“He’s coming!” Do these words strike fear in your heart, or do they warm your heart? It depends on the situation doesn’t it? If you’re drawing a funny picture of your teacher on the chalkboard before class, a classmate’s cry: “He’s coming!” should set your heart a-thumpin’ as you sprint for your chair and dust the chalk off your hands before the teacher can figure out what you’ve been up to. On the other hand, if you’re standing outside in the rain after school waiting for your dad to pick you up, “He’s coming!” are welcome words of relief.
Today the prophet Isaiah says about God: “He’s coming!” Are these words of dread or relief? They are primarily words of relief for Isaiah says that our God is coming to save us, and he’s coming to fix us.
The prophet Isaiah lived during a time when many fellow Israelites worshipped God with empty hearts. Sure, they showed up at the temple and made their sacrifices and gave their offerings but God knew they were just going through the motions. Isaiah warned that because of their hypocrisy, God was going to allow a foreign nation to defeat them and take them into captivity far from their homes. In spite of Isaiah’s cry: “He’s coming!” most just shrugged and kept doing what they were doing.
Does that describe us? When God’s law shrieks, “He’s coming!” do we just shrug it off as we continue to grouse about our government, spread rumours about the new kid at school, or give our spouse the silent treatment when he or she hasn’t done something exactly the way we would like? If so, we have forgotten who God is. He is a holy judge, a consuming fire who does not take our self centeredness lightly. And as long as we shrug off our sins we should not think that we are on the way to heaven. Isaiah spoke about the way to heaven in our text. He called it the “Way of Holiness” and said: “The unclean will not journey on it…wicked fools will not go about on it” (Isaiah 53:8b). Whenever we excuse our sins and refuse to repent, we show ourselves to be unclean and foolish and are therefore not on track to heaven.
So far the words, “He’s coming!” have made us uneasy. But that isn’t Isaiah’s primary intent, for he is speaking to the faithful, to those who know and are sorry for their sins. Therefore when Isaiah cries: “He’s coming!” he does so to comfort. Isaiah explains: “Be strong, do not fear; your God will come,…he will come to save you” (Isaiah 35:4). The message that Isaiah shared with the people of his day is echoed in the angel’s announcement to the shepherds outside Bethlehem. “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. 11 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:10, 11). Although we should be afraid of God because of our sins we don’t have to be, for our God comes to save us from those sins. Isaiah wasn’t exaggerating when he prophesied that God himself would come to save his people, for isn’t that who Jesus is, the Son of God?
How exactly did Jesus save us? Listen again to Isaiah’s description of that road to heaven. Isaiah wrote: “And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness...only the redeemed will walk there” (Isaiah 35:8b, 9b). Jesus saved us by redeeming us, that is, by paying the penalty for our sins. If we were to compare the Way of Holiness on which the redeemed walk to our highways today, we would see some similarities. Most highways today have fences that run along side of them, especially when they run through cities. The only way on to the highway then is with an on-ramp. Did you ever notice how such interchanges look like a cross from the sky? In the same way it’s only by the cross of Christ that we have access to the Way of Holiness (Henry Shellman). For at the cross, Christ redeemed us, that is, he paid for our sins with his blood. So if you feel uneasy about your sins, if the thought of standing before God on Judgment Day makes your knees quake, Isaiah has good news. He says: “…steady the knees that give way; say to those with fearful hearts, ‘Be strong, do not fear; your God will come…he will come to save you” (Isaiah 35:3b, 4). In Jesus, God has come and he has saved us from our sins. Put your trust in Jesus and you’ll find yourself walking the Way of Holiness to heaven.
Knowing that God came to save us from our sins is reason enough to end the sermon right here and get on with our rejoicing. But in the spirit of an infomercial Isaiah says: “But wait! There’s more!” God not only comes to save us, he’s coming to fix us. Isaiah wrote: “Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. 6 Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy” (Isaiah 35:5, 6).
Our Gospel lesson this morning was a fulfillment of this prophecy. When Jesus came to this world he healed the blind, the deaf, and the lame. The good news is that this is not a one-time offer. Jesus will come again to fix up the blind, the deaf, and the lame. He will do this on Judgment Day. On that day blind believers will have their eyes opened so they can see those heavenly streets paved with gold. The deaf will have their ears unstopped so they can hear the throngs of angels sing in all their glory. The mute will have their tongues untied so that they will be able to join the singing and never have to worry about being off key. And the lame will not only walk to God’s throne, they will be able to bend down on one knee in adoration and get back up again without the help of crutches. It’s no wonder that Isaiah said at the end of our text: “They [believers] will enter Zion [heaven] with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away” (Isaiah 35:10).
Of course we don’t have to wait until Judgment Day for our singing to start. Look at how the deaf/mute man reacted to Jesus’ work in our Gospel lesson. He couldn’t stop telling others about what Jesus had done for him. This illustrates how a believer’s worship of Jesus is neither minimal nor mechanical. A believer who reminds himself daily of all that God has done for him doesn’t ask how much time he has to spend at church to show his thanks. He doesn’t go through the actions of worship because that’s what’s expected of him. No! He feels truly blessed and privileged when invited to worship or to serve the Lord, and if no such invitations are forthcoming, he looks for opportunities, even makes opportunities to serve and to encourage. May that describe us. May we be anything but minimal or mechanical in our worship of Jesus!
“He’s coming!” Such an announcement regarding the holy and just God should make our knees knock together because we are often minimal and mechanical in our worship of him. But the fact that God is coming doesn’t scare us in spite of these sins. That’s because the God who is coming is also our Savior who already came once to pay for our sins. Now he’s coming again to save us from this sin-filled world and to fix us our sin-damaged bodies. When Jesus returns there will be no need of crutches and wheelchairs, no need for medication, no more fear of sleepless nights, no more pounding headaches, no more cancer, no more pesky colds, no more tears, no more regret, no more guilt. And so we pray, “Come, Lord Jesus! Come soon!! Come very soon!!!” Amen.
