“This is the kind of fast day I’m after:
to break the chains of injustice,
get rid of exploitation in the workplace,
free the oppressed,
cancel debts.
What I’m interested in seeing you do is:
sharing your food with the hungry,
inviting the homeless poor into your homes,
putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad,
being available to your own families.
Do this and the lights will turn on,
and your lives will turn around at once.
Your righteousness will pave your way.
The GOD of glory will secure your passage.
Then when you pray, GOD will answer.
You’ll call out for help and I’ll say, ‘Here I am.’“If you get rid of unfair practices,
quit blaming victims,
quit gossiping about other people’s sins,
If you are generous with the hungry
and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out,
Your lives will begin to glow in the darkness,
your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight.
I will always show you where to go.
I’ll give you a full life in the emptiest of places—
firm muscles, strong bones.
You’ll be like a well-watered garden,
a gurgling spring that never runs dry.
You’ll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew,
rebuild the foundations from out of your past.
You’ll be known as those who can fix anything,
restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate,
make the community livable again.“If you watch your step on the Sabbath
and don’t use my holy day for personal advantage,
If you treat the Sabbath as a day of joy,
GOD’s holy day as a celebration,
If you honor it by refusing ‘business as usual,’
making money, running here and there—
Then you’ll be free to enjoy GOD!
Oh, I’ll make you ride high and soar above it all.
I’ll make you feast on the inheritance of your ancestor Jacob.”
Yes! GOD says so! (Isaiah 58:6–14 MSG)
God is in the business of restoration. In fact, salvation can be translated as the divine act of healing. He declares in Revelation, “Behold, I am making all things new!” The word ‘new’ does not mean a completely different substance but rather making new from what was. His beautiful creation was tainted by humanity’s lust for independence, power, and selfish ambition. Yet, starting in the garden after the fall all the way to Jesus’s ministry, God was restoring the broken shards of creation.
This chapter of Isaiah is one of my favorites because he is beckoning God’s people to unity with God by joining him in his work. “You shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to dwell in” (Isaiah 58:12 ESV). God’s divine plan has always been unity with creation, and he invites us into unity by joining him. Notice the kind of fasts and actions that bring joy to God: being generous to the poor and hungry, getting rid of exploitation in the workplace, tending to the vulnerable and weak. All these actions are the work of restoration! It is undoing the work of evil and corruption that began in the garden. Living the work of restoration is creating right relationships with others; this is righteous living! It is an opportunity to embrace the unity we have with our Creator!
Isaiah highlights another experience of unity and an expectation of being a rebuilder or renovator. At the end of this chapter, he shifts the perspective of Sabbath. It was never meant to be a pious act but an invitation to experience, honor, and worship God. To be in unity with God is to find joy and satisfaction in God alone. The world and culture we live in is driven by power and greed. If we are to have unity, if we are to be known as renovators and join God in his work of restoration, we must push back and step out of this rat race and reject the lies of success. Living in unity with God is finding joy in him, which allows us to abandon the drive for the business-as-usual mindset, the lust for money, or the rampant speed we live today. As we step away, slow down, and refocus, we will find unity and have the chance to be in right relationship with God.
If we are willing, Lent disrupts these patterns and gives us space to examine our motives, actions, and words. It is a time to confess and realign with the greater work of God’s restoration. Remember, in Matthew 25, Jesus was found with the prisoner, the homeless, the naked, the hungry, and the sick. Unity with God is standing with the immigrant and defending the rights of the vulnerable.
Following Jesus is walking his pace.
Following Jesus is accepting his standards and way of life.
Following Jesus is joining him in the work of restoration.
Following Jesus is to be a renovator and rebuilder.
This is where God is at work and where God invites us into unity with him.
Philip Long is a pastor at Hope Point Church in Tacoma, Washington.