This week’s reading from Isaiah tells of an unexpected leader. The prophet proclaims, “A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse” (11:1). This individual—whom Christians identify with Jesus—will not be born in a palace, as one expects for the crown prince of a royal line. He will emerge from the remnant of a felled dynasty. His advent will be a miracle, the redemption of something once thought dead. Indeed, God is full of surprises.
The passage goes on to explain that this leader, descended from kings and imbued with awesome power, will be primarily concerned with the powerless. He will be filled with God’s Spirit (v 2), and his greatness lies in his commitment to equity: “with righteousness he shall judge for the poor and decide with equity for the oppressed of the earth” (v 4).
There is another individual, a key part of the Christmas story, who is also filled with the Spirit and concerned with justice for the oppressed: Mary, mother of Jesus. As she greets her cousin Elizabeth, who recognizes that the child Mary bears will be her Lord, Mary praises God, saying,
He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones
and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things
and sent the rich away empty (Luke 1:51-53).
Mary knows that Jesus’ arrival means the collapse of hierarchies, the upheaval of the known order. God’s power is mercy (vv 50, 54); his strength is tenderness (v 78). Through the reversals of fortune described by Isaiah and Mary, through the bringing of justice, the world will ultimately find peace.
Last week’s reading also described a peaceful world, and it emphasized a very important aspect of peace, perhaps the aspect we think of most: the absence of war. And indeed, we live in a world so full of military conflict that the image of laying down our weapons is indeed a radical one. But Isaiah 11 gives an even fuller picture: this is a spiritual peace as well as a physical one.
Here, Isaiah describes freedom from all harm, but there is more than that. The Spirit’s peace prioritizes the weak. This peace is not a passive acceptance of evil or inequity; it is built upon justice. This peace is freedom from hunger, freedom from oppression, freedom from fear. The image of little children reaching into snakes’ dens unharmed (v 8) and leading a parade of wolf, lamb, calf, and lion (v 6) demonstrates this well.
I have never experienced parenthood, but even when babysitting as a teenager, I felt a sense of (sometimes irrational) terror that harm would come to the children in my care. Danger seemed to lurk everywhere—if I took my eye off the little tykes for a moment, they could fall off the monkey bars, run out into the street, or be whisked away by a stranger. I suppose if I had been a babysitter in an ancient desert land, I would have been quite concerned that my young charges would try to make friends with wolves and adders.
But in a redeemed world, there is no fear: not for children, not for the poor, not even for little lambs. Those who were once vulnerable are safe, and those who were once predatory are benevolent. Isaiah tells us to look for the day when the wolf need not hunt to survive, and the shepherd need not kill the wolf to protect the sheep. They live together. This is not just the absence of war, but a total transformation brought by the Spirit of Peace.
In the present day—a day still haunted by war, injustice, and sundry forms of harm—we may find comfort in this promise for the future. We may seek peace here and now, in matters large and small, with God’s help. We may look for the Spirit, who imbues us with wisdom, calls for justice, and brings forth life from that which is left for dead.
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