“There is a story about three farmers whose fields were adjoined. One was Jewish, one Muslim, and one Christian. Each observed the Sabbath on a different day of the week. One harvest season, bad weather limited the days available for work, and skipping a day for Sabbath observance risked financial ruin. Nevertheless, [during the harvest week], all three farmers in turn observed their faith, making the choice to stay home on their respective Sabbath [day]. Upon waking the day [after they had observed their sabbath], each farmer found a barn filled with harvested crops. They gave thanks and praise to God, assuming angels had been sent to do the work. In fact, it was [actually] the neighbors of differing faith who did the work in secret.” (Feasting on the Word, Year A, Vol. 4, 175)

God works through the unexpected.

That includes King Cyrus of Persia. Check out today’s scripture, Isaiah 45:1-8.

God works through the unexpected.

God will restore the people and bring them home from exile. This scripture, along with many others surrounding it, proclaim that in no uncertain terms. God will work though their circumstances to right the wrongs, bring them home, and to make them prosperous once again.

They’re exiled because when Babylon destroyed Jerusalem; the Babylonians took the best and brightest in Jerusalem off to live in Babylon. This was typical practice for a conquering nation back in their day. The idea was simple. Take the royal court, the prophets and priests, the educated and skilled, and the merchants, and bring them to your capital city. There, make them as comfortable as possible, teach them your language and customs, with the hope that they will choose to assimilate and become one of you. Then, you’ve made yourself stronger as a nation by including the best and brightest of your vanquished foes.

The problem for the Babylonians, though, was this: the refugees from Jerusalem refused to assimilate. They kept their own customs, their own religion, and kept to themselves. They would not eat at the court, they would not celebrate the high holy days of Babylon, they would not worship the Babylonian gods.

They could not stop seeing the Babylonians as their enemy.

And when the Persians come and conquered the Babylonians, not much changes in the mindset of those in exile. The Persians, although they are a different people, and although they have defeated the hated Babylonians, are still their captors, for they will not let the people of God go. They will not let them leave Babylon. The Persians, like the Babylonians before them, want the people of God to assimilate and join their society.

And still, these exiles refuse to assimilate. The people in exile cannot stop seeing the Persians as their enemy.

Then, through the prophet Isaiah, the people receive good news! They’re going home! They will be restored. Here, in chapter 45, we find out that God will subdue nations, strip kings of their thrones, shatter doors and bars made of strong metals, and level mountains, all to deliver the exiles back to Jerusalem. God will destroy whatever stands in the way of their return to the land, of their restoration. God will do this.

The people have hope! Their exile is not forever. Their captivity in Babylon is not forever. God will restore them.

And how will God do this?

Most unexpectedly, through their enemy, the king of Persia, Cyrus.

God works through the unexpected.

This is no ordinary king. This is the king of their captors. This is the man who sits atop the enemy nation. This is the man who holds them in their current captivity. This is the enemy. God has chosen the enemy king to bring them home. How does that make any sense?

If God is going to work through a foreign king to restore God’s people, it would make more sense if God had said that Amasis II, Pharaoh of Egypt, would come and conquer and provide. Egypt wasn’t their enemy and was the other superpower of their day. God could use Egypt to conquer the Persians. God could raise up a great army and, before Amasis II, shatter doors of bronze, strip kings of their robes, level mountains, and provide, just as chapter 45 says. Then, when Amasis II had captured Persia and killed King Cyrus, the people would be free to return to their homes.

It would certainly make more sense for God to move through another foreign country than through the king of their enemy. Moving through Amasis rather than Cyrus would make much more sense.

But no, that’s not how God declares that God will operate.

God declares that God will work through his anointed one, King Cyrus. God has chosen the enemy of the people, God has put a special anointing on this enemy king, God has determined to make all things new through the one person the people of God despised the most at that moment.

It makes no sense. It’s unbelievable.

Like the farmers from our opening story who couldn’t fathom that their neighbor of a different faith had harvested their fields for them, these captives in Persia cannot fathom that God would anoint and make use of the enemy king for their benefit.

It’s unbelievable.

It would be natural to think that way. But let’s put ourselves in their shoes. Think of people whom we might consider enemies or with whom we have a fractured relationship. That might be someone who has betrayed you and the wound has never healed. It might be someone who caused you harm and there’s never been reconciliation. It might be someone whom you feel is oppressing you, just like the people of God felt oppressed by Cyrus. It might be a family member who has wronged you and the rift has remained over years, even decades. It might be someone at work.

We all have known enemies. We’ve all experienced fractured relationships. Call them to mind.

Now, imagine that you hear from God and God says that there will be provision for your needs right now. God is going to restore, provide, and make it all right again. Whatever barriers you’re experiencing, whatever stands in the way, God will level those like the mountains; tear down those barriers like doors of bronze; God will be moving in powerful ways for you and those you love to restore you and provide for you.

And God will do this through your enemy. For your enemy is God’s anointed; God’s chosen one.

God’s anointed to provide for you is that family member who ruined things, that colleague who stole from you, that friend who betrayed you, your relative who refuses to love you.

God will be doing great and wonderful things for you and those you love through his anointed: your family member, friend, or colleague.

That’s hard to swallow, isn’t it? But that’s exactly where the people of God are, trying to swallow a message from God that, through their hated enemy, God will provide for all their longings and needs. That’s a tough pill to swallow.

Just as it was difficult for the farmers of the different faiths to fathom God would work through their neighbor of a different faith. There was no way someone who was opposed to them could have provided, could have been so nice. There was no way a member of another faith could have been God’s way of providing for them. The chasm is too great. The distrust and disgust too wide. They are opposed to each other. How in the world could God work through their enemies?

That’s the question the people of God are asking. It would be the question we would ask if we were to receive this prophecy ourselves. Why would God choose to anoint, work through, our enemy?

God works through the unexpected.

Time and again we see this motif lived out through scripture. God chooses an insignificant herder to be the father of the whole world. God raises up an abandoned baby to save the people from Egypt and to give them the law. God finds a boy to slay a giant and anoint him king. God chooses a teenager from a backwater town to give birth to the savior of the world. And God raises up the enemy king to restore the people of God and bring them home.

God works through the unexpected.

And when we fail to embrace that truth, we miss the blessings God has for us.

Imagine with me that the exiles had rejected this prophecy. Imagine they had decided that there was no way God was going to work through their enemies. There was no way that God would anoint Cyrus, the king of the Persians, the one who was currently oppressing them. Imagine they had decided this was a false prophecy and rejected it.

They would have missed going back to their homes, rebuilding their society, seeing God’s manifold provision for them and the generations to come. They would have missed a huge blessing.

And so it is that, when we categorize others as enemies and see them only in that way, we limit our vision to see how God is moving and active around us. When we decide that others in our lives are just opposed to us and there’s no undoing it, there’s no reconciliation possible, we limit our vision of how God is moving and active around us. When we determine that our sister, brother, uncle, colleague, former business partner, or former friend, is just a terrible person and will always be set against us, we limit our vision to see how God is moving and active around us.

We need to enlarge our vision.

That’s the point here. We need to expand our vision, our understanding, to know that God is involved in the world and our lives, moving and active, working all things together for good. That means that sometimes God will act through people that we despise. That means that sometimes righteousness will come from the place we least expect, like a Muslim farmer reaping the field of his Jewish neighbor during the Jewish sabbath. Like the king of the enemy, Cyrus, delivering the people back to Jerusalem. Like your despised family member providing for you and your family.

God will bring about righteousness. God will cause righteousness to be known, no matter what. God will provide abundantly. God will. We just have to have eyes to see it, even to see provision and righteousness where we least expect it.

God works through the unexpected.

And we gain vision to see how God is moving through the world when we recognize that all of us, even our enemies, are God’s creation, beloved of the Father.

And if we’re all God’s creation, we can all be put to use for the greater good, for the Kingdom of God.

We just need to see each other first as children of God. We need to see our sister, colleague, brother, former friend, or any other enemy we’ve called to mind first and foremost as a child of God. If King Cyrus could not only be a child of God but even God’s anointed, then there is no one who can stand in the way of God moving for righteousness in this world. There’s no impediment to justice for God. That justice, that righteousness, might not come when we would like, or from where we would like, but God is greater than the greatest barrier we can imagine. God will tear down the doors of bronze, level mountains, strip forests. God will move and act for what’s right.

And consider this: not only are we all children of God, we are also each an enemy to someone. Almost certainly, someone in each of our lives thinks of us as an enemy. If we believe that we are a child of God, then our enemies are children of God, too. For we, each of us, is probably an enemy to someone. So if we are all enemies, we are all loved by God.

Think of those fractured relationships, even enemies, you called to mind earlier. Can you see them as a child of God? Can you see God saying even to them, “I love you. I created you. You are mine”?

If it’s hard to see, look harder. That’s how we gain a more expansive vision: forcing ourselves to see others, even our enemies, even those we despise and distrust, as children of God. And then recognizing, with humility and empathy, that we are each an enemy to someone. We are all children of God.

God works through the unexpected.

Imagine with me those farmers again. They distrusted and despised their neighbor farmer because of religious difference. Imagine now they chose to embrace that God works through the unexpected and, because they had embraced that truth, realized that it was their neighbor who had harvested their crops. Imagine the relationships that would have formed among the Muslim, Jew, and Christian. Imagine the spirit of cooperation that would form. Imagine the bridges built. Imagine the righteousness established.

That’s the vision of the Kingdom of God. That’s what God is working toward. And when we see each other first and foremost as beloved children of God, even including our enemies, we move a step closer toward realizing such a beautiful vision for the world.

So let us embrace this truth. Let us choose a more expansive vision of the world, one that includes even our enemies. For we are all children of God. Let us not miss what God is doing among us.

For God works through the unexpected.

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; Amen.