The Servant will suffer victoriously

Sermon for Midweek of Trinity 8

Isaiah 50:1-11

The Messiah makes another appearance in the 50^th chapter of Isaiah’s prophecy. Isaiah presents the Messiah again as God’s special Servant. In the previous chapter, he hinted at the Servant’s suffering, saying simply that He would be despised by the nation, that is, by the people of Israel. In this chapter he adds to that some forms of physical abuse that the Servant would suffer, all leading up to chapter 53, where he would record the Servant’s death. Through all of it, the Messiah is pictured as the One who willingly obeys the voice of the Lord, so that Israel may be saved through His perfect obedience.

First, the Lord speaks to the people of Israel in their future captivity: Thus says the LORD: “Where is your mother’s certificate of divorce, with which I sent her away? Or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities you were sold, and for your transgressions your mother was sent away.

The Lord pictures Himself, first, as having been married to the mother of the children of Israel. Zion, the mountain on which Jerusalem was built, is often pictured in the Scriptures as a woman, who stands for the Church. God compares Himself to a husband, and the Church He compares to a wife. When He chose Israel to be His people and committed to being their God, it was like a marriage. But when God sent the people of Israel away from Jerusalem into captivity, it was like a husband sending away or divorcing his wife. And God wants the people of Israel to remember that 100% of the blame for the failure of this marriage belonged to them, because of their iniquities and transgressions.

Why, when I came, was there no man; why, when I called, was there no one to answer?

It’s a rhetorical question, of course. Why was there no man who could hear and answer God’s call to save Israel from their sins? Because no man can do it. As the Psalm says, Truly no man can ransom another, or give to God the price of his life, for the ransom of their life is costly and can never suffice, that he should live on forever and never see the pit. No mere man could save Israel or anyone. If there is to be a Deliverer from sin and condemnation and eternal death, God Himself will have to provide one, which is exactly what He promises in the next verses to do.

Is my hand shortened, that it cannot redeem? Or have I no power to deliver? Behold, by my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a desert; their fish stink for lack of water and die of thirst. I clothe the heavens with blackness and make sackcloth their covering.”

To these questions, the answer is obviously, No! No, God’s hand is not too short. No, He does not lack the power to deliver. In fact, God alone can deliver. God’s hand alone is long enough to reach all the way down to earth, all the way down to the dregs of society, all the way down to where Israel, and you and I, found ourselves, wallowing in the filth of sin. In the next verses, we see how the hand of the Lord would reach down to Israel in the form of His Servant, the Messiah, who speaks the following words:

The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary. Morning by morning he awakens; he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught.

These are the words of the Servant, of the Messiah. He always listens to the voice of His Father. He is the very Word of His Father. No one has seen God at any time. But the only-begotten of the Father comes from the bosom of the Father to reveal Him to us. So He always has exactly the right words to sustain with a word him who is weary, such as, Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest!

The Lord GOD has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious; I turned not backward. I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting.

When the Father told His Servant to go down to the world, to become a man, to be born under the Law, to redeem us who were under the law, the Servant listened. The Servant obeyed. And then, when the Father handed the cup of suffering to His beloved Son, the Son didn’t refuse to drink it. Isaiah prophesies some of the things that the Christ would have to suffer: the strikes on the back with the scourging He would receive, the slaps on the face and the spitting He would receive from the guards and the soldiers, and the disgrace He would receive from the Jewish leaders. I did not hide My face from it, says the Servant. He was obedient to His Father in suffering it all willingly, even to the point of death on a cross.

But the Lord GOD helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced. That is, the Servant would not end up in disgrace. After suffering the disgrace of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday, the Father would help Him by raising Him from the dead.

Therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame. Luke seems to refer to this verse in his Gospel when he writes this about Jesus, When the time had come for Him to be received up, He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem.

He who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who is my adversary? Let him come near to me. Behold, the Lord GOD helps me; who will declare me guilty? Behold, all of them will wear out like a garment; the moth will eat them up.

This is what enabled Jesus to go through with all the suffering, all the shame, all the injustice, and death itself, because He knew that, in the end, His Father wouldn’t abandon Him. In the end, no one could stand against Him or be victorious over him or hold Him in the grave, because the Lord was on His side and would help Him, while all His enemies would, eventually, pass away.

Now the application to you and me: Who among you fears the LORD and obeys the voice of his servant? Let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust in the name of the LORD and rely on his God.

Do you fear the LORD? Do you revere Him and worship Him as your God? Do you obey the voice of His Servant Jesus? And do you sometimes walk in darkness, not seeing the path ahead of you clearly, having to pass through times of suffering and affliction? Then do as Isaiah says: Let him trust in the name of the LORD and rely on His God. Because, just as the Lord God brought Christ, His Servant, through all His afflictions and through the times of darkness, so will He do for you who trust in His Servant. Because that’s why the Servant came, to suffer those things for you, to atone for your sins and to open the kingdom of heaven to you, who couldn’t have done a thing to deliver yourselves. And so God sent Christ the Deliverer to Israel, and now, to you in the Gospel. The words of St. Paul to the Romans echo the words of Isaiah: If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us.

Finally, the Lord, through Isaiah, sends out a strong warning to those who would try to deliver themselves, to provide their own light, their own religion, their own spirituality, their own salvation: Behold, all you who kindle a fire, who equip yourselves with burning torches! Walk by the light of your fire, and by the torches that you have kindled! This you have from my hand: you shall lie down in torment.

You can’t find your own way through the darkness of sin, or through the valley of the shadow of death. Don’t even try! Instead, rely on the Lord God and on Christ, the Lord’s Servant, who came, not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many. Hope to be saved through His service, and you will never be disappointed. Amen.