Quinquagesima
Jesse Jacobsen
Time-stamp: <Sun Feb 6 13:47:29 2005>
Printed
Have hope, for our God is coming to save
It can be pretty amazing to see what kids can do in a short time:
rearranging furniture heavier than themselves, spreading toys over large
expanses of floor. Occasionally, you might walk into a room and find it
looking like a playground instead of what you thought it was. But when
it's time to put things away, all the energy and creativity disappears.
That big chair is now too heavy to move back where it should be. There
are too many little pieces on the floor to put back into the toybox. It
can't be done. There is no hope.
Adults are sometimes the same way: making our messes, and thinking that
we can't clean them up. But most of us realize that it takes time. You
can't spend four hours turning your living room into a medeival castle
--- complete with dungeon --- and expect to have it all back to normal
in five minutes. It takes time. But sometimes it also takes help.
Without time or help, even adults might say it can't be done: ``There is
no hope.''
Kids give us a little insight into human nature. But where did they get
it from? From their parents. That's the way we all are. It's
sometimes too easy to say, ``It can't be done,'' isn't it? Sometimes we
may even prefer to lose hope. (Except for some Norwegians. There's an
old saying, you know, about Norwegians. They say that nothing's really
impossible. Some things just take more time. Children can also inherit
stubbornness, I've noticed.)
But losing hope in good things is a serious problem. I don't mean the
defiant hope of a soldier facing overwhelming odds. I mean the hope
that knows there are better things ahead. What can make us lose
that hope? You know as well as I do. Bills mounting up faster than
paychecks. Property taxes shooting through the roof. Commitments and
responsibilities running you ragged with no end in sight. Suspecting
that you might have missed something or made some terrible mistake that
means doom in your future. Even physical or emotional abuse can drive
hope from the human heart --- and it's not as rare as you think.
When we lose hope, we lose perspective. We may see a long decline and
overlook the blessings and triumphs along the path. We may long for
life as it was so much that we stop living in the present. Without
hope, we are blind to many of God's gifts, and may even resent them,
because we wanted something else. If you have ever lost hope, then our
text from Isaiah chapter 35 is God's message for you today.
Please remember our theme for today: ``Have hope, for our God is coming
to save.'' He heals us with His salvation. He gives us an oasis of
life.
Isaiah 35:3--7
Strengthen the weak hands,
And make firm the feeble knees.
Say to those who are fearful-hearted,
``Be strong, do not fear!
Behold, your God will come with vengeance,
With the recompense of God;
He will come and save you.''
Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
And the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.
Then the lame shall leap like a deer,
And the tongue of the dumb sing.
For waters shall burst forth in the wilderness,
And streams in the desert.
The parched ground shall become a pool,
And the thirsty land springs of water;
In the habitation of jackals, where each lay,
There shall be grass with reeds and rushes.
He heals us with His salvation
Have hope, for our God is coming to save. He heals us with His
salvation. Maybe this doesn't sound all that good to you. Maybe you've
heard it all before. Then pay attention, because the first thing God
does is teach us about ourselves.
Our text says, ``Strengthen the weak hands, And make firm the
feeble knees. Say to those who are fearful-hearted, `Be strong, do not
fear!' '' These are words of comfort. But why are they comforting?
Because there are weak hands. There are feeble knees.
There is fear in our hearts.
Usually, we don't think of our weakness as being our fault, and for good
reason. We have very little influence over the aging of our bodies.
Dieticians and health clubs may tell you otherwise, but sea turtles and
redwood trees will always live longer than we can. Our bodies simply
age, and the power behind this is the Word of God. He was speaking to
us when He said, ``For dust you are, and to dust you shall
return.''
But there are kinds of weaknesses for which we are more directly at
fault. We are all highly gifted people in many different ways. God
gives us resposibilities and the capabilities to fulfill them. But how
often don't we shirk our God-given responsibilities? We may see this in
children, but adults do it too. Having children out of wedlock, failing
to help our neigbors in every need, selective obedience to authority,
leaving God's Word out of our homes and failing to use His Means of
Grace every week. These are weaknesses for which we must take full
credit --- or blame. They are sinful.
This leads us to a great sin that can drive hope from our own hearts:
fear. There is a holy fear of God and a sinful fear. When Adam and Eve
sinned in the garden, they began to know the terror of God's
judgment. Even the great prophet Isaiah knew this fear when he saw God
in His throne of heaven: ``Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I
am a man of unclean lips, And I dwell in the midst of a people of
unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, The LORD of hosts.''
If a prophet must quail in fear before God on account of his sins, then
what about us, who have grown so attached to our pet weaknesses? Yes,
we also have unholy fear. We are born as slaves into a prison of
self-serving disobedience. So fear of God's judgment is our inescapable
lot in life. Because of this, know for certain that God is speaking to
you and me when He says, ``Say to those who are fearful-hearted,
'Be strong, do not fear! Behold, your God will come with vengeance,
With the recompense of God; He will come and save you.' ''
The terrible vengeance of God is coming. But God did not say that it
will fall upon us. Instead, God's judgment comes against those things
that hold us captive to weakness and fear. God is coming not to judge
us, but to save us. Of course, for Isaiah, this was a prophecy about
Jesus coming in the flesh. But doesn't Jesus come for us too? Isn't
He just as truly present to save us in His Word and Sacrament? Yes, He
is. He comes to us, to annihilate our guilt and remove our fear. He
comes to save.
``Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, And the ears of
the deaf shall be unstopped. Then the lame shall leap like a deer, And
the tongue of the dumb sing.'' We are the blind, but have now been
given a second sight called faith in Jesus Christ. That sight sees
God's blessings for truth, and our present earthly captivity as a brief
moment before our true lives begin.
We are the deaf, but have been given ears to hear God's Word. With this
new hearing, we hear about our faults, but also we hear that God the Son
has personally carried our guilt to the grave, where it can threaten us
no more.
We are the lame, but God has healed us of our weaknesses, giving us a
new life in the Gospel. We are no longer powerless, but able to live
before Him in righteousness, accomplishing His gracious will on earth.
We are the dumb, whose tongues were once paralyzed by fear and weakness.
We could only speak evil, but now the Word of God has come to us, and we
have been given delightful tidings to tell one another. For our
neigbors still in bondage to sin, weakness, fear, and death, we have an
emancipation proclamation to tell them.
Yes! Even corrupted people like we once were have now been freed and
healed. The vengeance of God is falling against our captors. The Day
is coming soon when the pharaoh of sin and death will be gone, and we
will be completely free to live in our everlasting promised land. Even
now, we have forgiveness through the blood of God's Lamb. Death has
already passed us over, and God heals us with His salvation. So have
hope, for our God is coming to save.
He gives us an oasis of life
Have hope, for our God is coming to save. He gives us an oasis of life.
The word oasis means ``a fertile or green spot in a waste or desert.''
Maybe that word seems a little strong. Do we really live in a waste or
desert? Not literally. I've seen some deserts, and Wisconsin is not
among them. No, Wisconsin has more water than we need.
Yet there is another kind of desert. Instead of lacking water, this
kind lacks the Gospel of forgiveness in Jesus. There are deserts where
the name Jesus is not part of the vocabulary people speak. It may be
the next town over. It may be at the mosque or synagogue down the
street. It may be in your neigbor's house. There are other wastelands
where people have heard and used God's name, but not believing that He
is their Savior. There are still other deserts where the true God is
mocked, and His Word is made fun of, while false ideas are taught
instead.
Then there are in-between places, where a person could still thirst to
death, because the saving Word of God there is mixed with false and
contradictory ideas. But since God's Word is present, some people there
believe it, receiving the forgiveness of sins.
All of this may sound bleak. To some degree, the entire world is a
spiritual desert. But we have this promise from God: ``For
waters shall burst forth in the wilderness, And streams in the desert.
The parched ground shall become a pool, And the thirsty land springs of
water; In the habitation of jackals, where each lay, There shall be
grass with reeds and rushes.'' By God's grace alone, here and there He
has provided an oasis in the spiritual desert. That's where God's Word
prevails in its truth, and His sacraments are administered for the
forgiveness of sins, according to His Word. The people there really
care about everything God says. They do not ignore the parts that make
them uncomfortable.
The people who dwell in an oasis of the Gospel are changed by it. We
are given a new nature that delights in God's Word. We love His Word;
we love learning and growing in it. The psalmist speaks this way:
``Blessed is the man Who walks not in the counsel of the
ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the
scornful; But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he
meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree Planted by the rivers
of water, That brings forth its fruit in its season, Whose leaf also
shall not wither; And whatever he does shall prosper.''
It's not a coincidence that God uses this water-picture, because in the
desert, water is life. In the beginning, the Spirit of God brought
forth life as he hovered over the face of the deep. Jesus told the
Samaritan woman that if she only asked, He would give living water. And
when He told John that He must be baptized ``to fulfill all
righteousness,'' Jesus was connecting His own life and death to the
same water in which God baptizes you and me. The baptismal water
connected with God's Word is a water of life, an eternally flowing
spring capable of sustaining an oasis forever.
Jesus' perfect life and His innocent suffering and death provides the
water. If you are perfect, then you don't need it. But if you are a
son of Adam or a daughter of Eve, then the oasis of the Gospel is life.
Without the Gospel, there is only death.
Where do we find such an oasis? There is another name for it: God's
Kingdom of Grace. You can't find it by looking for an address, for
example, on Rosa Road in Madison. It's not attached to any particular
building. In fact, earthly eyes are blind to it, and earthly ears
cannot detect it. But we don't have to ascend to heaven either, nor
descend to the abyss. God's Kingdom is near to you already, in the
hearts of those who trust God's Word that Jesus Christ is our Savior.
But we still need to find this oasis. Where? You find it where the
Holy Spirit is at work to bring us into His Kingdom. In fact, God has
given certain outward marks, so that wherever we find these marks, we
know that we have found an oasis. The marks are the pure teaching of
God's Word, and the God-pleasing use of Baptism and the Lord's Supper.
These are the means through which God promises to keep us with Jesus
Christ, in the one, true faith.
So God has given us an oasis of life in the middle of a spiritual
desert. Sometimes we may wander away from the oasis. Sometimes we may
stand at its edge, letting the hot, tempting wind whisper ``freedom''
into our hearts. But God's gift stands. Return to the oasis; remain
there, for He will heal your wounds with the balm of His Word. His
Baptism will keep you washed clean. The Lord's supper will give you
forgiveness for the road behind and strength for the road ahead.
Truly, God heals us with His salvation. Truly, He gives us an oasis of
life. Have hope, for our God is coming to save. Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria!
This document was translated from LATEX by
HEVEA.