It might seem to some people that the first reading, from Isaiah, makes an exaggerated claim, “[the Lord] God comes to save you. Then will the eyes of the blind be opened, the ears of the deaf be cleared; then the lame will leap like a stag.” As Jesus arrives in Galilee, a deaf man is brought to him. At that time most people could not read; the culture was largely oral and so the man who could not hear others’ speech was cut off from community life which depended on oral communication. Jesus’s healing is a literal fulfillment of Isaiah, “the ears of the deaf will be cleared.” Being with Jesus enables people to hear what they have not heard before. It’s not only about the deaf man in the Gospel. It’s about us.

Even though Isaiah’s prophecy of the healing of human beings was fulfilled in Jesus’s healing, it is only a first step in God’s word of promise coming true. We know from the gospel that only one deaf man was healed that day, yet there must have been many such deaf, blind and lame people who were not. Jesus’ healing was real and helpful, but it was only a foretaste of greater things to come.

Isaiah speaks of a final time, and Jesus’ miracles point in the same direction. Jesus introduced the final phase of the Kingdom or Reign of God. The final phase has begun – we are in the middle of it – but has not yet come to its conclusion. Consummation lies in the future. Jesus’ teaching and healings give us a glimpse of the full realization of the kingdom, but are only hints of what will come later.

A topic mentioned in Isaiah has become of great importance in our own day – the healing of nature along with the healing of human beings: “For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert; the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water.” The Bible sees humans as intimately bound to their environment. God’s touch heals not only humans, but the animals and plants they share that land with. In the end time, the whole world – humans, animals, vegetation, earth – will be ennobled.

What makes Isaiah’s words and Jesus’s gesture different from glib promises is that they are words and deeds of God whom we can trust. We hear the promises of Isaiah that God will bring all things to health and fulfillment and we see Jesus fulfilling these words. From that, we gain certainty the fullness will come in the future through God’s fidelity. This is the basis of our hope. We are people of hope because we believe in God who is reliable and we trust in his promise.