Grace Evangelical-Lutheran: Isaiah 42,1-9. Epiphany I

Friday, January 14, 2022

Isaiah 42,1-9. Epiphany I

Isaiah 42,1-9 0822

1. Sunday after Epiphany 15

Julian the hospitable and Basilissa, his wife, Martyrs 313

9. Januar 2022

1. ℣ I will make Him the Firstborn,

℟ The Highest of the kings of the earth (Psalm 89,27).

O Lord Jesus Christ, You are the Divine Truth; may Your teaching shine brightly upon us, so that You draw our hearts unto Yourself. Amen. (Du höchstes Licht, ewiger Schein elkg 389,2 2021)

2. »Behold My Servant, whom I uphold, My Chosen, in whom My soul delights; I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry aloud or lift up His voice, or make it heard in the street; ³a bruised reed He will not break, and a faintly burning wick He will not quench; He will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not grow faint or be discouraged till He has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for His torah. Thus says God, the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it: „I am Yahweh; I have called You in righteousness; I will take You by the hand and keep You; I will give You as a Covenant for the people, a Light for the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness. I am Yahweh; that is My Name; I give My Glory to no other, nor My praise to carved idols. Behold, the former things have happened, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them.“«

3. On the Feast of Epiphany we remember that the star guided the Magi to Jesus in Bethlehem. This is the fulfillment of the Prophet Isaiah who proclaimed: »Gentiles shall come to Your Light« (Isaiah 60,3). Isaiah earlier called this Christ the Covenant and the Light.

4. Yahweh had given Israel His covenant with them at Sinai. A key component of this covenant was the forgiveness of sins. This was later established at the temple in Jerusalem. Here Isaiah says the Christ Himself is a Covenant for the people. Why this personification of the covenant? A: Israel was notorious for breaking the covenant Yahweh had made with them at Sinai. Yahweh speaks of this through the Prophet Jeremiah: »Behold, the days are coming, declares Yahweh, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant that they broke, though I was their husband. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days: I will put My law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be My people. … For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more« (Jeremiah 31,31-33.34c).

5. In today’s Gospel pericope Jesus tells his parents: »It is necessary that I am among the things of My Father« (Luke 2,49). Years later, Jesus taught the crowds: »Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished« (Matthew 5,17-18). Jesus is the Covenant made flesh; He is the one who redeems us before God the Father by obtaining the forgiveness of sins.

6. Yahweh is the Light for the Gentiles. He opens the eyes that are blind and brings out those who are imprisoned in darkness. Fallen humanity is certainly blind and seated in the darkness. People either reject God outright and forge their own path to enlightenment in their search for meaning, or they will follow one of a myriad of philosophies or religions to gain enlightenment and peace. What is also common is to pick and choose from many sources in an attempt to make a workable belief system that satisfies the questions they seek to have answered. But as fallen men and women we can never arrive at the point where our fallenness is adequately addressed.

7. Jesus is the Covenant for His people Israel. The covenant given to Moses at Sinai was to prepare Israel for the advent of the Messiah. With His arrival, Jesus fulfilled and completed the Mosaic covenant, beginning with the blood He shed in His circumcision. Having fulfilled the Sinai covenant, Jesus instituted a new covenant with Israel that is centered upon Himself and His vicarious sacrifice for all sin. Jesus is also the Light of the Gentiles. All those lost in darkness and ignorant of God’s plan to save fallen humanity now have a Light of salvation revealed to them. Jesus is the Divine answer to expectations and questions that every culture throughout time has asked; the Divine fulfillment of those aspirations are universal (Pelikan 34).

8. Behold, Jesus is Immanuel – God is with us! That is His Name, and He gives His Glory to no other, for He is the Christ and our Savior.

9. This day, O God, Your Son most dear

Let shine steadily o’er us clear,

So we who were born blind, may

Now still be a child of the day (Du höchstes Licht, ewiger Schein elkg 389,4 2021). This is most certainly true.

9. The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (Philippines 4,7). Amen.

11. Let us pray. O Lord God, Almighty and Eternal God, Heavenly Father, on [Epiphany] You revealed Your only Son Jesus Christ to the Gentiles through the leading of a star. Graciously grant that we may know Him in true faith and be led by Him to the revelation of Your glorious Light. Amen. (The Pomeranian Church Order and Agenda, 1854 p. 285.1; Stratman 32).

To God alone be the Glory

Gode ealdore sy se cyneþrymm

✠

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.

Grace Evangelical-Lutheran

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church

Friday, January 14, 2022

Isaiah 42,1-9. Epiphany I

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