Bible Passage: Isaiah 35:1-7
Pastor: Joel Jenswold
Sermon Date: December 11, 2022

Bulletin December 11, 2022

In the name of, and to the eternal glory of, Jesus,

To begin with this morning, we are going to try to imagine what it was like to be a child of God in and around Jerusalem 700 years before Jesus was born.   There were no hospitals and urgent care centers.  There were no pharmaceuticals.  The point I’m trying to make is, in ancient cultures one would have seen much more of the types of things that today can be prevented, or cured, or reversed with physical therapy.  One would have seen proportionately more blind people and deaf people.  Before doctors knew to set broken bones or put pins in them to straighten them out or surgically repair them, the injured or those born with birth defects were permanently disabled.  Oftentimes the blind and deaf and the disabled were very visible because they would gather in the busy places of town to beg.  That’s inside the city.

As a resident of Judea, you likely knew a little something about the geography around you.  You knew that things got pretty barren to the south and east.  In fact, this region was called The Wilderness of Judah.   The landscape in the Wilderness of Judah was hilly, and dry, and brown.  Like a hilly desert.  It reached its most barren in the region called the Arabah.  The Arabah stretched south from the Dead Sea.  It was deep, stark, seemingly-lifeless valley. It looked like a hell-scape.

Now imagine that you hear this prophet of the Lord named Isaiah.  And he starts talking about a time when this desert wasteland is going to pop and bloom and explode with flowers and trees!  And there will be water in the wilderness and the Arabah!  Whoever heard of such a thing!  Water and plants and growth everywhere.  Like it goes from being a desert to being a garden paradise.

But that’s not all this prophet Isaiah is saying.  He foretells a time when the eyes of blind people will see again.  He sees a time when the eardrums of those who were born deaf or who lost their hearing due to sickness vibrate and nerves transfer sound waves to the brain.  He sees a time when those who have never been able to speak a word open their mouths and sing like Pavoratti!  Isaiah speaks of time when the man with the leg that is broken and bent becomes straight and strong.  A time when the woman whose body is half paralyzed from a stroke walks.  Isaiah talks of a day when the man whose legs never developed due to a birth defect become muscular so that the man runs and jumps!  A day when the man whose legs were crushed in a horrible farm accident are strong and steady again.

In short, Isaiah speaks of a day when the curse of sin will be reversed and pushed back.  For that really is what our text is speaking about.  Why was there an unforgiving desert wilderness to the south of Jerusalem?  Why was there an Arabah stretching from the Dead Sea?  Why wasn’t it all Eden?  Why are there people whose eyes don’t work, whose ears don’t work?  Why are these bodies frail and imperfect, sometimes blind, sometimes deaf.  Why do accidents happen, like what happened to one of the young men who attends our own Seminary.  He is at work one afternoon working to earn money so he can go to school to become a pastor and tell people about Jesus, and a cement light post falls on his leg and a forklift then drives over the same leg, crushing the bones?  Why are there deserts where no man can live?  Why mutations on chromosomes so babies are born blind, or will eventually go deaf?  Why a world where accidents happen and the legs of Seminarians get crushed?

The answer is sin and the curse of sin.  After Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden, God himself cursed the ground.  Now, this world would be more Arabah than Eden.  With sin came the reality of death.  That meant mortal bodies, bodies subject to wounds and weakness.  Bodies with arms and legs that can get broken, with eyes that sometimes don’t work, with ears that sometimes won’t hear. Bodies that can be overcome by a virus so small you can’t even see it with the eye!  You do not need to look far to see how far the curse of sin has spread.

If we heard Isaiah foretell these things, we might have blurted, “When, Isaiah?  Tell us when this will be!”  The answer is found in our Gospel lesson for today.  John the Baptist has sent two of his disciples to Jesus to ask,  Are you the Coming One or should we wait for someone else? (Matthew 11:3)  He wanted to know if Jesus was the Messiah, the Anointed One.  At the very time these disciples have come to Jesus, Jesus has set up a “clinic.”  Luke tells us, At that time Jesus healed many people of their diseases, afflictions, and evil spirits. And he gave many blind people the ability to see. (Luke 7:21)  Jesus says to John’s disciples, Go, report to John what you hear and see:  The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the gospel is preached to the poor. (Matthew 11:4-5)  Yes, John, yes!  Jesus is the One!  He is the Messiah!  And all these merciful miracles of Jesus, these miracles that relieved pain and suffering, proclaimed to this sin-cursed world:  The push-back on sin has begun!  And here is the One who will push sin back!

But did you notice, the story of Jesus isn’t that he set up a health clinic, a 24-hour emergency room?  As much as all those miracles pushed back the curse a bit, and for a time, they were not the “final push.”  The final push came on Calvary.  At Calvary Jesus didn’t push sin away, he took it all on himself.  And the curse of all sin fell upon him.  He took it.  The biggest curse of all fell upon him.  And by this, he reconciled us, and all things to God.

That is why Isaiah says, Strengthen the weak hands, and make the shaky knees steady.  Tell those who have a fearful heart:  Be strong.  Do not be afraid.  Look!  Your God will come with vengeance.  With God’s own retribution, he will come and save you. (v. 3-4)  As you look out in this world, do your hands grow weak?  Do your knees grow weak as you see the power and influence of evil everywhere you look?  Does your heart grow fearful of what this world is becoming?  Be strong!  Don’t be afraid!  Look!  Jesus is coming!  He is coming with vengeance.  Justice will be served.  Be strong!  Don’t be afraid!  Look!  Jesus is coming!  He will come and save you. (v. 4)   Sin, Satan, sickness, death…ALL of it will be pushed away forever!

The first Advent of Jesus was just a prelude to what is coming.  When Jesus returns, blind eyes will see again, never to be closed in death.  Deaf ears will hear again, never to be stilled in a casket.  Defective limbs will be new and perfect, never to lie motionless in the grave!  The curse of sin will be forever gone!  Jesus, the Christ, the Messiah is coming.  And as we sing every Christmas: “He comes to make his blessings flow, far as the curse is found.” (CW 62:3)

Amen.