Isaiah 61:1-3 * January 21, 2007 *
Epiphany 3 * Pastor Leyrer
Dear Friends in Christ,
Anyone who has attended an organized meeting is familiar with the term “Agenda.” The word itself comes from a Latin verb and literally means “things to be done.” That’s what an agenda is: a listing of things that are to be discussed, done, or accomplished.
2000 years ago God became flesh in the person of Jesus Christ and lived for a while among us. This was not an accident. He came not by chance but by design. He came with and for a reason. He came, we could say, with an agenda. Today we will talk about
OUR SAVIOR’S AGENDA
We can summarize it in two words
1. Deliverance, and
2. Delight
Before we work through this text, it may prove beneficial to set the stage with three preliminary remarks…
First, these words were written by the divinely inspired prophet Isaiah approximately 750 years before the birth of Christ. Their purpose was to comfort God’s people who were not at the time (but eventually would be) under the captivity of a foreign power. This explains why Isaiah uses words and phrases suggested by exile. Such words and phrases would be – and still are – readily understood and meaningful.
Secondly, we will note that this is clearly a “Messianic” prophecy. By that we mean a B.C. prediction or description that pointed to the Savior God promised would one day come. In the Book of Isaiah we find a number of such Messianic prophecies. We also find some very specific ones where the promised Savior actually speaks in the first person. This is one of them.
Our Gospel lesson leaves no doubt these verses refer to
Jesus Christ. In a synagogue in His own
hometown of
A final introductory remark worth making is this: the words before us are meant to be understood in a spiritual sense. The only reason to mention this is because there are now and always have been those who view the work of the church as being purely political. They consider the church’s role is to make the world a better place by social reform and action. And oftentimes passages such as our text are used in defense of this position.
Such thinking is a distortion of these words. It is also diametrically opposed to Jesus’ own pronouncements that He was not a political savior from any or all forms of worldly oppression, but a spiritual Savior from sin.
This doesn’t mean the Christian Church is unconcerned with social reform or making the world a better place, because it is. However, the path to accomplish this does not come through external programs or top down church decrees.
True and lasting change comes only through hearts touched and changed by the good news of Jesus Christ. Changed hearts produce changed lives, and changed lives change the world. And proclaiming the life changing message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the singular work of God’s Church.
Let’s now turn to the opening words of our text. “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on Me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.” There are a number of things to note here.
First is the word “anoint.” Anointing calls to mind that special Old Testament custom by which individuals were set apart and commissioned by God for a specific role or line of duty. You may recall from past sermons that in the Hebrew language of the Old Testament this word is at the root of our English word “Messiah.” In the Greek language of the New Testament it is translated “Christ.” Both mean “the Anointed One.”
Jesus is that “Messiah” or “Anointed One.” His duty and role for which He visited our planet was clearly defined. In the words of out text, He came “to preach good news to the poor.”
Who are the poor? The class of people referred to here has nothing do with wealth or the size of one’s bank account. Remember, we’re speaking in spiritual terms. So He’s talking about the spiritually poor or impoverished; meaning, those who don’t measure up to the perfection God demands of His creatures. In other words, He’s talking about all mankind. He’s talking about us.
And what is the “good news” that poor sinners need to hear and that Jesus came to deliver? It is this: the barrier of sin that stood in the way of a right relationship with God has been removed and we are restored, redeemed and forgiven. As a result, we don’t have to be scared of God as unable-to-be-pleased curmudgeon to be avoided, but now we can run toward Him and embrace Him as our loving Heavenly Father.
The “good news” Jesus delivers means we don’t have to worry about achieving heaven, because it has been given to us as a gift.
The “good news” is that our life is not just a meaningless series of unrelated, random evolutionary acts, but a purposeful existence that unfolds under God’s grace and guidance.
The “good news” is that the grave is not the end of the line, but rather the gate to eternity.
That kind of “good news” is sweet music to our ears. Delivering that “good news” to us is point number one on Jesus’ agenda.
Jesus further illustrates this good news in some marvelously descriptive ways. He tells us He has come to “bind up the brokenhearted.” He brings us healing. He delivers us from brokenness. But, we may ask, in what sense were our lives broken?
Martin Luther made an interesting observation on this passage. He commented that every human life is broken by three wounds. They are 1) the Law of God, which tells us we must be perfect and that if we are not, we will be punished; 2) our own sin, of which we are very aware and which tells us that we are far from perfect and, thus, deserving of God’s punishment; and 3) death, which is the wages of sin and its result.
The “good news” is that these three wounds which puncture every human heart have been healed by Jesus. How? As to the Law, He kept it perfectly in our place as our substitute before God. As to sin, He died to take it away as the disqualification for heaven. And by doing so He removed the fear of eternal death and changed earthly death into the passageway to eternal life.
Jesus has come “to
proclaim freedom for the captives and release for the prisoners, to proclaim
the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God.” These words would really be appreciated by
Old Testament
The talk of freedom reminds us of the statement Jesus made in the Gospel of John: “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.” True freedom is spiritual freedom. By His doing, dying and rising, Christ set us free from the damning consequences of our sin, which then translates into many other glorious freedoms, such as… freedom from a debilitating fear of the future…freedom to correctly distinguish between right and wrong and make God pleasing choices as we are guided by the His Word… and above all the freedom to willingly live for the Lord who made our spiritual liberty possible.
There is more. Jesus
has come to “comfort all who mourn and
provide for those who grieve.” Jesus
came to deliver us from sorrow. But is
this really true? Will believers never
feel sorrow over, for example, the loss of a loved one or the loss of a dream
or the loss of an opportunity or a tragic turn of events?
Well, I have; and I’m sure you have, too. Sorrow is an emotion placed within us by our Creator. We recall that Jesus Himself, true God and true man, wept in sorrow over the death of His friend Lazarus and over the stubbornness of those who rejected Him. From sorrow as an emotion we are not exempt.
However, as Christians we are delivered from hopeless sorrow. The comfort we have even in the midst of our personal pain and sorrow is that “all things work together for good for those who love God.” God promises that even in our darkest moments – especially in our darkest moments – He will never leave us or forsake us, but will provide us with what we need. It is from hopeless sorrow that we have been fully delivered.
What else is on Christ’s agenda? Three more descriptive phrases follow. He has come to “bestow on them [believers] a
crown of beauty instead of ashes” (in the Old Testament sad occasions were
observed by rubbing ashes into one’s skin), “the oil of gladness instead of mourning” (happy occasions were
marked by wearing sweet smelling oils), and “a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.”
The point is this: Jesus brings victory and joy and confidence and meaning into our lives. At the same time He delivers us from a spirit of defeat and an attitude of despair.
Perhaps another comment needs to be made here. Much is made in some Christian circles about living the victorious Christian life. I’m never quite sure what that means.
If it means Christians are somehow always emotionally up and never emotionally down because of the fact they know Jesus, we’d have to disagree. Just about every hero of faith in the Bible or pillar in the early church went through emotionally difficult times and, consequently, would have to be disqualified as examples of living that version of the “victorious Christian life.”
The victorious Christian life as provided by Christ has nothing to do with manufactured feelings or denial of the fact that we are emotional creatures. Rather it is the quiet confidence that even when life gets turbulent and unsettled, in the end we can count on a safe landing. It is a life based on “certitude” – the certainty that we are loved, and the certainty that we are saved.
The result of such certitude is that the believer can be
strong in the Lord. Isaiah concludes our
text by equating the believer to an oak tree.
As an oak is the strongest of trees, unshakeable because of its deep
roots, so is the Christian who is firmly planted in the words and promises of
Jesus. “They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for
the display of his splendor.” Or, in
words we are very familiar with here at
To know what we know, to be delivered from what we have been delivered, and to understand who we are as forgiven Children of God – such is our delight… and the other item on Jesus’ agenda. Deliverance produces delight. Ours is the joy of the redeemed.
2000 years ago God walked among us. In the words of the Christian author J.B. Philips, we are “the visited planet.” Jesus came for a purpose and He came with an agenda. Today, through the words of the prophet Isaiah, it was once again revealed to us.
Brothers and sisters, as we ponder it all let us marvel at God’s grace. Let us rejoice in our restoration. And as our text for today reminds us, each day let us simply delight in our deliverance. Amen.