Be glad & rejoice; Jesus swallowed up death forever.

 

Sermon for Pentecost 20, October 15, 2023

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort.  Amen.

Isaiah 25:6-9  ⁶On this mountain the Lord of Armies will prepare for all peoples a banquet of rich food, a banquet of aged wines, with the best cuts of meat, and with the finest wines.  ⁷On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that covers all peoples, the burial cloth stretched over all nations.  ⁸He has swallowed up death forever!  The Lord God will wipe away the tears from every face.  He will take away the shame of his people throughout the earth.  For the Lord has spoken.  ⁹On that day it will be said, “Look, here is our God!  We waited for him, and he saved us!  This is the Lord!  We waited for him.  Let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation! (EHV)

Be glad & rejoice; Jesus swallowed up death forever.

Dear fellow redeemed and rejoicing friends,

            Every so often, a sermon text comes along at just the right time for whatever you are dealing with.  Today is one of those days.  About three weeks ago, we learned that cancer would soon take my mother’s life.  On Monday of this past week, our Katie’s birthday, my mother died, and Friday, we laid her to rest in the ground until the Lord returns.  Along with all of that, for the last month or so, my immune system has been trying to destroy my skin, or at least to make it feel unbearably like that. 

Now, I do not tell you these things to try to generate your sympathy.  Everyone of you faces these same kinds of adversity, hardships, losses, and sorrows all the time, some of you even this week too.  We live in a world cursed with all kinds of trouble and death on account of the sin that so infests us and causes the curse of death that brings so much heartache and pain.

But then, along comes the Word of our God with just the perfect message of hope and comfort.  Words that allow us to face the sorrows and troubles of life with hope for our future and peace in our times of trouble.  Precisely so we can Be glad & rejoice; Jesus swallowed up death forever.

Far too often, far too many people view church as boring, repetitive, unnecessary, or even offensive.  I am seeing more and more articles on social media exclaiming how offensive God’s Word is for one reason or another.  Likewise, you and I have to admit that our sinful flesh doesn’t always appreciate sitting on a hard, wooden pew for most of an hour as the preacher tells us what to do, or not to do, and how we have sinned against God.  We may not like all the hymns, or they are played too slow, too fast, or too loud to suit some, and more than a few people have grumbled, “I’ve heard it all before.”

Now, no one likes to have their sin pointed out to them.  I don’t like it anymore than most of you.  Yet, sin troubles us every moment of our lives.  It causes us to take offense at other people, or at what they say or do that mistreats us.  Sin causes us to do those things to others, also, even if unintentionally.  Worse yet, sin separates us from God and causes the death that stalks us on every side, “the shroud that covers all peoples, the burial cloth stretched over all nations.”  That miserable shroud of sin and death often keeps people from seeing the God who created and loves them.

Sometimes, we stay away because someone of our fellow members offended us.  Sometimes, the attractions of this world woo us into ignoring God’s call to come to Him for rest and peace.  Sometimes, people stay away because their conscience tells them they have sinned and God won’t like that, and some stay away because they don’t think they need God’s message of forgiveness and grace.  However, the point of God’s Word isn’t to make us feel good about our behavior in this sin-broken world, nor to send us into despair.  Rather, it directs our thoughts and attentions to Jesus, who gave His life so that we might experience a life far greater and more glorious than anything we’ll ever see on earth.

Isaiah proclaimed, “On this mountain the Lord of Armies will prepare for all peoples a banquet of rich food, a banquet of aged wines, with the best cuts of meat, and with the finest wines.  On this mountain he will destroy the shroud that covers all peoples, the burial cloth stretched over all nations.”  These last few weeks, and especially, the last few days, that shroud of death has been very real for me.  The darkness of sin in this world makes every part of our lives hard and gives us much pain.  Death stalks us at every turn, and no one really knows when it might strike us down.  We hear of sudden deaths daily.  Others come only after years of suffering and pain.  Murders and accidental deaths fill the news.  Wars and rumors of war trouble our hearts, minds, and confidence.  And it’s all because of sin.

Oh, how we would like to put an end to all this trouble, but only God could do it, and only our God did.  Isaiah describes the peace of heaven as a most extraordinary banquet.  He paints a picture filled with the finest of everything prepared for us by our Lord.  My mother is enjoying her first week in that beautiful place, just as I know many of your friends and relatives are with her, there, being treated as royal guests of the Lord. 

They are not enjoying heaven because they were any better, kinder, or more loving than any of us—even if they were.  Our fellow believers, now fallen asleep in Jesus, are there in heaven only because they trusted in God’s Son, Jesus, who took on our human flesh and lived the only perfect human life there ever was.  For, after living always in absolute harmony with the will of His Father in heaven, Jesus swallowed up death by taking our sins, our guilt, and our shame into Himself so that He could destroy both sin and death with the sacrifice of His body on the cross in our place. 

There, on the cross, by suffering all the punishment we deserve for sin, Jesus ended death’s reign, and Jesus blew death’s stronghold apart on Easter morning before the angels even removed the stone from His grave.  Therefore, St. Paul quoted Isaiah and assures us, “Death is swallowed up in victory.  Death, where is your sting?  Grave, where is your victory?  The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.  But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!” (1 Corinthians 15:54-57) Thus, with death destroyed on our behalf, the Holy Spirit, through Word and Sacrament, works saving faith in Jesus, in the hearts of all who believe, so we never must die the death of hell.

This past week, it was easy for me and my family to cry, but the words Isaiah wrote give us amazing comfort and joy: “The Lord God will wipe away the tears from every face.  He will take away the shame of his people throughout the earth.  For the Lord has spoken.”  What our God and Savior promised through Isaiah there seven hundred years before the Man, Christ Jesus, was born of Mary—God’s promise to deliver us from the curse of sin, from death, and the power of the devil—was already as good as done, because what God says He will do will be done. 

Isaiah’s words point us clearly to Mt. Zion just outside of old Jerusalem, where Jesus was nailed to a cross as the full payment price for the sins of the world, and God’s promise to take away our sorrow and shame was made true.  God took away the real pain of death by giving His Son into death so that we, connected with His resurrection by faith, will live with Him forever in the mansions of heaven. 

Therefore, what joy is ours even as we weep for the loss of a loved one.  Without a doubt, those losses hurt us, often, but who among us would ever want to deprive those we love of the joy of walking into that wedding feast of God’s Son, fully dressed as the love of His life, and perfectly adorned to spend eternity in glory?  Therefore, no matter how much hurt we feel as we say good-bye to a beloved, believing Christian, we will Be glad & rejoice; Jesus swallowed up death forever.

Isaiah’s words also point us to another great day yet to come when we will see our Savior face to face as He returns with the full host of heaven’s angels to gather His people into a glory that will never spoil or fade, an eternity in the Father’s house where for all believers in Jesus, “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes.  There will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain, because the former things have passed away.” (Revelation 21:4)  With our lowly bodies raised from the graves and reunited with our souls that have been enjoying the blessings of heaven since our physical death, we will in our own flesh see our God as He really is in all His unending glory, kindness, and peace—another promise as good as done, right now, because God Himself has declared it.

Though the unbeliever and willing doubter will be calling for the mountains to fall upon them and the hills to cover them to hide their shame, we can and will look up with joy, for everyone who trusts in Christ Jesus, alone, as Lord and Savior and Redeemer will be rejoicing just as Isaiah foresaw.  “On that day it will be said, ‘Look, here is our God!  We waited for him, and he saved us!  This is the Lord!  We waited for him.  Let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation!’”  On the day Jesus returns in all His glory to separate His people from the wicked, we will Be glad & rejoice; Jesus swallowed up death forever.  Amen.

Now may the God of hope fill you with complete joy and peace as you continue to believe, so that you overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.