Isaiah 40:1-11
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
A voice said, Cry!
But the prophet is weary. He doesn’t see the point anymore. He says to the Voice, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows upon it; surely the people are grass.
Which is to say, “What is the point of prophesying? We’re all dying. Everyone of us. We grow old and we fade. Whatever beauty there is in a human being, time will wipe it all away. What’s the point, then? We’re dying.
And the most shocking of all is when Isaiah adds: When the breath of the Lord blows on it. Remember Genesis 2 - the breath of God is what gave life. When God breathed into Adam’s nostrils he became a living being. The life that is in God’s breath is His Spirit. And that is the life that Adam and all his descendants have rejected. God told them: In the day you eat of it, you will die. And so death came to the human race, from our first parents, at its head, and the poison spread downward with each generation. All humanity is doomed to the same futility of being born only to die. You are given a taste of life, only to have it snatched away. Surely the people are grass.
And God’s breath that once gave life to Adam and Eve is the breath that now also brings death. For it is the breath of the All Holy One, whose holiness we do not share. His holiness is on our sinful flesh like a fire upon dry grass. So we heard last week from the prophet Malachi - our Lord is a consuming fire; He shall set ablaze all who reject Him.
And yet, only in His breath, only in Him, is Life. What a sad case we are in when Life itself destroys us. But that is precisely what sin does to us.
Despite these melancholy thoughts of Isaiah, the Lord is not done speaking with him. The Voice speaks again, The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God will stand forever. This is comfort for people whose conscience is stricken, for those terrified by their sin and hounded by the accusations of the devil. This is relief for burdened souls. The enduring Word of the Lord.
Dr Luther knew something of these terrors of conscience. He sought sure and certain relief from his sin and the accusations of the Law and Satan. He found it not in works or merits, not in positive thinking or five-step plans. His only solace, His only comfort and peace was in the Word of the Lord; the enduring Word that says, Your warfare is ended, your iniquity is pardoned, you have received from the Lord’s hand double for all your sins.
Only the forgiveness of sins brings lasting peace. And only the preaching of the Word of the Lord brings forgiveness of sins. As Luther wrote, “The first and chief article [of our Christian faith] is this, that Jesus Christ, our God and Lord, was put to death for our sins and was raised again for our justification. He alone is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, and God has laid upon Him the iniquities of us all. All have sinned and are justified freely, without their own works or merits, by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, in His blood. This is necessary to believe. This cannot be otherwise acquired or grasped by any work, law, or merit. Therefore it is clear and certain that this faith alone justifies. Nothing of this article can be yielded or surrendered, even though heaven and earth and everything else falls.” (SA II 1).
This was the purpose of the Reformation: to comfort, comfort the people, with the Word of the Lord. To give them the sure and certain hope of the forgiveness of sins in Christ Jesus. So important was this, that by 1522, with the Turks attacking from the East, the Holy Roman Empire threatening war from the South and West, Luther in hiding for the bounty put on his head following his excommunication - basically everything was falling apart - Frederick the Wise, elector of Saxony and Luther’s protector, confessed this truth against all his enemies: The Word of the Lord endures forever.
An emblem was designed. A simple Latin cross with the initials VDMA in the quadrants. VDMA. “Verbum Domini Manet in Aeterum.” The Word of the Lord endures forever. Princes would rise and fall, empires would crumble, men would die; but the Word of the Lord endures forever. It was sewn on flags, banners, court uniforms from the highest official to the lowest servant. It was engraved on swords and shields, it became the battle cry of the Reformation, coming through in such hymns as “A Mighty Fortress.” The Word of the Lord endures forever; it stands in a Life that never ends.
For in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. In Him was Life, and that Life was the Light of men. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. The Word that stands forever in a life that never ends joins Himself to human flesh, taken from the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, that is and forever will be, His own.
This is how humanity will be saved. Not with kings and armies battling it out. Not by works and laws and merits. By the Lord Himself taking up that which withers and fades under the breath of God, and making it His very own. For in Him that flesh will not wither and fade because that flesh is now joined to the Word of God who stands forever.
United to that Eternal Word, our flesh upon the Cross endures the blast of divine breath, the holiness of God that wipes out sin.
And here are true tidings of comfort and joy - that which would have destroyed us, does not destroy Him. For He cannot be destroyed, being at once true man and true God.
The result is that when the Cross is finished, human flesh, our flesh, is raised from the dead never to die again. Made absolutely incorruptible. He took our death into Himself and death itself was defeated when it encountered His flesh, the Life that cannot end. For the darkness cannot overcome it. He took our sin into Himself and sin was burned right out of His flesh by the fire of divine holiness. And yet that flesh lives! For it is joined to the eternal Word of God.
And He has joined Himself to you. Engraved His emblem, the watery cross of Holy Baptism upon you. He has marked you with the Name of the Word, the Word that endures forever. Thus shall you not die, but live. This is your sword and your shield, your Mighty Fortress, against the attacks of the devil, against the terrors of conscience and the lusting of the flesh.
And this is the Good News announced by Isaiah, that evangelist of the Old Testament, to the cities of Judah. Behold your God! Yes! See Him, now in human flesh, visible to your eyes. He has come to be your Shepherd, to gently carry the young in His arms. The One who would have destroyed us in His sheer holiness, and apart from whom we were dead and dying, came in the most marvelous way, drawing near to us and coming without destroying us, instead giving Life.
Behold your God. In the arm of the Virgin, asleep in the manger, wrapped in soft, swaddling clothes of poverty. How near can God get to us? Not much nearer than showing up inside our own flesh, come to destroy the effects of sin, to wipe out death, to give unto us His undying Life. Not much nearer than that.
Yet behold, here He places His risen and glorified Body and Blood into your dying bodies! The Lord of Life comes near to you, making Himself one with you; in effect, carrying you in His bosom. This is His reward, His recompense. You are comforted. You are forgiven. You are at peace. All by His enduring Word. Now that is something to shout from the mountain tops.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
In the Name + of JESUS. Amen.
A voice said, Cry!
But the prophet is weary. He doesn’t see the point anymore. He says to the Voice, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows upon it; surely the people are grass.
Which is to say, “What is the point of prophesying? We’re all dying. Everyone of us. We grow old and we fade. Whatever beauty there is in a human being, time will wipe it all away. What’s the point, then? We’re dying.
And the most shocking of all is when Isaiah adds: When the breath of the Lord blows on it. Remember Genesis 2 - the breath of God is what gave life. When God breathed into Adam’s nostrils he became a living being. The life that is in God’s breath is His Spirit. And that is the life that Adam and all his descendants have rejected. God told them: In the day you eat of it, you will die. And so death came to the human race, from our first parents, at its head, and the poison spread downward with each generation. All humanity is doomed to the same futility of being born only to die. You are given a taste of life, only to have it snatched away. Surely the people are grass.
And God’s breath that once gave life to Adam and Eve is the breath that now also brings death. For it is the breath of the All Holy One, whose holiness we do not share. His holiness is on our sinful flesh like a fire upon dry grass. So we heard last week from the prophet Malachi - our Lord is a consuming fire; He shall set ablaze all who reject Him.
And yet, only in His breath, only in Him, is Life. What a sad case we are in when Life itself destroys us. But that is precisely what sin does to us.
Despite these melancholy thoughts of Isaiah, the Lord is not done speaking with him. The Voice speaks again, The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God will stand forever. This is comfort for people whose conscience is stricken, for those terrified by their sin and hounded by the accusations of the devil. This is relief for burdened souls. The enduring Word of the Lord.
Dr Luther knew something of these terrors of conscience. He sought sure and certain relief from his sin and the accusations of the Law and Satan. He found it not in works or merits, not in positive thinking or five-step plans. His only solace, His only comfort and peace was in the Word of the Lord; the enduring Word that says, Your warfare is ended, your iniquity is pardoned, you have received from the Lord’s hand double for all your sins.
Only the forgiveness of sins brings lasting peace. And only the preaching of the Word of the Lord brings forgiveness of sins. As Luther wrote, “The first and chief article [of our Christian faith] is this, that Jesus Christ, our God and Lord, was put to death for our sins and was raised again for our justification. He alone is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, and God has laid upon Him the iniquities of us all. All have sinned and are justified freely, without their own works or merits, by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, in His blood. This is necessary to believe. This cannot be otherwise acquired or grasped by any work, law, or merit. Therefore it is clear and certain that this faith alone justifies. Nothing of this article can be yielded or surrendered, even though heaven and earth and everything else falls.” (SA II 1).
This was the purpose of the Reformation: to comfort, comfort the people, with the Word of the Lord. To give them the sure and certain hope of the forgiveness of sins in Christ Jesus. So important was this, that by 1522, with the Turks attacking from the East, the Holy Roman Empire threatening war from the South and West, Luther in hiding for the bounty put on his head following his excommunication - basically everything was falling apart - Frederick the Wise, elector of Saxony and Luther’s protector, confessed this truth against all his enemies: The Word of the Lord endures forever.
An emblem was designed. A simple Latin cross with the initials VDMA in the quadrants. VDMA. “Verbum Domini Manet in Aeterum.” The Word of the Lord endures forever. Princes would rise and fall, empires would crumble, men would die; but the Word of the Lord endures forever. It was sewn on flags, banners, court uniforms from the highest official to the lowest servant. It was engraved on swords and shields, it became the battle cry of the Reformation, coming through in such hymns as “A Mighty Fortress.” The Word of the Lord endures forever; it stands in a Life that never ends.
For in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. In Him was Life, and that Life was the Light of men. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. The Word that stands forever in a life that never ends joins Himself to human flesh, taken from the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary, that is and forever will be, His own.
This is how humanity will be saved. Not with kings and armies battling it out. Not by works and laws and merits. By the Lord Himself taking up that which withers and fades under the breath of God, and making it His very own. For in Him that flesh will not wither and fade because that flesh is now joined to the Word of God who stands forever.
United to that Eternal Word, our flesh upon the Cross endures the blast of divine breath, the holiness of God that wipes out sin.
And here are true tidings of comfort and joy - that which would have destroyed us, does not destroy Him. For He cannot be destroyed, being at once true man and true God.
The result is that when the Cross is finished, human flesh, our flesh, is raised from the dead never to die again. Made absolutely incorruptible. He took our death into Himself and death itself was defeated when it encountered His flesh, the Life that cannot end. For the darkness cannot overcome it. He took our sin into Himself and sin was burned right out of His flesh by the fire of divine holiness. And yet that flesh lives! For it is joined to the eternal Word of God.
And He has joined Himself to you. Engraved His emblem, the watery cross of Holy Baptism upon you. He has marked you with the Name of the Word, the Word that endures forever. Thus shall you not die, but live. This is your sword and your shield, your Mighty Fortress, against the attacks of the devil, against the terrors of conscience and the lusting of the flesh.
And this is the Good News announced by Isaiah, that evangelist of the Old Testament, to the cities of Judah. Behold your God! Yes! See Him, now in human flesh, visible to your eyes. He has come to be your Shepherd, to gently carry the young in His arms. The One who would have destroyed us in His sheer holiness, and apart from whom we were dead and dying, came in the most marvelous way, drawing near to us and coming without destroying us, instead giving Life.
Behold your God. In the arm of the Virgin, asleep in the manger, wrapped in soft, swaddling clothes of poverty. How near can God get to us? Not much nearer than showing up inside our own flesh, come to destroy the effects of sin, to wipe out death, to give unto us His undying Life. Not much nearer than that.
Yet behold, here He places His risen and glorified Body and Blood into your dying bodies! The Lord of Life comes near to you, making Himself one with you; in effect, carrying you in His bosom. This is His reward, His recompense. You are comforted. You are forgiven. You are at peace. All by His enduring Word. Now that is something to shout from the mountain tops.
In the Name of the Father and + of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
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