Lent 4 --- Lætare
Jesse Jacobsen
Time-stamp: <Sat Mar 5 22:04:14 2005>
printed
Isaiah 49:8--13
Thus says the LORD:
``In an acceptable time I have heard You,
And in the day of salvation I have helped You;
I will preserve You and give You As a covenant to the people,
To restore the earth,
To cause them to inherit the desolate heritages;
That You may say to the prisoners, `Go forth,'
To those who are in darkness, `Show yourselves.',
``They shall feed along the roads,
And their pastures shall be on all desolate heights.
They shall neither hunger nor thirst,
Neither heat nor sun shall strike them;
For He who has mercy on them will lead them,
Even by the springs of water He will guide them.
I will make each of My mountains a road,
And My highways shall be elevated.
Surely these shall come from afar;
Look! Those from the north and the west,
And these from the land of Sinim.''
Sing, O heavens! Be joyful, O earth!
And break out in singing, O mountains!
For the LORD has comforted His people,
And will have mercy on His afflicted.
Today, our inheritance is Jesus
Some say that one of the most important things you can do for those you
love is have a will drawn up. I don't know that anyone likes to think
about these things, but a will simply states how you would like your
worldly possessions taken care of after you die. Making wills is an old
custom. It allows you to give a special gift to others that you may not
be able to afford while living. You can give these gifts to just about
anyone, or any organization. We should all consider having a will, but
we may not all receive an inheritance.
There is a will that is above the rest, and an inheritance that's better
than all the rest. That will is God's, and we are all written into it.
But how can God have a will, when God cannot die? Does His last will
and testament mean anything?
This is a great mystery, something we can't fully understand. You see,
God has died, because God the Son has taken a human nature as His own.
His human nature died, and He did not abandon it to the grave. Jesus
Christ remained human and divine, even in the midst of death. In this
way, somehow, God actually experienced death, and His will sprang into
action, as Hebrews 9:16 says, ``For where there is a testament,
there must also of necessity be the death of the testator.''
You are in God's last will and testament. He calls upon you now to
receive your inheritance. Today, your inheritance is Jesus. That's our
theme this morning. Our first main point: He restores the earth for our
habitation. Our second main point: He leads many to sacred pastures.
He restores the earth for our habitation
As our text begins, the prophet speaks for God the Father, addressing
God the Son: ``In an acceptable time I have heard You, And in
the day of salvation I have helped You.'' These words are quoted later
by St. Paul. Originally, they are addressed to Jesus, but Paul extends
that to include the body of Christ: the Church. He says,
``Behold, now is the accepted time, now is the day of
salvation.'' So God wants us to believe that this very day, He has
heard our prayers, and sends His help.
The great wonder of all this is that He hears us on account of Jesus, to
whom these words were first spoken by the Father. And the help that God
sends us is also Jesus. He says to Jesus in the next verse: ``I
will preserve You and give You As a covenant to the people.''
Now, the word in our Bibles is covenant, but the oldest Greek
translation of Isaiah uses the word ``testament'' instead --- as in last
will and testament. It would be better translated that way in
our English bibles. So the Father has given Jesus as a Testament to the
people, thus making Jesus both the inheritance and the Testator at the
same time. Jesus is our inheritance, and the Father's answer to our
prayers.
After saying that, our text gives purposes or reasons why the Father
gives the Son as a Testament. The first reason is ``To restore
the earth.'' The next is ``To cause them [us] to inherit the
desolate heritages.'' These are the results of our inheritance in
Jesus. Both spiritual in nature, they also have a material side.
Restoring the earth is focused on our Christian lives here, while
inheriting ``the desolate heritages'' is focused on our lives hereafter.
Yet the boundaries are not so sharp. There are parts of our eternal
inheritance that we not only possess already, but even enjoy today.
But first, we should consider what ``To restore the Earth''
means. Does that mean it is now perfect? Is there now world peace? No,
there isn't. That's the great disappointment of the 20th century ---
the result of our misplaced optimism. All the things that men consider
to be great and worthy are not truly great or worthy before God.
Everything we are prone to love is at least tainted by the guilt of our
sin, and many things are downright corrupt.
Some people make a big deal about the indecency and chicanery of what's
on the Internet, as though it's any morally different from the printing
press, the radio, or the television. All are corrupt. From where has
so much corruption come? Jesus answers: ``For from within, out
of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications,
murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil
eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness.''
Maybe we should all take a moment and check: do we each still have a
beating human heart? There's the source. From birth until death, we
corrupt the earth. But now comes God's inheritance, set into action by
the death of Jesus, ``to restore the earth.'' Jesus didn't
address only the symptoms, as we like to do. He cured the disease by
removing the guilt of our sin. Our own heart was the problem, so God
said, ``I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within
you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a
heart of flesh.''
He does this by connecting every one of us to the death of Jesus Christ
through faith in the Gospel message. The same gospel empowers holy
Baptism, and is eaten and drunk by Christians, forgiving, sanctifying,
and making life appear where earlier had been only death. So if we keep
Jesus' Word, we remain connected to His death. In this way, the Holy
Spirit sanctifies our lives and all the things that God would have us
do. As God blessed Joseph's work after he was sold as a slave and
imprisoned in Egypt, so that even Joseph's unbelieving masters were
blessed, God also blesses and sanctifies even the smallest thing that
Christians do in faith. Indeed, we have been made the salt of the
earth, so that whatever we do or say, Jesus is active in our deed and
our words, so that the Gospel may be told to every single person on
earth.
We are not permanent residents on earth, but we are all here now for a
purpose. Jesus restores the earth for our habitation. As Paul wrote,
``For me, to live is Christ, and to die gain.''
He leads many to sacred pastures
Our second main point today concerning Jesus, our inheritance, is that
He leads many to sacred pastures. This is what our text says about
those who inherit Jesus: ``They shall feed along the roads, And
their pastures shall be on all desolate heights. They shall neither
hunger nor thirst, Neither heat nor sun shall strike them; For He who
has mercy on them will lead them, Even by the springs of water He will
guide them.''
The passage just before this speaks of prisoners in darkness who are set
free at last. This is what they are set free to do: to graze endlessly
upon the verdant hills and to drink from the deep waters. It's
certainly a picture of heaven, isn't it? But this is a picture of
heaven that is already coming true on earth.
Consider the purposes we heard earlier, the reasons why Jesus is being
given as a testament to the people. ``To restore the earth, To
cause them to inherit the desolate heritages.'' Now, the word
``desolate'' sounds negative to many people. What it really means is
that the heritages --- the inheritance --- that God provides in Jesus
are things that very few have received in a long time. These are
places where hardly anyone has gone in ages. The desolate heritages are
heaven and God's kingdom of grace, ``Because narrow is the gate
and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find
it.''
Our true life is in God's kingdom of grace, while our visible life still
seems material and earthly. But the Son of God took human flesh
Himself, so we know that material things are not necessarily evil. Some
things are good because God has provided them His own special purpose.
For example: the cross of our Lord's crucifixion is a horrible
instrument of death. Yet Jesus used it as a tool for our salvation. He
gave the cross a sanctified meaning in God's kingdom of grace. To some
it's a gruesome symbol of dusty old churches. To us who are being
saved, it is a symbol of our Savior and what He has done for His bride,
the glorious and everlasting Church.
Jesus feeds His Church along the roads, and provides pastures on the
desolate heights. To some, our food seems like tasteless crackers and
very ordinary wine; or many dry words spoken without any commercials,
repeating the same things every week; or a bewildering ritual with
heartless music. Part of every Christian can understand this point of
view. We also have eyes of flesh. But we know that our food is the
very flesh and blood of Jesus Christ, once given and shed for us. Our
nourishment is the real and authoritative remission of sins and the
promise of God's everlasting grace. Having these, the world we live in
is sanctified to us, reflecting the life of Jesus in us.
Jesus, our Shepherd, brings us food. Our pasture is not the
refrigerator or the cupboard. Our pasture is Jesus' Cross. On the
altar shortly will be His true body, and His real blood from that cross.
Those who have prepared for this meal and wish to confess our Lord's
death together will be fed by Him. It's a foretaste from the feast of
heaven, and this food will give immortality to everyone who partakes in
faith. But if anyone doubts the Word of Jesus, let him not come to this
table, because His Words require truly believing hearts.
Our pasture of forgiveness extends to the Words of God that we have in
our hearts and on our lips. You have it already simply by hearing God's
Word, because we preach Christ crucified. Realize that since you came
today, you have been receiving living water and bread from heaven, and
through it the Holy Spirit has been drawing you farther into the kingdom
of Grace. Even our hymns and liturgy are hearty spiritual food.
As we leave this place sanctified and fed by the Word of God, may His
Word continue to resonate in our hearts and lives, sanctifying
everything we do and drawing more people into these sacred pastures.
``The LORD has comforted his people and will have mercy on His
afflicted!'' Today, our inheritance is Jesus. Praise be to God. Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria!
This document was translated from LATEX by
HEVEA.