Isaiah 54,7-10. Laetare

✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠

The Word of the Lord Endures Forever

Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum

Isaiah 54,7-10   2014

Lätare  027  „Rejoice“  

Guido, Abbot at Pomposa near Ferrara, Italy, † 1046 

30. März 2014

1. Grant, we beseech Thee, Almighty God, that we, who for our evil deeds do worthily deserve to be punished, by the comfort of Thy grace may mercifully be relieved (The Book of Common Prayer 91).  Amen.

2. »„For a brief moment I deserted you, but with great mercy I will gather you. In wrath I hid My face from you for a moment, but with everlasting lovingkindness I will have mercy on you,“ says Yahweh, your Redeemer. „This is like the days of Noah to Me: as I swore that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth, so I swore that I will not be angry with you, and will not rebuke you. For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed, but My steadfast love shall not depart from you, and My covenant of peace shall not be removed,“ says Yahweh, who has compassion on you.« 

3. In this morning’s Gospel Lection, St. John the Apostle and Evangelist tells us that some Greeks wanted to see Jesus after His triumphal entry on Palm Sunday (John 12,21). Jesus responded to their request, saying: »The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.« Those who wish to see Jesus must see Him as the Son of Man who is glorified in His crucifixion and resurrection. The Prophet Isaiah spoke of this in our First Lection for this morning: »„I deserted you for a brief moment, but I will gather you with great mercy. I hid My face from you for a moment in wrath, but I will have mercy on you with everlasting lovingkindness,“ says Yahweh, your Redeemer.« 

4. The Prophet Isaiah recounted God’s anger over Israel’s centuries of idolatry and abandonment of the covenant. Yahweh sent them judges and prophets to exhort them to reject their idols and honor the covenant. For a short while the nation would repent, but soon they would fall back into their pattern of idol worship. Finally, Yahweh had enough and exiled them from Judea for 70 years, but His anger was short-lived, and in His mercy He returned Israel to Palestine. This Heilsgeschichte (salvation history) was the type of greater redemption God the Father would work for all the world. 

5. All the world is under the curse of sin, for we are all sinners, and Yahweh promised to redeem His fallen creation: »When we were children, we were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we may receive adoption as sons« (Galatians 4,3-5). Jesus was born under the law, to redeem those under the law, and this was His glorification. After Jesus responded to the Greeks, He said: »Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of the world will be cast out. And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to Myself« (John 12,31-32). Jesus here says that He will die by Roman crucifixion. 

6. First century Greeks sought wisdom (1. Corinthians 1,22), but Jesus does not give them the philosophical wisdom they may have been expecting. Such talk of crucifixion was regarded as foolishness to the Greeks, for there is no wisdom in crucifixion but only shameful death. I dare say, such talk of suffering and crucifixion is considered foolish by the average American educated in the classical Greek philosophy and culture that forms a large part of our society. If we had our way, we would not want a dead Christ hanging on a cross as a condemned criminal, but rather a living Christ espousing wisdom and philosophy with a British accent to give Him an air of sophistication. 

7. The Apostle Paul reminds us that the apostles do indeed impart a profound wisdom, but it is a secret and hidden wisdom of God which He had decreed before the ages of our glory (1. Corinthians 2,7). This secret and hidden wisdom is Christ who is the Wisdom of God (1. Corinthians 1,24). The Greeks in their pursuit of wisdom sought out Wisdom personified when they sought an audience with Jesus. The wisdom He imparted to these Greeks was that it is God’s Heilsgeschichte (salvation history) and glory to suffer, be crucified and rise in victory over sin, death and hell. This crucified and risen Christ is the expression of Yahweh’s »everlasting lovingkindness and mercy upon us«. Yahweh promises that: »In the days of Noah I swore that the waters should no more go over the earth like a devastating Flood, so also in these days I swear that I will not be angry with you, and will not rebuke you.« The wrath poured out in His Flood was leveled upon Christ Jesus on the cross, and thus God the Father’s anger against mankind’s sin has been meted out upon His Only Son. Noah had His ark to save his family from God’s wrath on sin, and Christ has His Church to carry His people safely to the dry ground of heaven. Just as the Flood waters cleansed the earth of sin, so the Baptismal waters cleanse you from your sin. The Apostle Peter proclaims: »Christ suffered once for sins, He being the Righteous for the unrighteous, so that He may bring us to God, Christ being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which He went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities and powers having been subjected to Him« (1. Peter 3,18-22). Yahweh’s promise is sure and certain: »I will have mercy on you with everlasting lovingkindness«. This promise has been secured and probated by Jesus Christ our Redeemer. Jesus is the Seed who was placed in the earth, died and sprang forth in harvest. You are the fruit of His harvest unto life everlasting.  Amen. 

8. Let us pray. O Christ Jesus, the Heavenly Grain who fell into the earth and died; send us the Holy Spirit so that living in the reality of Your death and resurrection we bear the fruit of good works that are a blessing in this troubled world.  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 27. Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.  

Book of Common Prayer, The. Copyright © 1990 Oxford University Press.

ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © 2014 Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern.

VELKD. Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. www.velkd.de. Copyright © 2014 Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands.