Robert Barron - See Things Differently
Peace be with you. Friends, people of faith just see things differently. People of faith see things differently. I don't mean that they're living in an illusory world. They see the world that's in front of them. They see what the secularist, the non-believer sees. So a person of faith, of course, reads history and watches the news and opens his eyes and sees what's going on in the world. But the person of faith sees more than that because the person of faith is seeing God's purpose, what God is ultimately up to, and that gives the person of faith this ample vision.
And in light of what I said last Sunday, a kind of peculiar take on the world. It's why spiritual people can often seem a little crazy. Well, all three of our readings I think are touching on this theme today. I want to start with this passage from the book of the Prophet Ezekiel. I think I've told you this before, but he's just one of my favorites. And the ancient Israelites felt you shouldn't even begin to interpret Ezekiel till you were 50 because he was so richly complex and since I'm past 50, I feel I can try to interpret him.
Listen to this now, "Thus says the Lord, I too will take from the crest of the cedar, from its topmost branches, tear off a tender shoot and plant it on a high and lofty mountain. On the mountain heights of Israel, I will plant it. It shall put forth branches and bear fruit and become a majestic cedar and birds of every kind will dwell beneath it". Okay, to unpack this now we have to go back to Ezekiel's place and time. Ezekiel was a temple priest in the very early sixth century BC. In the year 597, the Babylonians come to Jerusalem. It's the first wave of the Babylonian captivity, and they attack the city and they take away some of the leadership, including Ezekiel. And then it was 10 years later, 587 BC that they definitively, they put Jerusalem to the torch, destroy the temple, carry the rest of the leaders off into exile.
It's the greatest disaster recorded in the Bible. It's, in some ways, the central event for biblical Jews was this awful destruction of their great city, the city of David, Mount Zion, and the temple where the God of Israel dwelt. I mean, it was a disaster beyond imagining. Ezekiel finds himself, first of all, in exile in a foreign country, a foreign land, doesn't speak the language. He's at a low rung on the social ladder. He's lost all of his status and position. Looking around the world of that time, looking at the situation, you would've said utter disaster. Hopeless. We're a defeated nation. There's nothing for us now. And it's precisely then that he says this. "No, no, the Lord's going to take this shoot from the top of the tree. He's going to plant it on the heights of Israel, and a great tree will grow and all the birds of the air will nest in it".
He's using a very familiar symbol in the ancient world for empire. When the Israelites had nothing, nothing. They're in exile. Hopeless. He imagines that the great kingdom of David once reigned supreme, that a little bit of that tree will be taken and replanted and become even greater, even greater, and all the birds coming to nest, that was a great symbol in the ancient world for all the kingdoms and peoples under a great empire. Well, anybody, and they did... We know this. They did hear this from Ezekiel and say, "Are you out of your mind? Are you crazy? Are you watching what's going on? Do you have any sense of history and what's right in front of you? This is hopeless and you're dreaming of some empire".
People of faith see things differently, not just what's right in front of them, not just what's obvious to any even canny observer. They see according to God's plans and God's purposes. How in the world would the kingdom of David be revived? How would it ever be the case that all the birds of the air, all the peoples of the world will gather in its branches? Ezekiel saw it. Ezekiel saw it. Now, flash forward about 600 years, there's this itinerant Jewish preacher. His name used to be Sha'ul. It's now Paul. He calls himself the apostle, from apostellein, meaning to send. He's been sent on a mission and he's proclaiming this euangelion, this good news, glad tidings to everyone that will listen to him.
Now, in this letter, it's our second reading, Paul's Second to the Corinthians. Here's what he says. "For we believers walk by faith and not by sight. We believers walk by faith and not by sight". He's standing, everybody, in the great tradition of Ezekiel, the prophet. Ezekiel saw what was going on around him. Paul saw clearly what was going on around him in this as he's making his way around the Roman Empire. But yet he saw something by means of faith. What was it? Well, it's faith, of course, in Yeshua Mashiach, he would've called him a Hebrew. Iēsoûs Khristos in his Greek, Jesus Christ. What did he see? This son of David gathered the tribes in his earthly ministry, gathered in the saints and sinners.
Gathered in his 12 apostles, symbolic of the united 12 tribes. He saw that this Yeshua dealt with the enemies of Israel, not by using the arms of the world, swords and spears and so on, but rather by taking upon himself on the cross, all the sins of the world, cruelty and hatred and violence and all the rest of it, and uttering a word of forgiveness. Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. Swallowing up the world's misery and sin and hatred in the ever greater divine mercy. And then on the road to Damascus, even as he was going to persecute the followers of Jesus, he meets the risen Christ himself. "Saul, why are you persecuting me? Who are you, sir? I am Jesus whom you are persecuting".
Rabbi Saul saw the risen Christ and realized in that moment that he was the one in whom God had dealt with all the sin of the world. He realized in that encounter that Yeshua, Jesus, is the true Lord, the true Messiah of Israel. Yes, indeed. The son of David. And he saw finally that this Lord Jesus, the term that Paul used all the time, Jesus Kurios, Jesus Lord was establishing... Listen now, a new kingdom. Indeed, an empire meant to spread all over the world. What was Paul doing? The Apostle Paul, gathering all the birds of the air into the branches of this great tree. Ezekiel's prophecy had come true. That's what he saw. Young Saul went from his hometown of Tarsus to Jerusalem to study at the feet of Gamaliel, one of the leading rabbis at the time.
Under Gamaliel's tutelage, he would've learned everything there to learn about Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Ezekiel. He would've known this strange, anomalous prophecy. Ezekiel seeming to dream a crazy dream that someday exiled and oppressed Israel would become a great empire. Saul would've read that, and in the risen Jesus, what did he see? By God, it's coming true. By God against all expectations, it's coming true. And I, Paul am the Apostle, apostellein. I've been sent to gather in all the birds of the air. He walks by faith, not by mere sight.
Now, just a last stop with that background in mind, from both Ezekiel and Paul, here's Jesus now speaking in parables. "To what shall we compare the kingdom of God? What parable can we use for it? Well, it's like a mustard seed that when it's sown in the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds of the earth, but once it's sown, it's springs up and becomes," listen now, "the largest of plants and puts forth large branches so that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade".
Yes, indeed. What's being said here is that these great things come from very small beginnings, but you see now Jesus himself is saying, in the kingdom of God, Ezekiel's prophecy has come true. Yeah, I know Israelites in exile, I know it looks hopeless for us. I know, I know. But the Lord has said to me, he's going to take this little shoot from where? From the kingdom of David. Who's Jesus, but the son of David. He's going to take that shoot. He's going to plant it on the heights of Israel.
What are the heights of Israel? When the son of man is lifted up on Mount Zion, lifted up on the cross, he will draw all people to himself, plant it on the heights of Israel. It'll become this great tree, and all the birds of the sky will dwell in its branches. Right. Right. The Lord himself saying to what shall we compare the kingdom of God? Well, we all have to walk, not just by sight.
See, if you go just by sight, like what's immediately apparent to you or even what's apparent to smart canny observers of things, you're going to see in the most superficial way the play of political figures, economic developments, and sociological happenstances, and you're going to see all of that. Okay, fair enough. But we don't just walk by that. We walk by faith, and so we see in the world around us the unfolding of this great kingdom.
We see the growth of this mighty tree, and we see the ingathering of all of the birds of the air in its branches. We see the church. We see the church, and we see that our task is the same as Paul's, to announce there's a new Lord and to invite everyone we can under his Lordship. That's what life begins to look like, everybody, when we walk, not just by sight, but by faith, and God bless you.