One-third of the world today is nominally Christian. There are almost a thousand million Christians in the world. In India we have some 15 million Christians-- Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox. What difference does it make? Or what difference should it make to our nation? That is the question. Are Christians supposed to be just another minority group working for their own communal rights and privileges, struggling against the majority of Hindus and Muslims?

In most of the countries of Asia (except perhaps in the Philippines), Christians are a numerically small minority. What is God’s purpose for us in our nations? We cannot as Asian Christians look back to a time when ‘Christendom’ or ‘Christian nations’ were a fact of history, as Western Christians can.

How do we find a way to become a dynamic presence in our own nation? India, with her poverty and injustice, dishonesty and corruption, hope and frustration, lack of leadership and initiative, is one of the saddest nations of the world today. Is there some good news that we can be and bring to our people?

The Old Testament looked forward to the presence of the Saviour God. The 25th Chapter of Isaiah gives us some understanding of what the prophets expected to happen when God comes.

25: 2-5 What are the things He has done?

(a) He has judged the mighty nations that were oppressors. This is historically true in part, and in part it is yet to happen. The great empires of Alexander and Julius Caesar, of the Pharoahs and of Nebuchednezzar, of the Portuguese and the Spaniards, have all fallen. Their remains are mostly in ruins today. Even the more recent colonial empires of West European nations are now in the process of crumbling: a new form of economic oppression and exploitation, which we today call neocolonialism, is now spreading, awaiting the judgement of God. The poor nations are becoming poorer, while the rich get richer at the expense of the poor. We do not yet see the judgement of these nations and groups within our own nation but that cannot be far behind. God’s judgement of the rich and the oppressor has been partly fulfilled, and still yet awaits full consummation in the future.

(b) God has been a refuge for the poor, the protector of the needy and the oppressed (25:4). this is also partly realised and partly to happen in the future. We see that the working classes in many countries have begun to experience the redemption from oppression and want. But in nations like ours, millions are still poor, still oppressed. There is no shelter for them from the storm of grinding poverty and no shade from the heat of widespread famine.

The kingdom has come in Jesus Christ. The poor have had the good news preached to them. But the total fulfillment is still a matter for future realization.

This future gets some content in the remaining part of Isaiah 25.

(a) The most appropriate symbol of the Kingdom of God is that of a banquet.

(b) The banquet of the Lord is not just for the people of Israel, but for all nations (v.6).

(c) The banquet is rich and sumptuous -- not skimpy and bare.

(d) The symbolism of wine is that of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of forgiveness and joy, of creativity and holiness, of righteousness and peace.

(e) The word translated the ‘veil’ in v. 7 could also mean the ‘shroud’ -- the covering for dead bodies or for mourning people. The symbolism is particularly apt for India, where the ‘shroud of gloom’ spreads over all areas of our national life. The banishment of sorrow and suffering, misery and pain, belonged to the heart of the Kingdom as the prophets saw it. They expected the coming of the Messiah to be the occasion for lifting the shroud of gloom cast over all nations.

(f) The destruction of death is part of the messianic expectation (v. 8). A gospel that speaks only of material well-being is a perversion of the biblical message. ‘Eternal life’ is the quality of life that lives in this world without being enslaved by the fear of death, which knows that if this tent of our body is destroyed, we have a heavenly tent not made with hands (2 Cor. 5:1 ff). The Christian concern is not only for the ‘good life’ in the image of holiday resorts and vacationing centres. The good life, which accepts this world and rejoices in it, is also a life that transcends this world and triumphs over death. The ‘wiping away of tears from all faces’ (v. 8) means also giving people a transcendent hope, as well as giving them meaning, purpose and sustenance in this life.

In India we Christians need to realise the wide range of salvation that God brings -- not just the  individual salvation in the ‘other’ world, but corporate and national salvation here and now as well.

1. In what terms have you been taught in the Church to think of Salvation? Is this teaching true to the Bible?