Sermon for the Fourth Sunday of Easter - Jubilate: Isa 40:25-31

                                                                                               Easter 4
                                                                                               Isa 40:25-31
                                                                                               4/17/16

I wish I had just half his energy!  If only you could take that energy and bottle it!  Most likely you have heard people make statements like this, or you have said it yourself.  We say things like this when we are around young children – especially little boys – because they just seem to keep going and going.  They are busy and active, always moving around and doing something.

This can be a challenge because as parents we don’t have boundless energy. Our lives are not only about play. We have a host of things that have to be done – tasks that we must take care of in addition to keeping an eye on a young child. Throw several children into the mix and it can wear you out.

But of course, even young children do not have endless energy. They too eventually become tired. And usually in the afternoon that leads to the parent’s best friend: the nap. Little children go and go, until finally, they are tired and need to rest.

In our Old Testament lesson today, Isaiah is contrasting Yahweh with human beings. He says that Israel’s God is the One who has created all things. He has all understanding. He also has all strength and power. Yahweh is completely different from human beings, who do become tired, weary and exhausted. After all, even young men become tired, faint and weary. Yet because God is the One who loves and cares for his people, he is also the One who renews the strength of those who trust in him.

In the Old Testament lesson this morning, Isaiah writes words of comfort for an event that hadn’t even happened yet. Isaiah lived in the eighth century A.D. In his day the Assyrian Empire was the great super power of the near eastern world that threatened both the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. In 721 B.C. God used the Assyrians as the instrument of his judgment against the idolatry and unfaithfulness of the northern kingdom. Israel’s capital, Samaria, was destroyed and the people were taken into exile. In their place, the Assyrians brought in conquered peoples from other areas.

However, in our text Isaiah isn’t talking about what is happening in this own time – in the eighth century. Instead he is speaking comfort for a disaster that has not yet occurred. He writes words that address the people of Judah in the sixth century B.C. Another empire will arise, the Babylonians. They will overcome the Assyrians and become the new ruling power in that part of the world. The Babylonians will be the instrument that God uses to punish Judah for her idolatry and unfaithfulness. They will destroy the temple and take the people into exile in Babylon. 

That disaster is still in the future as Isaiah writes in the eighth century. But already, God speaks a word of comfort and hope that will be true for Judah. God will act to bring back the people from exile. He will return them to their own land. Isaiah begins this chapter by writing, “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the LORD's hand double for all her sins.” God promises that he will act on behalf of his people. Isaiah announced, “And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.” The prophet goes on to say, “Go on up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good news; lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah, “Behold your God!” Behold, the Lord GOD comes with might, and his arm rules for him; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.”
 

The temptation in exile would be to give up hope. Even though it was their own sin that had brought this punishment upon the nation, there would be some who would want to blame God. There would be those who wanted to criticize the way God was doing things. Isaiah asks the question, “Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the LORD, and my right is disregarded by my God”?
 

So often that is where we find ourselves as well. The circumstances of life as fallen people in a fallen world challenge our faith in God. They threaten to squelch hope as we face unexpected – and unwanted – challenges. We see life going in ways that don’t fit our plans and we want to criticize the way God is doing things.
 

God’s answer through Isaiah is to say: “Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.” On numerous occasions the book of Isaiah calls attention to the fact that Yahweh is the Creator. The fact of the matter is that there is no one else like him. God begins by saying in our text, “To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him? says the Holy One.”
 

If you want proof, Isaiah says to look up at the stars. He writes, “Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name, by the greatness of his might, and because he is strong in power not one is missing.” God has no lack of understanding. He has no shortage of power.
 

And the good news is that God uses this on our behalf. He uses it for the sake of those who struggle with all of the ways that sin manifests itself in our lives. Isaiah says, “He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”
 

God does this for those “who wait for the Lord.” Judah had to wait some seventy years in exile. And then, rather suddenly, the Persian empire under King Cyrus arose and conquered the Babylonians. In 538 B.C. Cyrus issued an edict that the Judahites could return to their own land and rebuild the temple.
 

This act of rescuing his people was a type. It was an event that pointed forward to an even greater rescue that God was going to provide – a rescue that he has now provided in the incarnate Son of God, Jesus Christ. Through Jesus’ death on the cross God has released us from the burden of sin. By his resurrection from the dead he has freed us from the slavery of death. Buried with Christ in baptism we now live as the forgiven children of God. And because we have shared in the death of the risen Lord, our baptism provides the certainty that we will share in his resurrection as well.
 

This does not mean that the struggle against sin has ended. It does not mean that the hardships of a fallen world have ceased. But now the risen and ascended Lord Jesus continues to do that same thing that Isaiah describes in our text when he writes: He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”
 

Jesus gives us strength through his Means of Grace. He feeds us with his Word, and his true body and blood in the Sacrament of the Altar. He refreshes us with the good news of forgiveness in Holy Absolution. Through these means the Holy Spirit strengthens us in faith. He nourishes the new man in us.
 

And as he does so, something else happens. We who were faint and weary become the means God uses to support those around us who are weak. We become God’s instruments whereby he cares for those exhausted by life. You don’t have to look very hard to find the people who need this. They are there in your family, in this congregation, or next to you at school or work. The undeserved and unmerited love which you have received in Jesus Christ becomes something that you pass on to others by being there to help and assist them.
 

Until our Lord returns in glory, there will always be the temptation to give up hope; to surrender to sin; to question God. At those times we return to Isaiah’s words: “Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.”
 

The God who created all things has now acted in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ to bring renewal and re-creation. He has given us new life through the work of the Holy Spirit in water and the Word, and in Christ we are already now a new creation. Through his Means of Grace our Lord Jesus continues to renew and increase our strength so that we can live in faith toward God and love for our neighbor.