This is the prayer of
Hezekiah of Judah when he was sick and then recovered from his illness – Isaiah
38:9 (NET)
As it is possible to
find correspondence between the lives of King David and Jesus, and King Solomon
and Jesus, which makes complete sense because they all share the title of King
of Israel, so too is it possible to find a Scriptural linking of King Hezekiah
and Jesus. In his prayer, and as all of Scripture is viewed through the
lens of the Christ-event, this link becomes quite explicit. Hezekiah can
be heard saying, “I thought, ‘In the middle of my life I must walk through the
gates of Sheol, I am deprived of the rest of my years’.” (38:10)
Like Hezekiah, Jesus,
in the middle of His life and ministry, walked through the gates of Sheol, into
death. The Gospel narratives insist that this was something that Jesus
anticipated throughout the duration of His ministry, as He frequently spoke of
the expectation of the premature cutting off of His natural life. This was part and parcel of revolutionary
activity and His positioning Himself as King.
Though Jesus’ revolutionary actions were different from that of others,
and took a different form than what many expected from a revolution, that does
not make Him any less revolutionary. In
fact, the uniqueness in the face of pressure to travel a different path may
make it even more revolutionary.
Hezekiah is said to
have thought, “I will no longer see the Lord in the land of the living, I will
no longer look on humankind with the inhabitants of the world” (38:11).
When he was sick, Hezekiah expected death to come. Jesus, as was said,
also expected death to come. Because he had been sick and expecting
death, but was allowed to recover and continue, Hezekiah figuratively
experienced a death and resurrection. However, not only did Jesus expect
a Resurrection, but He received one as well.
At the same time, Jesus
could certainly agree with Hezekiah that He would no longer see the Lord in the
land of the living either. How can that be? It is because the world
into which Jesus was resurrected was a changed world, now subject to Him as its
King. It would no longer merely be the land of the living, but the land
of eternal life that is had through union with Him that springs from a
believing allegiance in that kingly position. The Scriptural emphasis is
that Jesus came forth from the grave into a new creation that had been
inaugurated with His Resurrection.
Jesus Himself had
been given a transformed, resurrected body, that was understood to be animated
by the very power of God. Because of that, He could no longer look out
upon humankind from the position of being merely another one of the inhabitants
of the old world that had now been fundamentally changed. He was radically
different in a way that was difficult for His followers to understand or
express. He had received a glorified body, which was the long-held hope
of His people.
It is not the case
that He would no longer look upon man as an inhabitant of the world because He
was going to stay in the grave. Rather, He would look upon man with a
pair of renewed eyes, as the first of a different form of humanity---as the
true divine image-bearer, unspoiled by the corruption that had been foisted
upon creation by the failure of the original divine image-bearer. With
His Resurrection, Jesus now inhabited a different world. Through belief
in Him, by faith, His disciples would come to inhabit that same world, though
without a glorified body, with a down payment of Resurrection power that would
allow them to look upon humankind, not as one of its inhabitants, but as new
creations, viewing man with the compassion and love that comes as a gift from
God, desirous to tell forth the Gospel of Jesus (He is Lord) that is an
invitation to share in this inaugurated new creation.
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