Spiritual Hiccups - Advent Politics

For a child has been born for us, 
  a son given to us; 
authority rests upon his shoulders; 
  and he is named 
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,  
  Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

I don't know about you, but when I hear these verses from Isaiah, I think of Advent and of Christmas.  What else would I think about?  But there is near universal agreement among Old Testament scholars that Isaiah is not speaking of some far-off, future Messiah.  More than likely, these verses speak of King Hezekiah, a new king whose reign the prophet expects to bring good days for Israel, a hope Hezekiah largely fulfills.

After Hezekiah's time, people in Israel begin to hear these words as still having weight, still containing a promised ideal ruler who would come some day.  This promise was active in the time Jesus appeared, and so naturally his followers understood him to be its fulfillment.

As a Christian, I share this belief of Jesus as prophecy fulfilled, but I also think it a good idea to recall the original, very political sense of the prophecy.  The prophet spoke of God's Anointed One taking the throne and bringing righteousness and justice to the land.  This new king would end oppression from foreign empires, and would bring a time of peace and flowering in Israel.

It seems to me that if some in Jesus' day were disappointed when he did not take up arms and defeat the Romans, many in our day seem to have lost any sense of Jesus as a political Messiah.  Jesus does not conquer with traditional weapons, but he speaks of God's will being done on earth,  he says the kingdom of God has come near, and he speaks of a great reordering in the society with the poor and outcast being lifted up while the rich and powerful are pulled down.

And so if people 2000 years ago sometimes wanted to overly politicize Jesus, we often want to overly spiritualize him.  We want to "believe in" Jesus without necessarily embracing the Kingdom, the rule of God that he says he brings.  We imagine a Jesus who is no threat to our political system or our way of life, as though we were living in the Kingdom.

Perhaps one of the reasons we want Advent and Christmas to be about baby Jesus in the manger is that a baby Jesus is no threat.  A babe in a manger cannot shout, "Blessed are you who are poor... But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation."

Jesus did not get arrested and put to death simply because he offered up a different take on private, personal religion.  He got himself killed because people in power, both religious and political power, viewed him as a threat.  And in a season when we so often say, "Come, Lord Jesus," I can't help but wonder who Jesus would threaten if he walked our streets again. 

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