Cliff Loesch January 13, 2007 Isaiah 42:1-9 Above and Beyond?      I took a P.E. course when I was a senior in high school just for fun.  I did not need the credit.  But Coach Weinette offered the class and advertised it as being a little different than other P.E. classes.  This one was intended to encourage life-long fitness.  And it included an introduction to quite a few different sports.  Something inside told me I probably needed a course like that-and it sounded like fun.       I was not a very good swimmer back then.  I didn't learn how to swim when I was really little like you're supposed to.  I just picked up a little swimming gradually.  But even as a senior in high school I kept my head mostly above water and diving was out of the question.  In this class, when we got to the swimming part of it, Coach Weinette decided he was going to teach me how to dive.  And if you asked me at the time I would have said that yes, he was going to teach me-or kill me-one or the other.  And I wasn't too sure it mattered to him which way it turned out.  But he had me get on the side of the pool on my knees and told me to hold my hands out and together, duck my head and then just fall into the pool.  That sounds simple enough.  But I had this mental obstacle to overcome, and it was difficult to get myself to go for it.  For Coach Weinette, though, there was no doubt in his mind what was going to happen.  And as I recall, there was a whole lot of yelling involved until finally I fell headfirst into the water.  And that first little dive was like a breakthrough.  It's a breakthrough that I wish I would have had when I was about six years old.  But better late than never, I guess.  And the first dive led to more dives from a kneeling position.  Then I started standing on the side of the pool and trying some dives.  And then came the next hurdle-the diving board.  But with Coach talking me through it, soon I was diving head-first off the diving board.  And though my dives, I'm sure, are probably not much to look at-I can still dive today.  And I am forever grateful to Coach Weinette for sticking with it and teaching me how to dive.      There are many things in life that are simply not required.  Jesus taught us in the Sermon on the Mount about going the second mile.  He said that if someone forces you to go one mile that you should go with them, two.  That is, there are some things we have no choice about.  Some things are required.  But to go the second mile-that is something we choose to do.  And I believe that Jesus' point is that something happens in that second mile, in that choice to go above and beyond what is technically required.  What is it that happens?  I would say, a new sense of freedom.  Perhaps the feeling that we really do have some control over our own destiny.  It's possible, even, that in the second mile we are able to escape the drudgery of what's required and experience joy.  But in every sphere of life it is likely the case that you can get by with doing less.  Coach Weinette did not "have" to teach me how to dive.  Nobody would have cared whether or not he taught me how to dive.  Nobody told him to or asked him to.  Without teaching me to dive he still would have more than fulfilled what was expected of him by the school district in teaching that class.       So why did he do it?  Why did he choose to take on this particular project?  Did he simply see it as a challenge?  Did he not have enough to do already?  Or was it because beneath his sometimes tough exterior he really did care about individual students?        Isaiah 42 is often called one of the "Servant Songs" in Isaiah.  These prophecies were likely aimed at the nation of Israel to begin with-revealing to the nation what they could become to the rest of the world.  Here is a beautiful prophecy about bringing justice and hope to the world.  But many people have come to see the Servant Songs in Isaiah as prophecies related to the coming of Christ.  And indeed they apply.  Many were expecting, I think, a warrior-messiah.  But what we find in Christ is more the servant-messiah.  These servant songs fit Christ really well.  Isaiah 42 talks about a very gentle approach: he will not cry out in the streets or lift up his voice. What's more, it says, he will not damage a bruised reed nor will he quench a dimly burning wick.  I mean-what is a bruised reed?  Who cares about them?  What difference does it make if you traipse on through and break and trample a whole lot of them?  Who really cares?  They're expendable.  What does it matter?  And what is a dimly burning wick?  Why be so concerned about it?  Just snuff it out.  If it's a lamp, just replace the wick.  If it's a candle, they're replaceable.  The point of these statements, of course, is that Christ cares about the weak and the powerless.  Even the most insignificant things imaginable are important, and worthy of great care.  Everyone matters.       Above and beyond.  Indeed, the world says some people don't matter.  And some things aren't worth fixing.  But Christ sees things differently.  And his love reaches out to all.  It's more than expected.  It's more than necessary, some would say.  But for Christ, extending love and grace to all is not really going above and beyond at all.  It may seem that way to us.  But that's his regular plan.       This passage presents a very gentle vision of Christ.  And for the most part that is an accurate picture.  But as I read this passage in Isaiah, I recall that Jesus had his tough side, too.  He was both tough and tender.  The same man who welcomed every outcast and who had time for children and who had compassion on those who were sick was also the one who turned over tables in the Temple and cracked a whip to chase out the money lenders just to make a point.  I even think of Coach Weinette yelling at me at the swimming pool.  There wasn't anything tender about it-except, perhaps, for the goal he had in mind, of handing me that gift of personal accomplishment, not to mention a life-long love of the water.  Was it above and beyond the call of duty?  From many points of view you could say yes.  But for him, I imagine it simply fit squarely into his personal vision of what his goals as a teacher should include.       In this passage in Isaiah, we see gentle, caring love for all.  We see a way of viewing the world that is aware-aware of the crushed and the broken, aware of the nearly-burned-out, aware of the struggling, aware of all the things that need to be fixed.  And coupled with that gentle caring spirit, we see a kind of rugged tenacity that simply will not stop until the job is done.  Verse four says, "He will not grow faint or be crushed until he has established justice in the earth."  No.  Not giving up until the job is done.       You can see how this vision of a servant-a caring, yet tenacious servant-fits perfectly the ministry of Christ.  But just as these words were originally applied to the whole nation of Israel-is it possible that they can or should apply to us today?  Is this a prophecy for who we should become?  I'm sure we all answer that with a resounding yes.  We long for these words to be fulfilled in us.       Listen to verses six and seven: "I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness."  May it be so that Christ works through you and through me to bring about this wonderful work.