Month: January 2026

This Sunday we celebrate the Baptism of the Lord, and the Lectionary pairs the Gospel account of Jesus's baptism (Matthew 3:13-17) with Isaiah 42:1-9, one of the so-called Servant Songs. The pairing invites us to see Jesus in Isaiah’s servant, to see Jesus as God's chosen one, anointed with the Spirit, beloved and delighted in. The resonances are unmistakable, and for two millennia Christians have read these Isaiah passages as prophetic foreshadowing of Christ. In the original time frame of the text, however, the servant in Isaiah 42 almost certainly refers to Israel itself, not to some future messianic figure. Throughout Isaiah 40-55, “servant” is covenant language describing Israel’s unique…