So, according to Isaiah, that is the sort of king we await. No sentimental, greeting card baby, leading a crowd of frolicking beasts though a green meadow. We wait a doer of justice, a purveyor of righteousness for those who have very little of either, making our world unfair at its base, unequal in its distribution of goods, a world where two billion of its people try to live on less than a dollar a day. In short, our world awaits this king, too.
That little child of verse 6 who leads the former eaters and the formerly eaten, that nursing child of verse 8 who is idly playing around the hole of a poisonous snake, that weaned child who is absently sticking its tiny hand into the home of the most deadly serpent, is precisely the one we anticipate this and every Christmas. For a child who can live and thrive among the most dangerous of creatures can also become a man who can live his life solely in justice and righteousness, dedicated to those who live their lives on the margins, who find themselves on the outside of the potential goodness of life. Only when that king shows up will "the earth be full of the knowledge of YHWH just like the waters cover all the world's seas" (verse 9).
Isaiah was surely right; we desperately need that king, and we need him now. With Isaiah's amazing portrait in hand, perhaps this Christmas the baby messiah may look rather less like a baby and more like an Isaianic king. Maybe.
Read Alyce McKenzie's New Testament reflection for this week here.
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