In that day the deaf shall hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness. The humble also shall increase their joy in the Lord, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. (Isaiah 29:18-19)
Christians see Isaiah’s prophecy (above) as being fulfilled by Jesus Christ. Two passages from the gospels help us see this:
And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, “He has done all things well; he even makes the deaf hear and the dumb speak.” (Mark 7:37)
And when the men had come to him, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to you, saying, ‘Are you he who is to come, or shall we look for another?'” In that hour he cured many of diseases and plagues and evil spirits, and on many that were blind he bestowed sight. And he answered them, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is he who takes no offense at me.” (Luke 7:20-23)
The hoped for Messiah, Christ, would bring miraculous healing to the world. The gospels give us the examples of Jesus fulfilling the prophecy. The miracles occur to reveal God to us – the Kingdom of Heaven is breaking into this world making God visibly present to us. Though biblical scholar Stanley Porter reminds us:
In the present world, the glory of God is seen only by a select few, but ‘in the time to come’ all will see it, as it says in Isa 40:5: ‘The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together’ (cf. Lev. Rab. 1:14 [on Lev 1:1]). (HEARING THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE NEW TESTAMENT, p 100)
Jesus told the Apostle Nathanael, “’Because I said to you, I saw you under the fig tree, do you believe? You shall see greater things than these.’ And he said to him, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man” (John 1:50-51). Already in this world we begin to see the glory of God. When we see Christ, we are seeing God’s glory, as St James says in his epistle (2:1) – “our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory.” We often think of God’s glory as being visible at a spectacular event like the Transfiguration. The reality of Christ is that whenever we encounter Him, no matter how humble or mundane the circumstance, we are in the presence of the glory of the Lord. Besides, we are created in God’s image and likeness meaning humans themselves reflect the glory of the Lord. Even the least of Christ’s brothers and sisters reflect this glory.
[As an aside: I do think it interesting that THE JEWISH ANNOTATED NEW TESTAMENT says the Tanakh (the Hebrew Bible) never uses the Greek term “Christos” when referring to the future ideal Davidic King. However, “Christos” is used in this way “in the Dead Sea Scrolls and rabbinic literature” (p 3). Christianity was shaped and influenced by streams of thought that were common in ancient Judaism but were not part of the official Jewish Scriptures. Remember that at the time of Christ the Jews did accept the Septuagint (the translation of the Jewish Scriptures into Greek) as canonical, so the Jewish canon was more extensive then than it is today. Judaism narrows its acceptance of writings dealing with the Messiah after the rise of Christianity as a religion distinct from Judaism. Christians see Jesus as fulfilling the Old Testament – not just its prophecies but in helping us to see the very purpose of the Old Testament texts. For Christians, to read the Old Testament as if it has something to say apart from Christ, is to misread those Scriptures.]
Fraternized 