It is too little for you to be my servant

God has bigger plans for you than you can dream for yourself.

+JMJ+

Today I’m continuing this series on the Holy Family by reflecting on line from the old testament reading of Sunday January 19th.

God speaks powerfully through his servant Isaiah in this week’s readings telling His servant,

“It is too little, the LORD says, for you to be my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and restore the survivors of Israel; I will make you a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.” (Is 49:6).

That line of “it is too little” really spoke to me today. God tells His servant that it is too insignificant to join all the tribes and raise Israel’s people up. This is such a monumental task…how can it be “too little!” ? It shows us how far above God’s ways are our ways.

Think back to the Holy Family when they find out God’s plan. Mary wonders how it is possible for God to make her a mother while remaining a virgin. The angel responds truthfully: Nothing is impossible for God. Joseph silently obeys the dreams he’s given, realizing that God’s plan supersedes anything his mind could generate.

Backtracking, it really easy to feel like Isaiah does just moments before our readings this week. “”I have worked in vain; I have expended my energy for absolutely nothing.” (Is 49:3). God sees his Servant’s despair and tells Him that not only has your expended energy been fruitful, I will use it to become a light to all the nations.

The word the Old Testament passage uses for “too little” is seen in many other spots in the bible. This word also means “to be swift”, “to be abated of water”, and “to curse”. God Himself uses this word in Genesis 8 to describe how he will never again destroy the people’s as he had with Noah. God instead will bring humanity into his covenant with Noah, signed by the rainbow. It’s also the word to describe how Hagar “despised” Sarai in Gen 16.

Both of these are interesting instances of God’s ways conflicting with human ways. In the days of Noah, people felt they knew what was right for themselves and lived immorally. Abram thought he needed children and had relations with Hagar to have Ishmael. But God’s plan was bigger than the son of Abram’s servant. Just as God’s plan was bigger than the Nations surrounding Noah.

God does not want us to be servants. He does not call us to work until endless exhaustion to bring a particular nation together or to do a particular task. He calls us into a deeper life with Him; he calls us to be sons and daughters. As Saint Paul says in the second reading we are “called to be holy”.

John the Baptist testifies to God’ new plan, his bigger plan, at the Lord’s Baptism. In the Gospel today, John claims to have not known the One who was to come. But of course he did. He knew Jesus, his mother’s cousin’s son. He knew Jesus’ father, Joseph, who would let the boys into his workshop. He knew Jesus’ mother, who tenderly greeted him with a loving kiss and praised God for this miraculous John, born of a woman of old age.

But John now sees. He sees the Sonship of Jesus. He sees beyond the beautiful family experiences with his cousins in the Holy Family. He sees that their family life, the quiet moments in Nazareth and the visits to the hill country are too little. And John sees that even his baptism with water is too little.

God has more than a servant in Jesus, he has a beloved Son. And the Suffering Servant is announced loudly by John as the “Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” Like Abraham answered Issac so many years ago, God Himself will provide the lamb. And this lamb will take away not only the sins of John or Joseph or Israel but will be “a light to the nations, that [God’s] salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.” (Is 49:6).

I wonder if John the Baptist might’ve even used this same word for “too little” when he said, “I must decrease, He must increase”.

May the Holy Family be a model for going further, beyond serving God. May the example of Mary and Joseph serve to help us shining a light to the nations and grow closer to Jesus.

God love you!