The Rev. Paul J Cain, Jr.
Isaiah 35:1-10 (ESV)
There is Joy in the Lord!
Wednesday of Advent III, 15 December 2010
Immanuel Lutheran Church, Sheridan, Wyoming
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Isaiah is often a puzzle to Christians today. Some verses are familiar: Isaiah’s vision of the angels around the throne singing Holy, Holy, Holy, the prophecy that a virgin would conceive and bear one named Immanuel, and the texts about the suffering servant we hear from during Lent and Holy Week.
Much of the rest of Isaiah’s 66 chapters are unfamiliar territory, speaking about judgment and wrath, death and destruction, and prophecies against the enemies of God. They don’t seem relevant. Those texts don’t seem to apply to us.
Isaiah 35 is not one of those gloom and doom passages. It is ten verses of Gospel. Judgment was the theme of the previous chapter, as good fertile land was transformed into a sulfurous burning wasteland. God’s law went forth against the nations. Here in our Old Testament text for this Third Sunday in Advent, Isaiah walks hand in hand with St. John’s Revelation in talking about the glories of the time of Jesus’ ministry, and at the end, the new heaven and new earth.
This isn’t just a text for the peoples of Judah and Israel some 700 years before Christ. It is a text for you today who have faith in Messiah Jesus and await with joy His Second Coming as we prepare to celebrate His first. There is joy in the Lord!
The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad; the desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus; 2it shall blossom abundantly and rejoice with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the majesty of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God.
Wyoming, especially southwest Wyoming, gives us a good idea of wilderness, dry land, and desert. Our rock-laden landscape has a unique beauty of its own, but you have all met people for whom it was a shock. They would have preferred something greener, something with more trees and vegetation, and less snakes and scorpions. A day when that will be the case is coming.
Following judgment day, God will resurrect the earth as he will each of us. He will again look upon the earth with restored fullness and proclaim “It is very good,” for the chronic infection of sin will be no more. God and His presence are the source of all the blessings we enjoy now and will enjoy in the final heaven. There God and the Lamb will dwell with believers. What joy there is to come for the faithful! There is joy in the Lord!
We have joy even while we wait for Jesus’ Second Advent. Through the Word and Holy Baptism, Holy Absolution, and Holy Communion, the Holy Spirit calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian Church on earth and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith. Even weak faith can say, “Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief.” And the Lord will answer that prayer.
3Strengthen the weak hands, and make firm the feeble knees. 4Say to those who have an anxious heart, "Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you."
We need not wait in anxious hearts for Jesus to return. Yes, He will be the Judge of all on Judgment Day. But for those who believe in Him, He judges them according to what He has done. He is our advocate, defender, and savior. The believer has nothing to fear.
It is the unbeliever, the one who does not have faith in His Words that should have anxiety. For such a one He comes in Judgment. The time is near. Repent and believe the good news. There is still time, but the time is short.
5Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; 6then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. For waters break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert; 7the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water; in the haunt of jackals, where they lie down, the grass shall become reeds and rushes.
When our three-year system of readings was set up in the 1960’s and 70’s, an Old Testament lesson was chosen to go along with each Gospel lesson. The Epistle, or second reading, is often chosen the same way (except during the green seasons). The connection this week between Isaiah 35 and Matthew 11 is clear.
Matthew 11:2-6 (ESV) Now when John [the Baptizer] heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples 3and said to him, "Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?" 4And Jesus answered them, "Go and tell John what you hear and see: 5the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. 6And blessed is the one who is not offended by me."
Jesus’ very words and deeds fulfill our text. 5Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped; 6then shall the lame man leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. For waters break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert; 7the burning sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water; in the haunt of jackals, where they lie down, the grass shall become reeds and rushes.
In Jesus, the kingdom of heaven, the very reign of heaven, has begun. Not all has yet been restored, That must wait for the consummation, the end of all things. Yet, the kingdom of God has changed the world. It has changed you, and touches your life. The kingdom is but a foretaste of the new heaven and new earth when Jesus will have returned in all glory and power and might. In the meantime, He has revealed Himself in the Scriptures as the way of salvation.
Jesus cares for you body and soul, for your whole person. If He were merely concerned with “saving souls,” there would not have been much point for him to heal the sick, raise the dead, and raise physically from the dead Himself. That is why we still pray for health and restoration in Jesus’ name and according to God’s will. He has promised not only to save your soul, but resurrect and glorify your body on the Last Day.
Do you have a physical ailment? Is there a chronic pain, or disease, or syndrome, or condition? Do dry conditions or severe wind or winter weather wear on you? Isaiah points us in joyful hope to a time when all that is evil, hurtful, or sinful will be gone. On the Last Day Jesus will raise you and all the dead and give eternal life to you and all believers in Christ. There will be a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth will have passed away. There is joy in the Lord!
8And a highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Way of Holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it. It shall belong to those who walk on the way; even if they are fools, they shall not go astray. 9No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it; they shall not be found there, but the redeemed shall walk there. 10And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
Reading the book of Acts, we see that followers of Jesus were originally called “the Way” (Acts 19:23), perhaps an allusion to this Isaiah text. Jesus is the way, the truth and the life.
The unclean shall not pass over it. Not everyone who claims membership in a Christian congregation will be saved. Hypocrites, “unclean” ones, are members of Christian churches. Only God sees the heart. Only God knows for sure who has faith in His Son and who will be saved. There are no false Christians or hypocrites in God’s true Church, which remains hidden, or invisible. Christmas and Easter services are not “booster shots,” able to keep one on the Way of Holiness all the rest of the year. Faith starves if it’s not fed with God’s good Gifts. Eventually, the hunger pangs do go away. A person can fall away from the path. And clouded by unbelief, they don’t see much point in getting back on the path of salvation.
The Way of Holiness that Isaiah describes is not something that we are to only occasionally follow, when we feel like it, or want to, It is a way of life. Ancient roadsides were far more treacherous than we are used to. One stayed on the path, for to venture off meant a likely encounter with some sort of ravenous beast.
When a Christian wanders off the way of Holiness, we might well run into a roaring lion looking for someone to devour, Satan. Satan’s ravenous hatred toward God and Christians doesn’t abate. Satan wants to feed during the long weeks between Christmas and Easter and Easter and Christmas. He doesn’t take time off from pursuing you. Why would anyone take time off from pursuing God? God wants you armed and prepared for battle. We dare not neglect the means He has given us to defend and strengthen ourselves, and keep us on the way of Holiness.
Parents sometimes say, “You know. My kids are old enough to choose for themselves if they want to go to church or not.” Perhaps you have encountered this or have said it yourself. If your son or daughter got up in the morning and told you, “Mom, Dad, I don’t think I’ll go to school today. I’ve decided for myself.” Would you let that happen? No! School is important.
Think about this in the context of the Way of Holiness, the way of salvation. Which is really more important? Yes, one’s education impacts an entire life. One’s salvation affects even more than that--one’s entire life, death, and life in the world to come. Church is important because here the benefits of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection are given out. Parents are given the responsibility, by God, to train a child in the way he or she should walk.
The redeemed walk in the way of Holiness. The ransomed walk in the way of Holiness. Someone had to pay the redemption price. Someone had to pay the ransom. That someone was Jesus. He paid the price, not with gold or silver, but with His Holy precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death that you might be His own and live under Him in His kingdom and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness. Because of what He has done, you have righteousness, innocence, blessedness, and walk in the way of holiness.
And there is much reason for joy. There is much reason for singing. Here, you have received of Jesus’ gifts. You have received gladness and joy. Here sorrow and sighing shall flee away. And we, the redeemed and ransomed of the Lord, look forward in joy to Christ’s Second Advent, His coming at the end of time, when He will wipe every tear from our eye, every pain shall cease, and our joy will be joy everlasting. There is joy in the Lord!
8And a highway shall be there, and it shall be called the Way of Holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it. It shall belong to those who walk on the way; even if they are fools, they shall not go astray. 9No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast come up on it; they shall not be found there, but the redeemed shall walk there. 10And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing; everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
There is joy in the Lord! Amen.
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
