3rd Sunday in Advent: Isaiah 40:1-11

December 16, 2012; 3^rd Sunday in Advent; Texts: Psalm 85; Isaiah 40:1-8 (9-11); I Corinthians 4:1-5; Matthew 11:2-10 (11); Title: The Cost of War Won; Rev. Tim Beck

Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Warfare is a terrible thing. It is wonderful when it ends … if you’re on the winning side. Those who survive know how true it is that all flesh is like grass.  It flourishes, dries out, and is forgotten. There must be more to life, cries the heart. There must be a purpose for war. We ask, did war’s purpose and its peace justify the pain, the dying? This question is especially true when God wars on His people.

          That’s what surrounds our beautiful text on the end of war. The 8^th century B.C. prophet Isaiah declared war was on the way. But, like so many wars, it could have been avoided. God didn’t ask much from His people, just loyalty, just trust. All He asked was return to the winning side. That warning sounded two hundred years. And God’s people answered, He doesn’t care or He would have done it by now.” They refused to believe His delay was mercy. But around the year 600 B.C. war came. The mighty Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar with his general Nebuzaradan knocked down the gates of Jerusalem. The army killed, looted, raped and enslaved until there was no more Temple, no Jerusalem, no Davidic king, no annual pilgrim feasts, no nation, and no hope.  The scattered survivors, mostly slaves now, sang: By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept when we remembered Zion.

          A voice says, “Cry!” And I said,  “What shall I cry?” All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows on it; surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever. Was this the purpose of God’s war on His own people? Oh yes. They now believe three things they earlier refused.  The first lesson: God’s call to repentance is serious, certain, and sure. Have you learned this lesson, do you believe it? If so, you believe the reason God spares us is His mercy. For are we less guilty of apathy, insolence, and ignorance toward our God?  Therefore this Advent, listen to John the Baptist’s proclamation, “Prepare ye the way of the Lord.”

          The second lesson is: the Word of the Lord stands forever. The Temple was gone, the nation a ruin, the people deported but the Lord had not changed. He remains faithful, faithful to His word. Oh, “Prepare ye the way of the Lord!”  The third lesson is: He did not war on His people only to destroy, but to build them up again with a new word.  Prepare to hear the word of the Lord. Hear three lessons: repent, the word remains, and the LORD will have a Church. As surely as the word of war came to pass, the new word will bear fruit. What is that word?  Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord ’s hand double for all her sins.

          This is the real goal of God’s war against sin, a lasting peace, a good peace, a true peace, a holy peace.  Unlike President Wilson’s war to end all wars, a peace requiring armed peace keepers, occupation forces and reparations, the Lord’s peace is pardon and rebuilding. Jerusalem’s horrible sufferings were not the payment for her sin. They owned much more for ignoring their God.  Someone else paid the full price. Someone paid the price of sheep following the world’s pied-piper to the stockyards; and we, in God’s eyes, are we so different?  Or are we like sheep, like cattle? Isaiah says the ox knows his master, the donkey his owner’s manger, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand (Isa 1). All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags (Is 64). From the soles of your foot to the top of your head there is no soundness – only wounds and open sores (Isa 1).

          Do we really think of ourselves like that? What does the Word of the Lord say? We all like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way (Isa 53).        I’m so glad there is a shepherd, a good shepherd. This is the glad message of Advent’s third Sunday – you have a good shepherd. Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Listen to the repetition. Listen to the emphasis of “comfort, comfort.”  The Lord provides comfort to a flock torn and scattered, to wanderers, drifters, diseased, dirty, and stupid sheep. The war is over. His warfare ended because He pardoned all sinners, all straying, selfish sheep. Isaiah warned of war 200 years in advance. Now he speaks of peace earned 800 years later. Yet he speaks as if it already happened.  Why? The Word of the Lord stands forever. These things shall certainly take place. The faithful Shepherd’s promises are now.  No warrior or wolf or sheep can derail God’s plan, procedure, or purpose.  He brings peace, a lasting peace. How has He done this?   A virgin will conceive and bear a Son and you will call his name Immanuel!      

          That’s how God wages war! Unlike the four-star general who remains in the bunker, he came to fight, to be wounded, and to die: a virgin conceives a child by the power of the Holy Spirit. The child is a man but is also God. The child is named “Immanuel.” He is what the name means, “God with us.”  The insignia on His uniform reads, Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. But on the march, he covers up his rank. He eats with privates, he carries the load. And He battles with the strangest weapons. He fights by using the law not for moral reform but for confession of sin. Then for the confessing sinner, for the repentant, the warrior Lord overthrows the devil’s accusations by bearing the sinner’s guilt. Immanuel heals the sick and raises the dead. He turns his cheek to the smiter although they pull out his beard.  That’s how the Prince of Peace fights for sinners, and in the strangest of twists He must face the greatest enemy.

          He faces the One who made Himself enemy to his sinful people. He in love and humility lifted his face to the Great Shepherd, His own Father. And the Son sent by the Father, obedient to the Father, became the object of the Father’s attack. He was led as a Lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. The Lamb’s eternal Father, wages war with vengeance and His vengeance falls upon His only begotten. His soldier Son cries, “Why have you forsaken me?”  Yet this was a voluntary mission to win the war. That’s how the One God in three persons made war for the sake of saving His enemies. That’s how He destroyed the guilt of our sin and its power too. By His death the law no longer condemns us. By His death the accusations of the devil are cast down. By His death the sacrificial Lamb paid double for all your sins.

          He did not choose green pastures but was falsely accused, spat upon, and mocked.  He did not choose quiet waters but under the hot Jerusalem sun, passed through the valley of death. He did not choose a rod and staff to comfort Him, but bore the rod that tore His flesh, and the crooked staff that dragged him away. He drank the cup of God’s wrath against every sinner.  “Behold your God!”  Behold, the Lord God comes with might, and his arm rules for him; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him. He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young.  

          These words seem to mock Christ on the cross, but they do not. In reality, the sobs of the women watching are martial music for the cross is the victory. Behold, the Lord God comes with might and He rules. The mighty warrior … will tenderly carry his sheep; he has a reward with him.  He has a reward for you; He is the reward for you, oh, sheep for whom He died! Comfort, comfort … comfort for those who mourn, peace for the weary, hope for the discouraged, grace for the sorrowful, and love for the loveless and unloved. The war is over. Jesus Christ, the sacrificial Lamb of God, the good shepherd, won you. Warfare is wonderful when it ends and you’re on the winning side.

          Although earthly Jerusalem was wrecked in that war, heavenly Jerusalem is built. You and I can and will dwell there. God always wins, and he warred to win you. His strategy astounds us; yet see the scarred hands that wielded his mighty sword, His Word. His Word accomplished all it said, and it shall do all yet to be done. Zion will be lifted up above all mountains, where sheep may safely graze. You and I will be comforted there, kept in rich pastures. God always wins … by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous… Is 53:11b

          Many are accounted righteous by this knowledge, by the knowledge that the righteous One gives peace. So we receive the words: Comfort, comfort my people. The war is won. Do you still ask if there was a purpose for the war? We are the purpose for that war.  You and I are the reason the Triune God warred on the cross. You and I are the reason for the Christ’s pain, agony, and anguish. Does this war’s peace justify the pain?

What does the conquering Lamb say? He’s the one who bore the cost of victory. Dare we speak for God on this point, except to praise His mercy?  We can answer by quoting His precious, undefeatable Word:  Out of the anguish of His soul he shall see and be satisfied (Is 53:11a).

The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Amen)