The Greatest Ever!

Second Week of Advent – Wednesday

Isaiah 40:25-31 / Psalm 103:1-2, 3-4, 8 and 10 / Matthew 11:28-30

The Greatest Ever!

As the New England Patriots chased perfection in the 2007 season sports reporters and commentators asked the question, “Is this the greatest football team ever?” Comparisons were made to other undefeated teams and teams that had produced dynastic runs. Schedules were compared for levels of difficult opponents leveled against each benchmark team. Most concluded that such comparisons were difficult to make because of the changes in the game over the years. And no general consensus seemed to be reached, at least not until the Pats were upset in the Super Bowl. But isn’t that the beauty of talking sports? We compare what is very hard to compare where as much if not more is dissimilar.

Today in the Isaiah reading God asks “To whom can you liken me as an equal?” Maybe that’s where we fall short as we try to understand God. We compare God to what we know. God is Father. For some that would mean controlling, for others permissive; for some absentee, for others attentive. Compare God to a mother and you’d likely get similar, mixed results. 

But Isaiah’s prophesying is not mere philosophical consideration. He is speaking of an existential crisis. He is speaking to Israel in captivity, to Israel in Babylon. The people had begun to think “God has forgotten about us.” God replies: “Why… do you say… My way is hidden from the Lord, my right is disregarded by my God”? In self defense God asserts, “They that hope in the Lord will renew their strength… run and not grow weary.”

This is a God with whom all things are possible. But this is also a God whose ways are inscrutable. Job leaned that the hard way, and perhaps that is the only way we’re capable of learning that lesson.

Isaiah’s prophecy is bold from start to finish: 

            To whom can you liken me?

            Do you not know

                        have you not heard?

He has not lost track of us. He knows not only our troubles and trials, but also our names. Not only are we not forgotten, we are known by name! Intimately! Is God not the greatest ever? 

·        What is the burden you are carrying today? How can Jesus make it lighter? With what burden would you like to be able to run and not grow weary? If you were convinced God was with you in carrying this burden, what difference would it make today?