See the true Servant who won our salvation.

 

Sermon for Christmas 2, January 2, 2022

Grace and peace be yours in abundance from Almighty God and His Servant Son.  Amen.

Isaiah 42:1-9  Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight.  I am placing my Spirit on him.  He will announce a just verdict for the nations.  ²He will not cry out.  He will not raise his voice.  He will not make his voice heard in the street.  ³A bent reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not snuff out.  He will faithfully bring forth a just verdict.  ⁴He will not burn out, and he will not be broken, until he establishes justice on the earth.  The coastlands will wait for his law.  ⁵This is what the true God says, the Lord who creates the heavens and stretches them out, who spreads out the earth and everything that it produces, who gives breath to the people on it and life to those who walk on it.  ⁶I am the Lord.  I have called you in righteousness.  I will hold on to your hand, and I will guard you.  I will appoint you to be a covenant for the people, to be a light for the nations, ⁷to open the eyes of the blind, to bring the prisoners out from the dungeon, and to bring those who sit in darkness out of prison.  ⁸I am the Lord; that is my name.  I will not give my glory to another, nor my praise to idols.  ⁹Look, the former things have taken place, and I am declaring new things.  I am making them known to you before they spring forth. (EHV)

See the true Servant who won our salvation.

Dear fellow prisoners rescued from darkness,

            We are still in the Christmas season, so I am wondering, have ever given a gift to a loved one that you fully expected would delight that person beyond measure, only to have your loved one react with indifference or even disgust?  How great was your disappointment in that reaction?

When we talk about gifts measuring up to expectations, we should consider how we have reacted to the greatest gift any of us have ever received.  The Savior God promised to send should certainly be considered that greatest gift ever.  But does He measure up to what you expected?  Through Isaiah, God teaches us to see His gift rightly, to See the true Servant who won our salvation.

For much of the world Jesus doesn’t measure up.  Many are the people, nations even, that think we Christians are crazy to put our hopes in this Man from Nazareth.  They wonder, how can we believe that this ordinary-looking Man is God Almighty and our Savior when He was executed, without a struggle, by a tiny contingent of Roman soldiers?  How could we put our hope for the future in this pauper, a Man who never even owned a house, never married, never had children, never ran a company, never did anything that seems significant to our money and power focused world? 

God told Isaiah, " Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight.  I am placing my Spirit on him.  He will announce a just verdict for the nations.”  God’s Servant couldn’t be just anyone.  He would be endowed with the Spirit of God.  Designated to carry out God’s will, this Servant would fulfill all God’s promises to a sin-ruined world.  Already seven hundred years before the Savior would come, God told the world that He is delighted with every aspect and action of His Servant.  This shows us two things: first, that the Servant Savior already existed, and then, there was no way He would ever disappoint God.  This fits perfectly with the testimony that this Servant really is the very Son of God. 

Numerous times Jesus claimed that He is God, especially saying, “I and the Father are one.” (John 10:30)  But it isn’t just Jesus’ testimony that verifies Him as the promised Servant.  In fact, if that was all the evidence we had, we might well doubt His divinity.  However, the Father Himself declared it from heaven before witnesses.  “After Jesus was baptized, he immediately went up out of the water.  Suddenly, the heavens were opened for him…and a voice out of the heavens said, “This is my Son, whom I love.  I am well pleased with him.’” (Matthew 3:16-17)  Luke reports that also at Jesus’ transfiguration on the mountain, God the Father declared, “This is my Son, whom I love.  Listen to him! (Luke 9:35)  So, we have Jesus’ testimony, and we have the Father in heaven’s declaration, as well as many eyewitnesses to their statements that Jesus is God’s chosen Servant.

So, how does the world see God’s true servant?  The world finds Jesus to be too humble, too poor, too weak, too timid to be God, much less their Savior.  Yet, that is exactly what God said we would see.  “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth.  Like a lamb he was led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent in front of its shearers, he did not open his mouth.” (Isaiah 53:7)  Jesus did exactly as prophesied without a fight, and with no complaint that the verdict, or the punishment, was unjust.  He accepted the sentence and the cruel death, not because He had sinned and deserved to die, but because we had sinned so much.  Thus, He took our sins on Himself.

Jesus was truly humble and perfectly holy.  In His holy mercy, the True Servant will receive even the guiltiest human who repents and believes.  Isaiah was told, “A bent reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not snuff out.  He will faithfully bring forth a just verdict.”  The broken-hearted sinner can come to the Servant without fear for the sins that caused the Servant to suffer, for all sins are forgiven, because justice has been served by the Lord upon the Servant for you and me.

“He will not burn out, and he will not be broken, until he establishes justice on the earth.  The coastlands will wait for his law."  Nothing could keep God’s Servant from carrying out His mission.  We heard one of the threats to His mission in our Gospel lesson.  Herod tried with all his might to put an end to the Savior’s life, but God preserved His Son and preserved our rescue by sending the Servant and His parents to the land of Egypt and then returning them safely to Nazareth so another prophecy would be fulfilled. 

In His dedicated love for us, the true Servant would never quit in the efforts He was making for disobedient, unfaithful people.  Though the Jews rejected their Savior, though the Gentiles often mocked Him, and though we keep on sinning against Him, Jesus faithfully carried on until justice for all the sins of the world was accomplished.  As the news of Christ’s rescue mission has spread, the far reaches of the earth rejoice to hear of His salvation.  From coast to coast, first in the Mediterranean, and then around the world, the Gospel of Jesus’ salvation has spread to eager ears.  In spite of opposition from Satan, the world, and our own sinful flesh, the Servant’s life and death continues to give hope to millions upon millions of those who need a Savior from sin and death. 

To you and me, God cries out, See the true Servant who won your salvation.  The Servant is humble because we are arrogant and rebellious against God.  The Servant is poor so that we could be rich in heaven.  The Servant is holy to cover our sinfulness.  He is determined and unstoppable, because we have so often given up when it comes to trusting our God.

“This is what the true God says, the Lord who creates the heavens and stretches them out, who spreads out the earth and everything that it produces, who gives breath to the people on it and life to those who walk on it.”  So that no one should refuse this message, the Speaker identifies Himself as the Creator of all things.  To the Servant, the Father declares His commitment to the salvation His Servant was coming to win, saying, “I am the Lord.  I have called you in righteousness.  I will hold on to your hand, and I will guard you.”  Every step of the way, the Father would be with Jesus, strengthening Him and preserving Him so that nothing could stop His holy work.  Though many conspired to kill Jesus, God’s preservation continued until the appointed time for Jesus to die on the cross, then on through the grave and beyond as The Father raised His Servant Son from the dead.

Does the gift of this Servant measure up for you and me?  God declared, “I will appoint you to be a covenant for the people, to be a light for the nations, to open the eyes of the blind, to bring the prisoners out from the dungeon, and to bring those who sit in darkness out of prison.”  God gave us the Savior as the Covenant of forgiveness He long ago promised.  Christ enlightens us to God’s grace.  He makes our lives shine with His goodness.  The Servant will make our eternity a time of bliss and joy and never-ending light and peace, so does Jesus measure up to your expectations?

When stuck in the bondage of Satan’s torments, we knew nothing but darkness.  But into this world of despair, the Servant came, and my friends, He has won our salvation, complete and free.  The chains that held us were broken when Jesus said “It is finished.”  Then through His Word and through the work of His Spirit, He opened our eyes to His glorious salvation. 

Only the human stubbornness of a sinful nature keeps anyone in the devil’s grasp.  Yet Jesus does not give up.  He calls and calls for release of the prisoners, urging all to trust in Him instead of any evil thing.  As the Word was preached to us, as the Baptismal water washed us clean, we were delivered from Satan’s evil control.  Some of us had to be dragged out, kicking and screaming, from the only dungeon home we had ever known, but our Savior doesn’t give up, and He continues to send His messengers with His saving Word, working to break the devil’s fiendish hold on us. 

The Speaker brings us more promise and warning as He again identifies Himself: “I am the Lord; that is my name.  I will not give my glory to another, nor my praise to idols.”  The Lord who calls Himself, “I Am,” is God in the flesh.  He is everything we need to know about God.  St. John began his Gospel with the message, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1)  Our catechism testifies that God’s name includes everything He has said about Himself, that is, His entire reputation makes up His name.

God will not let any other being, or any other thing, steal His glory.  Therefore, to See the true Servant who won your salvation, look to the testimony of the Almighty God and His witnesses.  At the Servant’s birth, “Suddenly, there was with the angel a multitude from the heavenly army, praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward mankind.’" (Luke 2:13-14) 

As Jesus foretold His upcoming suffering and death, He prayed, “Father, glorify your name!”  A voice came from heaven: “I have glorified my name, and I will glorify it again.” (John 12:28)

Again, on the night He was betrayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus lifted up His eyes to heaven, and prayed: “Father, the time has come.  Glorify your Son so that your Son may glorify you.  For you gave him authority over all flesh, so that he may give eternal life to all those you have given him.” (John 17:1-2)  Likewise, Peter testified that God “raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.” (1 Peter 1:21)  Now, does Jesus measure up to your idea of a Savior? 

My friends, if you want a boisterous man for your Savior, Jesus is not the one you are looking for.  If you want someone who won great military victories, Jesus is not your man.  If you want earthly riches and power, Jesus doesn’t promise you even that.  What God the Father, and Jesus His Son, do promise you is forgiveness of all your sins, peace with God, eternal life, and a home with Him in heaven. 

Jesus entered this world because we could not come to Him.  He appeared as a weak, insignificant baby in a manger so that He could win the most monumental victory this world has ever known: the victory over sin and Satan and the grave.  God uses humble means to give you everything.  He uses a manger bed, a wooden cross, common water, and humble bread and wine enclosing the body and blood of the true Servant who gave His life for your sins. 

In retrospect, we see that Satan abandoned God to grasp for His power.  On the other hand, Jesus set aside the throne, almighty power, and home in heaven that was rightly His in order to defeat the evil one and win us back to our Creator.  Treasure the gift God gives us in Jesus; See the true Servant who won our salvation.  Amen.

The peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting.  Amen.