesus selects the portion he wants to focus on and then reads aloud the words Isaiah spoke a half-a-millennium earlier, saying:
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Luke 4:18-19 (New International Version)
With the eyes of everyone in the church on him, Jesus rolls up the scroll, gives it back to the scroll-keeper, and sits down. Then he says, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
Both of these passages (Isaiah 61 and Luke 4), are very familiar to most people who have studied the Bible. They are very familiar to me. To my surprise, it wasn’t until recently that I noticed something that I had never noticed before: Jesus edits Isaiah.
Years ago, I wrote a congregational worship song inspired directly by the Isaiah passage. Without realizing it at the time, I also edited Isaiah. The song only made it to the demo stage, but I’m going to share it anyway. See if you can detect the edit I’m talking about…
To Display His Splendor
from Isaiah 61
Use this player to listen or stream on BandCamp.
Verse
The Spirit is upon this Man
He’s been anointed by the LORD
To share good news with poorest souls
And care for broken-hearted ones
Pre-chorus
And to declare freedom for the slaves
And release for those imprisoned in the dark
To comfort those who mourn for painful loss
And to provide for those who grieve...
Chorus
To be crowned with crowns of beauty
And to be done with crowns of ash
To enjoy the oil of joy
Instead of mourning for the past
To be clothed with clothes of praises
And to be done with all despair
To be called “The Mighty Trees of God”
The LORD has planted here,
To display His splendor
To display His splendor
“To Display His Splendor,” words & music by Eric Herron ©2010 Eric Herron Publishing. All instruments & vocals by Eric Herron.
Did you catch the edit? I won’t prolong the suspense. I left out one particular line from the original Isaiah text. It’s actually the second half of Isaiah 61, verse 2:
2 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor
and the day of vengeance of our God,
Of course, my version is a song, and songs usually requires some poetic license to allow for rhyming, rhythm, and structure. You might chalk my edit up to that. Plus, “vengeance” is not a pretty word to sing. I’m sure I was also focused more on the New Testament version.
I don’t really recall my specific reasoning for the edit, but it’s pretty clear I left the “vengeance” out intentionally. Interestingly, Jesus left out that exact same line, and his intention is even more unmistakable. Here are a few observations:
The Gospel of Luke says, “unrolling [the scroll], he found the place where it is written…”, indicating that Jesus knew exactly what he wanted to read that day.
Jesus’ stopping point is unconventional, to say the least, since it interrupts the antithetical parallelism (i.e. proclaim favor vs. proclaim vengeance) characteristic of this prophetic poem and prophetic poetry, in general. It’s like he yanked the needle from the spinning record.
By concluding his reading with “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing,” Jesus reveals an even deeper level of specificity and intentionality.
If we agree that Jesus edited Isaiah, then what are we to make of this? For starters, we can say that Jesus is not interested in vengeance. Instead, his interest lies in God’s favor. And what’s favor, anyway? Favor suggests: approval, commendation, and kindness—among other good things.
To Isaiah’s credit, I can understand why he proclaimed both favor and vengeance in the same breath. The cruel and lengthy captivity of Israel naturally gave birth to feelings of revenge toward their captors. I imagine that after the ordeal of exile, not only did the people of Israel expect their restoration to include God’s favor in the form of blessings, but they would also expect that their restoration would include justice, in the form of retribution for the evils done to them. To that second part, Jesus simply says, “No.”
Meanwhile, Jesus emphatically says “YES,” to such favorable features as:
help for the poor
freedom for those who were imprisoned
healing, such as recovery of sight for the blind
the lifting of oppression
comfort for those who mourn their dead
joy instead of grief
praise instead of despair
By omission, Jesus is saying something shocking and totally new. The hearers in that synagogue would’ve known exactly what comes next on the Isaiah scroll. They would’ve been expecting the “day of vengeance” line to follow the “year of the LORD’s favor” line. When Jesus stops short, he sends a strong message that God has very different designs for humanity, moving forward.
We should note for any vengeful skeptics out there that Jesus’ favoring of favor over vengeance in Luke is not an anomaly. Jesus was constantly, and in various ways, proclaiming the end of vengeance. He couldn’t have stated it more clearly than when he said, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” (Matthew 5:44). He even acted it out when one of his followers cut off the ear of the servant of the high priest who had come to have Jesus arrested. Rebuking this vengeful act, Jesus says, “No more of this!” and heals his adversary’s ear, right on the spot.
My conclusion is that the one who strives to follow in the footsteps of Christ must allow no room for vengeance in their life. Every word and action—if it is to represent Jesus—must be marked entirely with God’s favor.
And the first people in line for God’s favor should be those who have been “exiled”—the poor, the enslaved, the imprisoned, impaired, the oppressed, the grieving… There are many of these exiles among us, even today. Do you know any?
But God’s favor goes far beyond the obvious exiles. It extends to the rest of us who haven’t yet recognized our separation, or given a name to our oppression.
Let’s give thanks for editor Jesus and his willingness to strike through the words of the prophet—even to amend the words of God himself.
Love it Eric. But these days people who do what you demonstrate Jesus did are accused of “proof texting.” Are we allowed to do what he did, to find the parts of a passage that make the point that we intend to make and disregard the rest? Is his practice a pattern to imitate or simply something for us appreciate, in light of his unique identity?