Third Sunday in Advent
Preaching
Preaching And Reading The Old Testament Lessons
With an Eye to the New
This passage forms the middle chapter of an announcement of salvation that is found in Isaiah 60--62. It comes from a collection of post--exilic prophecy known as Third Isaiah (chs. 56--66), and is directed to the Judean community that has returned from Babylonian exile after 538 B.C. The passage divides itself into four stanzas or strophes, verses 1--3, 4--6, 7--9, and 10--11. Thus, the lectionary's division is not quite accurate, but the proper division is necessary in order to know who is speaking in each stanza.
Verses 1--2a are familiar to us, because our Lord Jesus reads them during a synagogue service in Nazareth, as a description of his own ministry (Luke 4:18--19). In their Old Testament context, however, they are not intended as the words of an individual prophet or person. Rather, they are the words of that faithful community of Levitical priests and prophetic reformers who were responsible for assembling the book of Third Isaiah. That faithful community is envisioned in this book as the Servant of the Lord, of whom Second Isaiah wrote, and here in our passage, they speak as one. (The fact that the New Testament understands Jesus as the final Servant forms the tie with his use of the words to apply to himself.)
The faithful community speaks in verses 1--3, describing its ministry. The words of those verses could therefore be applied to the community of the church. Here we find the description of what the faithful church is to do in the world. As the Hebrew stands, verse 1 should be read:
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me.
He has sent me to bring good tidings to the afflicted,
to bind up the brokenhearted ... etc.
The faithful community is given the Spirit of the Lord, and it is then sent. Seven infinitives follow "sent," and are dependent upon it, each a description of what the faithful community of the Lord is to do. In short, it is clear that the church can do nothing on its own. It must be given the Spirit of God, and it must be sent by him. Otherwise, its work is futile and without motivation and power. "Apart from me, you can do nothing," Jesus told his disciples (John 15:5), and that is the thought here also.
What is the seven--fold mission, then, upon which we are sent? First of all, to announce "good tidings," that is, the good news of the gospel to all who are afflicted or poor (v. 1c). The church's message to all in distress is to be good news of God's love and deliverance of them, and surely that includes not only the poverty--stricken but also those who are in any way afflicted, with guilt or anxiety, separation from God or unbelief, suffering or pain. Moreover, this whole passage envisions that announcement to all peoples and not just to those of our kind. And the implication is that we not only announce that good news but put it into effect by our works.
Second, the faithful community is sent to heal those who are brokenhearted for whatever reason or over whatever loss (v. 1d). And there are always those who are brokenhearted, are there not, not only within our fellowship, but among our neighbors and throughout our society?
We are sent to give freedom too, says our text (v. 1e), the freedom that comes from God - freedom from sin, freedom from fear of dying, freedom from material want, and yes, freedom from the wanton ways and habits of our world that enslave so many in our society. Only Christ can give human beings true freedom, he taught (John 8:31--32), and we in the church are sent to lead all people into that "glorious liberty of the children of God" (Romans 8:21).
We are called in our text to a mission of comfort also (vv. 2c--3c). "Comfort, comfort my people," God has commanded (Isaiah 40:1). Change their mourning into gladness, so that they no longer weep as those who have no hope and no love and companionship in the world. Surely we all can think of the children, of the elderly, of the grieving who need our encircling arms and our comforting presence. Then they can know praise for blessings received, instead of listlessness and despair over their situation (v. 3d). And then they can even have a new name, says our text. Rather than weak and bending boughs of misery, blown about by the winds of fortune, they can be known as firm and mighty "oaks of righteousness," whom God has planted to give glory to himself in the eyes of all (v. 3ef).
Very important among the phrases used in our text to describe our mission, however, is that one that says we are "to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the vengeance of our God" (v. 2ab). In short, we are to announce that with the birth of Jesus Christ, a new age has entered history, an age that we now call A.D. and not B.C., because it has changed all time and world. In our Lord Jesus Christ, God has begun his kingdom, in which he is repaying his enemies and bringing to all people his good and love. Heaven has broken upon earth in the birth of our Savior, and that is good news that shall be to all people.
What a mission we have been given, good Christians! But it is not a surprising one, if you look at what we are called in the verses that our reading has omitted. In verse 6, we, the faithful community of the Lord, are called his priests and ministers. And that's the priesthood of all believers, of all of us who sit here this day. We are those set apart by God to take his gospel to all near or far - that wondrous gospel of healing and freedom, of comfort and praise and gladness. Is there any greater honor that can be given us, or any more important task bestowed upon us?
Our text tells us why God has called us to such a mission. As the Lord himself says in the following verses, he has called us because he loves justice and hates evil, and has taken us into covenant fellowship with himself as those who are blessed as his own (vv. 8--9). We belong to God. He has poured out his Spirit upon us. And in the strength of that Spirit, he has sent us to take the gospel to peoples everywhere.
Verses 10 and 11 of our text give our response to that covenant sending. "I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall exult in my God," for he has sent us his Savior, Jesus Christ, and Christ has made us righteous in God's eyes. God's promise, therefore, at the end of our passage, is that as we serve our Lord faithfully on the mission to which he sends us, all nations will come to confess their allegiance to him as their God. Then God's kingdom will have come in its fullness on earth as it is in heaven, and the act which God began with the birth of his Son will have reached its final goal.
Verses 1--2a are familiar to us, because our Lord Jesus reads them during a synagogue service in Nazareth, as a description of his own ministry (Luke 4:18--19). In their Old Testament context, however, they are not intended as the words of an individual prophet or person. Rather, they are the words of that faithful community of Levitical priests and prophetic reformers who were responsible for assembling the book of Third Isaiah. That faithful community is envisioned in this book as the Servant of the Lord, of whom Second Isaiah wrote, and here in our passage, they speak as one. (The fact that the New Testament understands Jesus as the final Servant forms the tie with his use of the words to apply to himself.)
The faithful community speaks in verses 1--3, describing its ministry. The words of those verses could therefore be applied to the community of the church. Here we find the description of what the faithful church is to do in the world. As the Hebrew stands, verse 1 should be read:
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me.
He has sent me to bring good tidings to the afflicted,
to bind up the brokenhearted ... etc.
The faithful community is given the Spirit of the Lord, and it is then sent. Seven infinitives follow "sent," and are dependent upon it, each a description of what the faithful community of the Lord is to do. In short, it is clear that the church can do nothing on its own. It must be given the Spirit of God, and it must be sent by him. Otherwise, its work is futile and without motivation and power. "Apart from me, you can do nothing," Jesus told his disciples (John 15:5), and that is the thought here also.
What is the seven--fold mission, then, upon which we are sent? First of all, to announce "good tidings," that is, the good news of the gospel to all who are afflicted or poor (v. 1c). The church's message to all in distress is to be good news of God's love and deliverance of them, and surely that includes not only the poverty--stricken but also those who are in any way afflicted, with guilt or anxiety, separation from God or unbelief, suffering or pain. Moreover, this whole passage envisions that announcement to all peoples and not just to those of our kind. And the implication is that we not only announce that good news but put it into effect by our works.
Second, the faithful community is sent to heal those who are brokenhearted for whatever reason or over whatever loss (v. 1d). And there are always those who are brokenhearted, are there not, not only within our fellowship, but among our neighbors and throughout our society?
We are sent to give freedom too, says our text (v. 1e), the freedom that comes from God - freedom from sin, freedom from fear of dying, freedom from material want, and yes, freedom from the wanton ways and habits of our world that enslave so many in our society. Only Christ can give human beings true freedom, he taught (John 8:31--32), and we in the church are sent to lead all people into that "glorious liberty of the children of God" (Romans 8:21).
We are called in our text to a mission of comfort also (vv. 2c--3c). "Comfort, comfort my people," God has commanded (Isaiah 40:1). Change their mourning into gladness, so that they no longer weep as those who have no hope and no love and companionship in the world. Surely we all can think of the children, of the elderly, of the grieving who need our encircling arms and our comforting presence. Then they can know praise for blessings received, instead of listlessness and despair over their situation (v. 3d). And then they can even have a new name, says our text. Rather than weak and bending boughs of misery, blown about by the winds of fortune, they can be known as firm and mighty "oaks of righteousness," whom God has planted to give glory to himself in the eyes of all (v. 3ef).
Very important among the phrases used in our text to describe our mission, however, is that one that says we are "to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the vengeance of our God" (v. 2ab). In short, we are to announce that with the birth of Jesus Christ, a new age has entered history, an age that we now call A.D. and not B.C., because it has changed all time and world. In our Lord Jesus Christ, God has begun his kingdom, in which he is repaying his enemies and bringing to all people his good and love. Heaven has broken upon earth in the birth of our Savior, and that is good news that shall be to all people.
What a mission we have been given, good Christians! But it is not a surprising one, if you look at what we are called in the verses that our reading has omitted. In verse 6, we, the faithful community of the Lord, are called his priests and ministers. And that's the priesthood of all believers, of all of us who sit here this day. We are those set apart by God to take his gospel to all near or far - that wondrous gospel of healing and freedom, of comfort and praise and gladness. Is there any greater honor that can be given us, or any more important task bestowed upon us?
Our text tells us why God has called us to such a mission. As the Lord himself says in the following verses, he has called us because he loves justice and hates evil, and has taken us into covenant fellowship with himself as those who are blessed as his own (vv. 8--9). We belong to God. He has poured out his Spirit upon us. And in the strength of that Spirit, he has sent us to take the gospel to peoples everywhere.
Verses 10 and 11 of our text give our response to that covenant sending. "I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall exult in my God," for he has sent us his Savior, Jesus Christ, and Christ has made us righteous in God's eyes. God's promise, therefore, at the end of our passage, is that as we serve our Lord faithfully on the mission to which he sends us, all nations will come to confess their allegiance to him as their God. Then God's kingdom will have come in its fullness on earth as it is in heaven, and the act which God began with the birth of his Son will have reached its final goal.
