As people of faith, we have a complicated relationship with the Good News. We love the passages which speak of turning swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks but become angry when the Good News holds us accountable, calling us to do concrete acts of healing, and justice-making in our communities. Or to take it one step further, we would rather do small acts of kindness yet never take a step back to see where the system is causing the brokenness.
March 15, 2026
Rooted in the Good News
The Good News is … “rooted in justice, mercy, and faithfulness”
Isaiah 61:1-11
Rev. Dr. Heather W. McColl
Isaiah 61:1-11
The spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, to provide for those who mourn in Zion – to give them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit.
They will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, to display his glory. They shall build up the ancient ruins; they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations. Strangers shall stand and feed your flocks; foreigners shall till your land and dress your vines, but you shall be called priests of the Lord; you shall be named ministers of our God; you shall enjoy the wealth of the nations, and in their riches you shall glory. Because their shame was double and dishonor was proclaimed as their lot, therefore in their land they shall possess a double portion; everlasting joy shall be theirs.
For I, the Lord, love justice, I hate robbery and wrongdoing; will faithfully give them their recompense, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them. Their descendants shall be known among the nations and their offspring among the peoples; all who see them shall acknowledge that they are a people whom the Lord has blessed. I will greatly rejoice in the Lord; my whole being shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. For as the earth brings forth its shoots and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations.
The Good News is … rooted in justice, mercy, and faithfulness Isaiah 61:1-11
For I, the Lord, love justice, I hate robbery and wrongdoing; I will faithfully give them their recompense, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them. Their descendants shall be known among the nations and their offspring among the peoples; all who see them shall acknowledge that they are a people whom the Lord has blessed…For as the earth brings forth its shoots and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations.
This section is titled by the NRSV as the “Good News of Deliverance”. These words are shared by the prophet Isaiah to the people of Israel after they had returned from exile. If we remember, Isaiah had warned the people to change their ways, that their empty rituals of worship would not save them, that their corrupt systems which favored the rich and abused the poor would be their downfall. If we remember, Isaiah had warned the people that their relationship with God was not reflective of God’s Beloved Community. If we remember, Isaiah had warned the people that they were ignoring justice. They were forgetting to show mercy. They were putting more trust and faithfulness in their own ability than in their God. If we remember, Isaiah had warned the people that this forgetting of who they were and whose they were would bring about harm and brokenness. Which is exactly what happened. The people ignored Isaiah’s warnings. They continued to build and buy into corrupt systems which favored the rich and abused the poor. They continued to think their empty rituals of worship would save them. They continued to think they had it all figured out until….they didn’t. If we remember the story, we are told that the Babylonians destroyed everything and took the people into exile.
All of this is the backdrop and context for this section known as the Good News of Deliverance. In our text for today, the people have returned and they are asking “Now What?” They are asking how do we learn from our mistakes. How do we cultivate a vision of God’s Shalom in all things, through all things, for all people? How do we rebuild a city and a society that will not repeat the injustices of the past? The people have returned from exile, and they are now asking themselves, how do we be the people God created us to be, people who make justice, people who show mercy, people who hold the faithfulness of relationships and community?
Isaiah answers the people’s questions within the first few verses of this section. The people become the people God created them to be by living out their calling, a calling which is grounded in the understanding that the spirit of the Lord God is upon them; a calling which sends them to bring good news to the oppressed, a calling which tells them to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners, a calling which reminds them as God’s people they are to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. In this section known as the Good News of Deliverance, Isaiah is reminding the people that they entered into a covenantal relationship with God. The people have returned from exile which means that God held up God’s side of the bargain, meaning that God has been faithful, God has been steadfast, God has been loving, God has restored them and now…now it is the people’s turn to fulfil their part of the bargain. What that looks like are concrete acts in the world that bring about healing and wholeness for all of God’s people, acts that bring about transformation, acts which create and promote justice, acts which cultivate life, acts which establish God’s Beloved Community here on earth.
Isaiah is reminding them that this Good News of Deliverance is filled with joy. It is liberation and release. Isaiah is telling the people that this Good News of Deliverance is characterized by healing and comfort, that this Good News of Deliverance is grounded in justice, mercy, and faithfulness, that this Good News of Deliverance is not just for people who think like them, act like them, look like them. No this Good News of Deliverance is for all of God’s people, no ifs, ands, or buts. In this section known as the Good News of Deliverance, Isaiah is reminding the people, and reminding us again today, that the message has not changed, that Good News has always been rooted in justice, mercy, and faithfulness.
You see, when Isaiah first proclaimed these words, the Israelites had a complicated relationship with the Good News of Deliverance. Oftentimes, it stood against their culture, their society, their political system, their trickle-down economics. Oftentimes, okay a lot of the times, prophets like Isaiah would lift up this Good News of Deliverance, pointing out the many, many ways the people were missing the mark on being people of justice, mercy and peace. Prophets like Isaiah would remind the people that they cannot contort the Good News to support their comfortable lifestyles while at the same time oppressing and ignoring the poor in the midst.
Now we can’t be too harsh on the Israelites because as people of faith, we still have the same complicated relationship with the Good News of Deliverance, meaning we love to quote the passages which speak of turning swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks but become angry when the Good News holds us accountable. We become combative when it is pointed our culture, our society, our political system, our trickle-down economics, our oppressive systems which use and abuse stand in direct contrast to God’s Beloved Community. We become stubborn and dismissive when it is pointed out that we are missing the mark of being people of justice, mercy and peace.
What Isaiah is reminding the people back then and reminding us again today is that the thing we cannot deny, no matter how hard we try, is that the Good News is rooted in justice, mercy, and faithfulness, not for a select few but for all of God’s people. And that means something for us. It shapes how we view the world. It shapes how we are in relationship with one another. It shapes our work in building a society grounded in the promise of God’s shalom, knowing that we cannot, that we will not repeat the injustices of the past.
As people of faith, all through our sacred story, we are reminded that God calls the people to notice the widow, the orphan, the stranger, the lost, the forsaken, the poor, brokenhearted, to name just a few. We are told over and over again that God’s Beloved Community is grounded in healing and wholeness, not oppression. We are told that we are called to share and create a different narrative in this world, a narrative based on love, grace, justice, mercy and faithfulness.
Or let me say it this way….In Martin Luther King, Jr.’s letter from Birmingham Jail, he offers a lengthy explanation of our complicated relationship with the Good News as people of faith, sharing how often we use contorted logic to follow the law. He writes: “One may well ask, ‘How can you advocate breaking some laws and obeying others?’ The answer is found in the fact that there are two types of laws: there are just laws, and there are unjust laws… Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust. All segregation statutes are unjust because segregation distorts the soul and damages the personality. It gives the segregator a false sense of superiority and the segregated a false sense of inferiority… We can never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was ‘legal’ and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was ‘illegal.’”
As Jesus’ disciples, we have embraced the call to follow Jesus’ example, a ministry which is grounded in justice, mercy, and faithfulness, a ministry which is grounded in joy, liberation and release, a ministry which starts with these very words from Isaiah, a ministry which tells us time and time again, that “The Lord God’s spirit is upon us, that God has sent us to bring good news to the poor, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim release for captives, and liberation for prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” May it be so. Amen.
See also: Theology Tuesday for Sunday, March 22, 2026 – The Good News is … rooted in justice, mercy, and faithfulness Isaiah 61:1-11.
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