I never liked him all that much anyway, but today we have John the Baptist as the central character in our gospel reading for the second week in a row! I know his message is important, but given the chance I turned my focus this week toward our first reading from the Prophet Isaiah because he seems to be more optimistic, even at a time when things were going badly.
Isaiah is believed to have lived about 700 years before Jesus was born. As a pious and principled man, he was disturbed by the inequalities in society and the evils perpetrated by humankind. He sympathized with the poor and the downtrodden. He served as the mouthpiece of God to the common people and tried to warn them of dire consequences if they indulged in sinful activities.
Isaiah was best known as the Hebrew prophet who predicted the coming of Jesus Christ to salvage mankind from sin. In spite of the evils that were rampant during his time, Isaiah inspired people to look to the future with optimism. In spite of the evils that were rampant during his time, he could say to the people:
Strengthen the hands that are feeble, make firm the knees that are weak,
say to those whose hearts are frightened: Be strong, fear not! Here is your God,
he comes to save you!
Isaiah 35:1-6a,10
The phrase “fear not” appears more than one hundred times in the Bible, and various forms of the word “fear” more than six hundred times. Surely, there is a reason for this high number.
When asked about the number one issue in her 100,000 letters a year, Ann Landers replied “fear.” Doctors report that 90 percent of their chronic patients have one common symptom — fear. In other words, it seems that fear can actually make you sick!
We are all ruled, to some degree, by fear: fear of poverty, fear of criticism, fear of illness, fear of being robbed, far of being attacked, fear of rejection, fear of growing old, fear of being separated from loved ones, fear of death, fear of failure, fear of losing one’s job, fear of death and fear of feeling inadequate which is one of the most common fears of all! In general, people seem to be most afraid of two things — pain or death and social rejection or isolation.
No wonder the Scriptures tell us “not to be afraid” so often! It has been reported that 90 percent of the things we fear never happen, while another nine percent we often make happen. For instance, a person who has a deep fear of failure may get himself so anxious about failing, he will cause himself to fail. Even when it comes to the stock market, people have told us that “fear” rather than “facts” has played a major role in pushing the stock market down. That leaves about one percent of the things that happen that actually deserve our fear! Jesus was right, “Fear is useless. What is needed is trust.”
After 52 years of ordained ministry, I can say one thing with some degree of certainty — we all grow to resemble the God we believe in. Preachers who are not convinced of the “good news,” the news that we are loved without condition, tend to project their fears into their preaching. Because they have not yet believed in the love God has for themselves, they keep cranking out messages of fear and punishment.
I grew up listening to these people, and it took me more than 30 years to get their twisted message out of my psyche. Thankfully, I am no longer locked into a religion dominated by fear of punishment.
The response of one who has discovered the good news of God’s love is the reaction one would have to stumbling onto a buried treasure, a perfect pearl or even a long-lost Rembrandt painting at a garage sale. People who live in fear, dread and trembling have not yet been perfected in love because love drives out fear.
Sadly, the typical Christian’s eyes are equally downcast and his heart is just as gloomy, fear-filled and anxious as our non-Christian neighbors. Only a lucky few live with the serene confidence that the triumph of goodness is as certain as the fermentation yeast in dough.
When I was a kid, we called each other "scardy cats" when we gave into our irrational fears. We need not be afraid. The oldest and strongest emotion of humankind is fear and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is the fear of the unknown. We need not be afraid because we know how this story ends. Good will triumph over evil. It's not up for grabs. It has already been decided. It was Jesus who said so! In spite of the evils that are rampant during our time, all of us should be able to say to each other what Isaiah said to his people during his time when evils were rampant:
Strengthen the hands that are feeble, make firm the knees that are weak,
say to those whose hearts are frightened: Be strong, fear not! Here is your God,
he comes to save you!
The monster is not under the bed! Fear is in our heads when there is no faith in our hearts! Let your life reflect the faith you have in God! Fear nothing! Be strong! Trust God's word! Even death is not to be feared by one who really believes in what Jesus came to tell us!
Isaiah was an 8th-century BC Israelite prophet who predicted the coming of Jesus Christ. He TT
he phrase “fear not” appears more than one hundred times in the Bible, and various forms of the word “fear” mo
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