Bible Passage: Isaiah 61:1-3, 10-11
Pastor: Joel Jenswold
Sermon Date: December 17, 2023

Bulletin December 17, 2023

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

Our text this morning is not the easiest text to understand.  Oftentimes texts from the Old Testament prophets can be like that.  But two things will help us make sense out of this text.  The first is this:  the prophet Isaiah was sent to the people of Judah and Jerusalem to deliver a message of God’s judgment.  He told them that because of their sinful defiance of the LORD, the Babylonians were going to come and destroy the city of Jerusalem and carry off many of the people into exile in Babylon.  There has been in Isaiah’s prophecy to this point much “exile talk.”  And there is “exile talk” in our text.

The second thing to keep in mind is something that happened in a synagogue on a Sabbath day in Nazareth 700 after Isaiah wrote these words.   On that day, Jesus unrolled the scroll of the prophet Isaiah and found this very text.  Jesus read out loud these words, The Spirit of the LORD God is upon me because he has anointed me to preach good news to the afflicted. And then he proclaimed, Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing. (Luke 4:21)  Jesus is the “me” in the first part of the text who came to do all this wonderful stuff for exiles!

When you take these two things and put them together – the exile talk and Jesus – the meaning of this text becomes clear.  There is a wonderful Advent hymn that has captured the essence of this text:  We Mourn in Lonely Exile Here, until the Son of God Appear.

Let’s spend a moment on the “exile talk” we find in our text.  There are a number of words used to describe the sad plight of the exile.  They are described as “afflicted.”  Exiles most certainly are!  They have just been defeated by their enemy.  They are the “losers.”  They are now at the mercy of their conquerors.  They are described as brokenhearted.  Can you imagine?  Hearts broke as they saw Babylonian soldiers destroying everything dear to them!  Their city, their homes, the Temple of the Lord.  They are described as captives and bound (v. 1)  Exiles were “POW’s”.  Prisoners of war.  Their freedom was gone.  Their hands and feet were tied.  They would make a long walk to Babylon against their will.  But finally, it didn’t matter what they wanted.  Prisoners don’t get to decide what to do and where to go.

They are described as mourners, with ashes on their heads.  Mourners would do that.  They would go to the ash heap and grab handfuls of ashes and smear themselves with it.  They would put on colorless and scratchy sackcloth.  Symbols of the depth of their grief.  These exiles were in mourning.  They were mourning their dead.  Dead fathers and mothers.  Dead uncles and aunts.  Dead children.  Dead friends.  Dead hopes and dreams.   Prematurely mourning their own death.  If you are starting to feel like life for the exile was horrible, it was.

Friends, there is a far worse exile than being carried away into Babylon.  It is the exile of sin.  It is a lonely exile that began long ago in a garden.  Our first mom and dad decided God’s way wasn’t for them.  They defied his will.  Oh, they only ate a piece of fruit, but it was God’s will they NOT eat the fruit.  It was rebellion of the highest order!  They lost it all.  Perfect fellowship with God.  Their sinless nature.  Their home.  They were exiled from Paradise.  “East of Eden” (Genesis 3:24) became the land of his exile.

We all live in that land “east of Eden.”  We live in the exile of sin.  Every one of us knows the affliction sin has brought.  Sin afflicts us in a thousand different ways.  “Murphy’s Law” states that if anything can go wrong, it will.  We think that’s funny…but it’s not!  The affliction that comes of living in a world where everything goes horribly wrong because it is out-of-synch with its Creator is not funny!  We know the brokenheartedness sin brings.  The Christmas song laments, “Last Christmas I gave you my heart, the very next day you gave it away.”  Sinful humans have a knack for breaking each other’s hearts.  We know by experience the slavery of sin – wanting to be free of those sinful thoughts or habits.  Wanting to be free from those feelings of guilt!

And then of course, there is the mourning of our exile.  Last Saturday my wife and I got dressed for my cousin’s funeral.  We did not smear ourselves with ashes and put on sackcloth.  But we found our black clothes – black suit and black tie for me.  The colorless and drab uniform of death and mourning.  Such is our exile.  “We mourn in lonely exile here.”

“Until the Son of God appear!”  Jesus came to put an end to our exile!  The Son of God came and said, The Spirit of the LORD God is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the afflicted. (v. 1)  At his baptism, Jesus was anointed with the Holy Spirit to show to the world that he is the Messiah.  And he proclaimed good news to the afflicted.  Think of the good news Jesus spoke to the paralyzed man, Son, be of good cheer, your sins are forgiven!  Think of the good news Jesus spoke to the woman caught in adultery, I don’t condemn you!  This is the good news he speaks to us in our affliction!  With bandages of forgiveness and mercy he binds up hearts broken and shattered by sin!  To consciences held captive by relentless feelings of guilt and fear of God, he proclaims, “You are free!  You are free!”  Instead of being dressed for a funeral, we are dressed for a wedding.  That is the language of verse 10.  We are clothed in garments of salvation, a robe of righteousness, like a bridegroom…and like a bride. (v. 10)

Do you remember getting dressed on your wedding day?  You were jittery and nervous.  But you were happy, maybe happier than you have ever been.  That is the joy of the final verse of our text!  I will rejoice greatly in the LORD (v. 10)  That is the joy we have.  It is Christmas joy! It is Easter joy!  It is the joy that fills our hearts because Jesus died in lonely exile on the cross and rose so that our exile of sin and death might be over!    “We mourn in lonely exile here, until the Son of God appear.  Rejoice!  Rejoice! Immanuel shall come to thee, O Israel!”

Amen.