The humble and poor rejoice in Jesus.

 

Sermon for Trinity 12, September 4, 2022

To Him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by His own blood and made us a kingdom and priests to God His Father—to Him be the glory and the power forever.  Amen.

Isaiah 29:18-19  ¹⁸On that day, the deaf will hear the words from a book, and out of gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see.  ¹⁹The humble will rejoice in the Lord once again, and the poor will delight in the Holy One of Israel. (EHV)

The humble and poor rejoice in Jesus.

Dear fellow believers redeemed by the blood of the Lamb,

            There is both physical and spiritual healing foretold in the words of our text.  By the multitude of healings Jesus performed, especially giving sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf as we observed in our Gospel lesson, Jesus used physical healings as proof that He is the promised Savior God foretold in this passage.  Still, the ultimate message of this prophecy is that God would restore truth and salvation in an Israel that was lost in its deafness to God’s Word and its blindness to His providence and mercy.  Therefore, we should understand that the Lord is foretelling that The humble and poor rejoice in Jesus.

Now, today, many may say that you have to be poor and downtrodden to be a real Christian worthy of God’s mercy, so they elevate their opinion of people who have troubles, even mental illness and self-induced difficulties like addictions and bad behavior to an imagined special status in which we should all view them as victims who deserve special favor from God.  However, if you read the book of Job, you quickly understand that there is much suffering in this world that cannot be reasoned.  God allows what He allows for His purposes, and only He knows the ends He has planned.  Furthermore, our choices in life often lead to consequences that cause us great pain, and living in a world suffering under the curse of sin also leads to much trouble that merits no place in heaven.

At the same time, others may claim that you must make yourself poor and humble in order to be saved.  This idea drove many ancient monks to isolate themselves from the world, to inflict harm to their own bodies, and to deprive themselves of any form of comfort even to the point of starvation.  Some thought that by avoiding temptation they could avoid the sins that bring condemnation, while others began to expect a heavenly reward merely for their pain.  Looking back on his years as a monk, Martin Luther recognized that he had inflicted much pain to his body hoping to appease God, yet it brought no relief to his troubled conscience. 

In our day, the trend to arrogance continues with much social media bashing of those holding opposing viewpoints.  Large portions of our society like to see their political or social opponents suffer for their beliefs.  There is an imagined self-righteousness that assumes the hurting souls deserve what they get or that those fortunate enough to be favored by the masses are more holy, somehow.  It looks somewhat like the mistreatment that Job’s so-called friends inflicted on him.

All of this leads to the question, what does God mean with these words to Isaiah?  In answer, understand that God wants people of faith.  Israel had wandered away from the God who had rescued their forefathers.  The people forgot who the true God is in their chasing after idols and pursuit of worldly pleasures.  For their discard of the God who loved them, we might say that God was separating from His beloved until such time as His beloved came to her senses.  The Bible often uses the picture of husband and wife in describing the relationship between our loving God and His Bride, the Church.  Whether in Old Testament Israel, or in the New Testament Church, including our times, God unites Himself with people who love and trust Him simply because He is good, and good to us.

As the Lord God threatened unfaithful Israel with harsh discipline, He also promised grace and every blessing to those who returned to trusting in Him.  Out of the deafness of His people to His Word, some would eventually be restored to faith through the hearing of that Word.  Likewise, some of those caught in the darkness of exile in a foreign land would eventually see release and freedom in their return to the Promised Land of their forefathers.

As Jesus walked and taught on earth, this prophecy is fulfilled as He opened eyes of the blind both physically and spiritually.  In our Gospel lesson, a deaf man was healed, but even more so, the Good News of what Jesus was doing had opened the ears of those who had earlier begged Him to leave their country but now leading them to come to Him for healing and life.

The humble and poor rejoice in Jesus.  As we read through the Scriptures, we might be mystified by what this means.  Many of the great patriarchs were wealthy far beyond what we experience.  How could they be blessed in the kingdom of God?  Many of the great heroes of faith showed great blindness and even arrogance at times, so how did they become humble before the Lord?  The best answer I can give is that God humbled them with life, and or with His law. 

As far as being spiritually deaf or blind, all of us enter this world blind and deaf to God’s love.  It is the Gospel that opens our eyes and ears to comprehend the love and mercy God has shown to the world by sending His Son to live and die in our place.

None of the heroes of faith in the Bible were without sin.  Some were men of great wealth, yet others, like Lazarus, died paupers in horrible conditions.  King David because a man of great power, wealth, and privilege, yet he trusted in God without hesitation, and when David sinned, and indeed sinned grievously, God called David to repentance and restored him to grace.

Moses was a man of incomparable faith, yet he too was a sinner, but God in His mercy used Moses to rescue the chosen nation from slavery and bitter toil to lead them to the Promised Land.  By His Word of grace to Moses, God gave us much of what we need to know to be saved.

Being humble and poor in the kingdom of heaven isn’t always evident in the outward appearance, for “the Lord does not look at things the way man does.  For man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7)  Whether a person is well blessed in this world, or indeed suffering greatly, God uses life to draw us to Himself.  Yet, the primary way God makes us humble and poor in His kingdom is by exposing us to the mirror of His law.  When our eyes are opened to see our sin, the law is working to show us how poverty stricken in righteousness we truly are by nature.  Then, when worldly circumstances, or the striking accusations of the law reveal our utter shame, only then are we prepared to receive the Good News of God’s grace.

Therefore, we cannot view the law as our ticket to heaven, because we never measure up to its strict code of holiness.  Neither can we earn our way to heaven with earthly riches, nor merit it with the accumulation of suffering and pain.  St. Paul wrote, “Creation was subjected to futility, not by its own will, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in the hope that even creation itself will be set free from slavery to corruption, in order to share in the glorious freedom of the children of God.” (Romans 8:20-21)  This is why there is suffering and pain—not to merit God’s love, but because sin infests the world and because God wants to turn us away from rebellion to walking with Him in glory.

Along with that explanation, Paul by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit strengthens our souls, saying, “If God is for us, who can be against us?  Indeed, he who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also graciously give us all things along with him?” (Romans 8:31-32)  Understand, therefore, that all things, both wealth and poverty, health or pain, are gifts of God intended to draw us to Him.  In the person in which the Holy Spirit is working, all things remind us of our need for a Savior, and the Gospel in Word and Sacrament brings us into forgiveness and salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

Now, it is abundantly clear that neither the law nor our earthly troubles bring us comfort, but neither are they intended to bring comfort but rather to draw us humbly to the One who gives life and salvation freely as a gift.  When we are brought low by the law or circumstances of life, then our God has us ready to receive His greatest blessing, forgiveness and life everlasting. 

Thus, when you know Jesus as your Savior, when you are convinced that there is nothing you have done, or yet can do, to earn God’s favor, then you can be comforted in knowing that you truly are among the poor and needy that God foretold to Isaiah.  Then, you can rejoice with all the saints in heaven and on earth, for God has made you His own dear child be faith.  God has brought you low to lift you up to glory; He has allowed poverty and weakness to prepare you to receive the riches of His grace which brings you forgiveness and life eternal.

Isaiah was told, “The poor will delight in the Holy One of Israel.”  We delight in Jesus.  Only Jesus, the Son of God from all eternity, truly humbled Himself before God and the world.  Only Jesus brings perfect delight to His Father in heaven.  Yet, it is Jesus’ perfect holiness that is credited to us through faith, and through the faith He has worked in our hearts, God sees us as His own dear children, holy and perfect in His sight, prepared and adopted into His family by grace.

Dear friends, Jesus is the answer to any questions you may have about this prophecy.  In Jesus, we delight.  In Jesus, we sing praise to God, because in Jesus, we are cleansed of all sin and reconciled with the Father in heaven, fully and perfectly prepared to enter into glory in His heavenly mansions.  Then, recognizing that you have no merit or worthiness of your own that would allow you to stand before God in the judgment, rejoice that in Jesus, with your sins forgiven and peace with God restored, you have been given the riches of heaven.  God’s promise and our confidence is this: The humble and poor rejoice in Jesus.  Amen.

God will fully supply your every need, according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus.  Now to our God and Father be glory forever and ever!  Amen.