Isaiah 49,1-6. 17. Trinity

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The Word of the Lord Endures Forever

Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum

Isaiah 49,1-6     4718

17. Sonntag nach Trinitatis  062  

Linus, disciple of St. Paul, Bishop of Rome in 67. ✠ 79.

Thecla, disciple of St. Paul, Virgin, Martyr, 1^st c. mentioned in the Acts of Paul and Thecla

23. September 2018 

1. О All-loving God, Your mercy has no end and Your kindness is new each morning, pour out Your grace upon us, so that our griefs turn to goodness, our sorrows turn to serenity and our distress turns to deliverance.  Amen. (Starck 185) 

2. »Listen to me, O coastlands, and give attention, you peoples from afar. The Lord called me from the womb, from the body of my mother He named my name. He made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of His hand He hid me; He made me a polished arrow; in His quiver He hid me away. And He said to me: „You are My servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified.“ But I said: „I have labored in vain; I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity; yet surely my right is with the Lord, and my recompense with my God.“ And now the Lord says, He who formed me from the womb to be His servant, to bring Jacob back to Him; and that Israel might be gathered to Him— for I am honored in the eyes of the Lord, and my God has become my strength— He says: „It is too light a thing that you should be My servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, so that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth.“« 

3. The Prophet Isaiah was called by the Lord who declared of him: »You are My servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified.« The Lord then spoke to Isaiah’s contemporary the Prophet Hosea: »I love Israel, and out of Egypt I called My Son« (Hosea 11,1); the Apostle Matthew writes in his Gospel that Joseph took Mary and the newborn Jesus to Egypt to flee from Herod the Great’s murderous decree and that this action fulfilled what the Prophet Hosea had written 7 centuries earlier when they returned to Nazareth (Matthew 2,15). Matthew reports in his Gospel how Jesus fulfilled key parts of Israel’s history; Jesus is Israel’s Messiah, and He is also Israel reduced to one (Hummel 17). Jesus is Israel, for He is true man, yet He is also radically distinct from Israel, for He is also True God (Hummel 224). Jesus is »the Deliverer from Zion who banished ungodliness from Jacob« (Isaiah 59,20; 45,17). Jesus is »His Father’s covenant with Israel for He will take away their sins« (Isaiah 27,9). Jesus is His Father’s servant, Israel, in whom He is glorified. This Jesus tells the Canaanite woman in today’s Gospel pericope: »I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel« (Matthew 15,24).  

4. Does this mean Jesus is only the Messiah of Israel? What about the Gentiles? Does Jesus care about them at all? A: The Holy Scriptures say, yes, Jesus does indeed care about the Gentiles too. The Prophet Isaiah is very emphatic about this: »I will make You as a Light for the Gentiles, so that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth« (Isaiah 49,6). »I will bring to My holy mountain, all the Gentiles who joined themselves to Me and hold fast My covenant« (Isaiah 56,7.6). The Prophet Isaiah promises 12 separate times that Israel’s Messiah will be the Gentiles’ Christ. Thus, we confess with Simeon each communion Sunday: Lord, mine eyes have seen Thy salvation, which Thou hast prepared before the face of all people, a Light to lighten the Gentiles and the Glory of Thy people Israel (Nunc Dimittus). Before He ascended into heaven, Jesus told His disciples: »Thus it is written … that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in My Name to all the Gentile nations, beginning from Jerusalem« (Luke 24,47; Genesis 12,3; Psalm 22,27; Isaiah 2,2; Hosea 2,23; Malachi 1,11). The Apostle Paul affirms this in his Epistle to the Romans: »the gospel is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek« (Romans 1,16).

5. Both the Old and New Testaments affirm and confess that Jesus is the Messiah and the Christ who is for both the Jews and Gentiles. Jesus teaches the Jews that He is their Messiah; He also heals a Gentile girl and proudly proclaims that Canaanites can and will have faith in Him as the Christ. Jesus told the Canaanite mother: »Great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire« (Matthew 15,28). Also Paul: »Faith is created through hearing the word of Christ« (Romans 10,17). Christian faith is the medium lepticon (the means of reception), that is, faith is a special creation and the gift of God whose only purpose is to receive God’s gifts. This faith is simple trust in Christ’s words. He says He forgives us, and we believe Him; you don’t need to comprehend all the particulars of this forgiveness. We simply believe what Christ says, and we have what He promises. 

6. Those promises were at His conception when an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph and said: »Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins« (Matthew 1,20-21). The name Jesus is derived from the word yeshu’ah, which is Hebrew for salvation. Thus Jesus stood in Israel’s place because Israel had failed the testing the Lord subjected them to in the Sinai Desert. Jesus stood in the place of all the nations because all the nations have failed to trust in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob for their deliverance. Jesus stood in our place because we were born in bondage to sin and Satan, and He desires to save us from such captivity. 

7. Jesus is our salvation, for He hung in our place on the cross. Jesus bore our guilt, received our punishment and died as our vicarious substitute. The road to salvation leads to the cross, and upon the cross Jesus saved the entire world from its sin. As the gospel is preached throughout the world, people hear the gospel, believe it and salvation spreads to individuals. Jesus is God the Father’s Servant, and in Him God the Father is glorified. Jesus is also our Servant, and therefore we are glorified. Jesus’ Glory is our Glory. Jesus’ Light is our Light. Jesus’ Life is our Life, yes eternal and everlasting Life. Jesus is our Israel who fulfilled the Mosaic covenant for us. The new covenant that God established is a covenant of faith in Jesus the Christ. Faith in Jesus is belief that we are redeemed and forgiven, for He has merited our justification and salvation. Jesus is the only path that leads to salvation, and this path reaches every corner of the world. Jesus is Israel reduced to one, and only Jesus makes us righteous in His Father’s sight.  Amen. 

8. Let us pray. O Lord Jesus Christ, You are faithful to all generations; help us to sing of Your steadfast love so that our hearts and minds may be at peace in this tumultuous life.   Amen. 

To God alone be the Glory 

Soli Deo Gloria

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All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 28. Revised Edition © 2012 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart. 

All quotations from the Book of Concord are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using Die Bekenntnisschriften der evangelisch-lutherischen Kirche, 12. Edition © 1998 by Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.     

ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © 2013 Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. 

Hummel, Horace D. The Word Becoming Flesh. © 1979 by Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis.