Thursday after the Second Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on June 13, 2024 by under
Scripture: Isaiah 42:5-8 (NKJV)
42:5 Thus says God the Lord, Who created the heavens and stretched them out, Who spread forth the earth and that which comes from it, Who gives breath to the people on it, and spirit to those who walk on it:
6 “I, the Lord, have called You in righteousness, and will hold Your hand; I will keep You and give You as a covenant to the people, as a light to the Gentiles,
7 “to open blind eyes, to bring out prisoners from the prison, those who sit in darkness from the prison house.
8 “I am the Lord, that is My name; And My glory I will not give to another, nor My praise to carved images.”
Devotion
Faithful use of statuary and paintings must direct our thoughts to the true God, never taking His glory and praise. When the Lord, who will not give His glory to another, glorifies His Christ, He makes it obvious that the Messiah is Himself also the Lord—that He must be as St. John will declare Him: the One who was in the beginning, who was with God, and who was God. The Lord, who will not give His glory to another, sets His Christ as His treaty with His people, Israel, and as a Light to the Gentiles, opening the eyes of those who were spiritually blind and bringing them out of the prison of sin and death. The Messiah does the things that only God can do, and receives credit for what only the true God can be given praise.
Isaiah is, thus, the backdrop for St. John’s Gospel every bit as much as for St. Matthew’s. While Matthew directly quotes Isaiah more often, John often presents a narrative that ties back to the prophet (as we saw Tuesday regarding the wedding at Cana). Isaiah 42 is very much the understanding Jesus presents throughout John: that He is doing nothing simply because, as God, He can, but it is all as One who subjects Himself to the Father in all things, so that He might save us who by nature have refused His lordship.
Collect: O Lord, Who never failest to help and govern those whom Thou dost bring up in Thy steadfast fear and love: Make us to have a perpetual fear and love of Thy holy Name; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
