Kyle Dresback

Friends,

The musical tradition of picking up a beloved song or theme and reinterpreting it for a new generation has analogs in the biblical literature. 

Like composers and songwriters might reimagine their favorite melodies from Paganini to Bob Dylan, the gospel writers too have their favorite thematic strands. They especially love the prophet Isaiah.

One of those Isaianic strands (from Isaiah 61) is the promise that God will bring the day of his favor, a time of freedom, a jubilee for his people. The promise is good news to the poor and brokenhearted and also judgment for God’s enemies.

It turns out there are different ways to sing this song. 

John the Baptist picked up this melody in his own punk rock style. Anti-establishment and in-your-face, the Baptist wailed on his guitar and shouted angrily into his microphone on the banks of the Jordan. Naturally, those in power took notice and John ended up in prison, where today’s gospel reading picks up. 

John has a question for Jesus. It’s as if he’s wondering whether they’re singing the same song:

 Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?

Jesus goes straight to Isaiah but responds to John’s questions with his own variation on the theme:

The blind receive sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.

Jesus’s hearers will recognize Isaiah’s tune and flock to hear it. The politically motivated will hear chords and lyrics that don’t fit their expectations. “The old music was better,” they lament, seeking only vengeance from a God of imperial politics. 

But Jesus keeps innovating, even composing new verses to Isaiah’s old tune:

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted… 

These innovations insulted certain insiders, mangling their beloved music that had lulled them into their insider status by simple virtue of ethnic standing. 

But for others, Jesus’s tune resonated in a fresh way. The crowds were told of a God who brings outsiders in and in whose kingdom the lowly are lifted up; a God who becomes human in order to rescue humanity. 

In its many variations, this song is our Christmas song. Gloria in excelsis deo.

In Christ,

—Kyle