Trinity 20
Isa
55:1-9
10/22/23
What
would it be like if you could eat out any time you wanted? What if you could eat out all the time? It certainly would be easier. You would never have to worry about going
grocery shopping. You would never have
to plan meals. You would never have to
cook or do dishes. Now that sounds great.
And
of course, you could have a wide variety of food. During my years in Marion I have seen the
number of different restaurants continue to increase. We now have a nice range of places to eat,
and they keep adding new ones.
Eating
out all the time would be great. It
would, however, be very expensive. Food
costs more when we eat out. We would all
probably like to eat out more often than we do.
The reason we don’t is that we can’t afford it. It would cost too much.
In
our Old Testament lesson God invites his people to eat and drink food that
costs nothing. He offers to satisfy them
with what they really need. As we listen
to our text, we find that in his compassion our God offers pardon and
forgiveness as he draws us to himself.
Our
text is from the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah lived in the eighth century B.C in the
southern kingdom of Judah. During his
lifetime he saw the northern kingdom of Israel conquered by the Assyrians and
taken into exile in 721 B.C. The
Assyrians threatened Judah as well, but God rescued the nation.
However,
Judah did not learn its lesson from this experience. Judah might have been going through the
motions of worshipping Yahweh, but their heart was not truly in it. They worshipped false gods. They did not want
to listen to God’s word. Isaiah began
his prophecy by saying, “Ah, sinful
nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers, children who
deal corruptly! They have forsaken the LORD, they have despised the
Holy One of Israel, they are utterly estranged.”
Judah would not repent and so God was
going to bring judgment upon the nation.
He would take them into exile. He
did this in 587 B.C. when he used the Babylonians to destroy the temple and
take the people to Babylon.
Through
Isaiah, God speaks about what is going to happen in the future. In the second half of Isaiah’s prophecy he
speaks a word of hope because God would not abandon his people. Instead, he would bring the people back from
Babylon. Just as God had rescued his
people from Egypt in the exodus, so God would again act to bring the people
back to their own land.
Isaiah
begins our text by saying, “Come, everyone
who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and
eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” This is an amazing offer. God begins by promising
to satisfy the people. He offers food
and drink without cost.
Yet as we continue to listen, we
realize that God is speaking about more than literal food. He says through Isaiah, “Why do you spend
your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not
satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves
in rich food.”
Isaiah warns about focusing on that
which cannot satisfy. He urges us to
turn away from our false gods. We make
money and wealth our goal. We get caught
up in the accumulation of things. We focus
on our job and career. We allow sports
to take on a role of central interest and effort. These and so many other things compete with
God for the number one place in our life.
But these things cannot satisfy. They are not the food that we need. We were created in the image of God. We were created for fellowship with God. Only in this relationship can be find true
peace and meaning for life. As St. Augustine said, “Man remains restless until
he finds his rest it in God.”
In our text God urges the people,
“Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live.” God offers life. He offers abundant
life. And our text directs us toward
where that life is found. God says
through Isaiah, “I
will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love
for David.
Behold,
I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the
peoples.”
Our text points us to the Messiah descended from David. It points us to Jesus Christ. In the book of Isaiah, God speaks about what the Messiah will do. He speaks about the child born who is called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. He promises, “Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.”
God acted to bring his people back from exile when the Persian king Cyrus defeated the Babylonians, and then issued a decree in 538 B.C. that the Judahites could return. Yet this act of rescue was not the end of God’s work. Instead, it pointed forward to something even greater. It pointed to what God would do through the descendant of David, Jesus Christ.
In our text God urges, “Seek the LORD while he may
be found; call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and
the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion
on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.”
God calls all to repent. He urges us to confess our sin and to turn
away from it. He bids us to return to
him for he will have compassion on us and pardon our sins. Like the promise of free food and drink with
which our text begins, this sounds too good to be true. After all, we have sinned against God in
thought, word, and deed. We have harmed
our neighbor by what we have done and what we have said. How can God have compassion on us and forgive
us? That’s not the way we act towards
others.
Yet that is the exact point that God makes in our
text. God is not like us. And thank God this is so! He says, “For my thoughts are not your
thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens
are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts
than your thoughts.”
Our thoughts are wicked and unrighteous. God’s
thoughts are completely different. They
are gracious and compassionate. He wants
to forgive. He wants to save. He wants
to pardon even those who show no love towards him. He wants to pardon us.
We have intentions, but often don’t carry through on
them. We intend to lose weight or save
more money. Yet somehow we often fail to
do so. But that is not true of God. He
not only has intentions, but he carries through on them. He does it in
surprising ways - in ways that we would not expect.
Our text makes it clear that God will pardon. But how can the just God be true to himself
as he pardons our sins? Doesn’t he have
to punish sin? The answer is yes, and two chapters earlier Isaiah explains how
he has done this. There Isaiah speaks
about the Servant of the Lord. He tells
us, “All we like sheep have gone astray; we
have turned--every one--to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the
iniquity of us all.”
God
placed our sin on the Servant. Then God
punished the Servant in our place. We
hear: “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our
sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But
he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon
him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we
are healed.”
God’s thoughts
are not our thoughts. God’s ways are not
our ways. We hear about the Servant and
there does not appear to be anything glorious about him. Yet the great surprise
is that the Servant of the Lord is the Messiah!
He is Jesus Christ.
God had
promised that the Spirit of the Lord would rest upon the descendant of David –
the shoot from the stump of Jesse. This
the One who would bring peace to God’s creation. Yet he also said that he would put his Spirit
upon the Servant. The great surprise is
that the Messiah and the Servant of the Lord are one and the same!
Jesus was wounded
for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities as he hung upon the
cross. This was the just God acting to
condemn sin. Our Lord died in the
humiliation of the cross and was buried.
It did not look like this One could really be the Christ. But God’s ways are not our ways. On the third day God raised Jesus from the
dead and exalted him as he was seated at God’s right hand. He vindicated Jesus as the Christ. Of the increase of his government and peace
there will be no end. He reigns now, and
all will have to acknowledge him as Lord when he returns in glory on the Last
Day.
God has given
us what satisfies – his love and forgiveness.
In his compassion he has restored us to himself. We have seen that he did this in the
unexpected means of the cross. God’s thoughts
are not our thoughts, and his ways are not our ways.
This is true
not only of how God has worked our salvation.
We find this to be true when God allows times of suffering and hardship
to enter our life. We don’t want these
things. Yet the death and resurrection
of Jesus is the reason that we can trust in God in the midst of them. Jesus Christ is the assurance that God
continues to love and care for us no matter what things may look like.
God has had
compassion on us and has abundantly pardoned our sins. Through baptism we have
been born again of water and the Spirit, and had all our sins washed away. Because this is so we begin to think and act
differently. We begin think with God’s
thoughts and act with his ways.
God has had
compassion on us and pardoned our sins in Christ. By the work of the Spirit we
now have compassion on others and pardon their sins. When wronged, do not hold onto the offense as
a kind of weapon that you can continue to use against the other person. Instead, forgive as God has forgiven you. Pardon others with the forgiveness by which
God has pardoned you.
God helped you
when you were in need. Now as the
baptized child of God, help others around you.
Support those in difficult circumstances with your presence and
care. Bear up the burdens of others as
you help them in whatever way you can.
Look for opportunities to be Christ to your neighbor.
In our text,
God invites us to receive what truly satisfies.
He calls us to himself because he is compassionate and pardons. He has acted in the Messiah who is also the
Suffering Servant. He has won
forgiveness for us through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Baptized into Christ we have received this
forgiveness. We now live as God’s people
who forgive others and act in compassion toward those in our life.
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