I hate to wait for
anything. Sometimes that has got me
into trouble. IAs a child very early
one Christmas morning I woke up and discovered.
Santa had arrived. I quickly ran
and banged on my parents’ door to share the joyful news. But they did not share nearly the same
excitement. They told me to go back to
bed. But I thought. Here are my presents. And here am I. Why wait?
When my parents and siblings walked into that wrapping paper strewn
living room two hours later, they did not see my reasoning at all. But, well, I just hate to wait.
But really, who
likes to wait? Who looks at a long line
at the store and says, “Wow, this is awesome!
15 minutes of waiting! This is my lucky day!” Who celebrates a traffic jam or feels joy
when they get put on hold? Nobody likes
to wait. Still, as irritating as that type
of waiting is, it’s not the worst. At
least with that waiting, you can see an end.
But what of the
waiting where you can’t? You wait for a change in a relationship. You want to see healing or simply for it to
get better. But you fear it will never
happen. You yearn for a change in your
finances or your job, but it seems less and less likely. You hunger for changes in yourself, changes
that seem painfully slow in coming. You
hope for a changed world, one less brutal and more kind; one less scary and
more safe, one that lifts you up more and grinds you down less. Yet as you wait for those things, you
wonder. Will it ever happen? Can it ever happen?
How do you wait
with hope in the midst of all the challenges of your life? How do you carry hope for a world where so
much is broken, where too often violence and hatred reign? Here in these words, God shows us the
way. Let’s listen and hear what God has
to say.
How do you wait
with hope in the face of all the disappointments and struggles of life? How do you live with hope in a world where so
much has gone wrong? Here God tells us. You realize who you are waiting for, who is
even now coming into the world. A King
has come, and is coming still, a king who is coming to make all things
right.
That’s what these
words from Isaiah are telling us.
Anyone who heard these words in the ancient world would know that. That’s what the voice that is calling is
announcing when he says, “In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord.” When a king came to visit his subjects, he
didn’t just take any old way. No, the
king made a new one. Haven’t you ever
heard the phrase in some old story the king’s highway or the king’s way? In those stories, they mean exactly what
they say. When a king came to visit
some area, he made a new road just for that coming. Why? Beyond showing his power and authority, the
king did it for the same reason a politician in an election year loads up on
the public works projects. He wanted
his subjects to see what a good deal they had, how the King was bringing good
things. But the king that Isaiah
proclaims doesn’t just bring a nice road.
This king raises up valleys. He brings
mountains down. He makes rough ground
level and the rugged places a plain.
This king brings a way that changes everything. He makes a way that brings the world we all
yearn to see.
Now if you’re
honest, isn’t this what you yearn for, a world where everything gets made
right? Hasn’t every human being yearned
for this, someone who will come and bring in the golden age, a world as it
should be? But you might say. Sure, I dream for this. I also dream of winning the Florida
lottery. But come on, isn’t this just
some sort of wish fulfillment fantasy?
It can’t be real But don’t you
see the evidence for its truth right in your own heart?
Many years ago,
the cat that I owned, Sen, came in the house and was making the strangest
noise. As he got closer, I saw why. He was carrying a little field mouse in his
jaw. He dropped it in front of me, and
the poor thing scrambled off. But the
little creature didn’t have a chance. In
a few moments, my cat, Sen, had cornered him again in the living room. And in that moment, I swear that little
mouse looked right into my eyes, as if saying, “Dude, you are my only
hope.” And I answered his call. I went in the kitchen. I pulled out an empty
piece of Tupperware, and some catnip. I
threw the catnip down, and my cat went to catnip heaven and forgot all about
the mouse. Then I went over, and opened
up the lid of that Tupperware, and that mouse hopped right in. I guess he figured any place was better than
where he was. I carried him out to the
edge of the woods by my home, and as I let him out, I warned him. “Stay clear of here. I don’t know if I’ll be able to save you
again.”
But why did I do
that? Why did I care? Isn’t that the way of nature? The strong devour the weak.
The poet Tennyson put it well. “Nature is
red in tooth and claw.” But why does
that bother me? Why do human beings
care about the weak and vulnerable at all?
Why do you become appalled when
the strong ruthlessly, even cruelly devour the weak? Isn’t that the way of nature, and aren’t you
part of nature? Why do you have such
trouble getting with the program?
Because somewhere inside of you, you sense that nature isn’t completely
natural, that something in it has gone horribly wrong. But how did you who evolved right out of
nature get that idea? Is it because youare some sort of strange mutation or is it because you sense a
super-nature? Is it because you sense a
perspective beyond the world you see? When you get upset at how the strong
devour the weak, you are picking up the perspective of the original designer, the
creator’s original intention for the world.
Your heart and mind pick up that perspective, like a radio picks up
radio waves.
This is the perspective
that Isaiah proclaims, the perspective of the One that comes from beyond this
world. Otherwise how can all the people
see the glory of this king together?
But this king comes to not only make the world right. This king comes to
make us right.
Up until this
chapter in Isaiah, the prophet has been delivering nothing but bad news, how
the people of Israel have gone horribly wrong, and literally there will be hell
to pay. But here in this chapter,
everything changes. Hear the words
again, and keep in mind that since this is a prophecy Isaiah is talking about
the future, but relaying it to us like it already has happened. “Comfort, comfort, my people, says your
God. “Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and
proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been
paid for, that that she has from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.” God suddenly moves here from judgment to
mercy. Why? As you first hear these words, you can think
that God is saying, mercy will come because Jerusalem has suffered enough. But Isaiah doesn’t say that at all. Isaiah says that yes, the sins of Israel
will be paid for, but not by Israel.
No, instead Isaiah proclaims.
God will pay the cost. In fact,
God will pay double the price.
What does this
mean? Isaiah is saying. God is not simply going to forgive
you. God isn’t simply going to pardon
you. God is going to restore you. God is going to raise you higher than ever
before.
Think about it. If you were a prisoner on death row, and the
Governor pardons you. Does that solve
your problems? Sure, now you are free,
but you still carry the weight of what you did. You still walk out a marked man. But what if not only are you pardoned, but
the Governor adopts you as a member of her family. She gives you an honored place at her
table. Now that would be some serious
restoration.
And Isaiah is
telling us. This is what the coming King
will do. This king won’t just pardon
you. He will make you his own. And in case we still don’t get it, he tells
us this.
Isaiah goes on and
on about this king’s power. His word
stands forever. “See the Sovereign Lord
comes with power, and his arm rules for him.”
Then boom, up pops up a completely different picture. “He tends his flock like a shepherd; he
gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently
leads those that have young.” What is going
on here?
Isaiah is telling
us. Yes this King has power, but how
does he use it? He uses it to gather
those that are lost. He uses it to
protect the vulnerable, and lead the young.
The king comes as a shepherd. He
comes as a shepherd who will even lay down his life for his sheep.
Do you begin to
get why Christians have read these words for thousands of years before
Christmas? They don’t just describe any
King. They describe this King, the one
born in a manger, the one that the angels proclaimed to the shepherds, the one
who said, “I am the Good Shepherd, who lays down his life for the sheep.”
How can Israel’s
sin be paid for, even doubly so? How can
the world in all its brokenness and evil get restored? How can the mountains get brought down, and
the valleys filled. Because God will do
it. God will do what only God can. The King will come and lay down his life
for those whom he loves. And when he
does, everything will change.
But what Isaiah
saw as the future, we know as the past and the present. We know.
The King has come. And this King
is still coming. And he is making low
the mountains. He is raising up the
valleys. He is revealing his glory, a
glory that all the world can see.
And so what do you
do in the face of that news? You wait,
and you wait with hope. And that means,
you don’t worry. Why? Because if indeed the King has come, and is
coming, then you already know who has the final say. Violence, and hatred, and evil do not write
the end of history. The king does, a
king who gathers the lambs in his arms.
Again and again, this king has shown that truth. Yes
are there bad things happening in our world?
Of course. Can we understand how
God is working in the midst of that? Of
course not. Remember what Isaiah said, “His understanding
no one can fathom.” But just because you
don’t understand it doesn’t mean God is not working.
Remember what I
said last week. The Romans who killed
Jesus had the greatest armies, the largest empire. And Jesus had nothing, only a few hundred
disciples at best. But where are the Romans today? Today, we name our children Mary andElizabeth, and James and John. And what do we name our dogs? Caesar and Nero. Doesn’t that tell you who really is king?
When you worry do
you know what you are saying? You are
saying, “I know best. I know how things
need to go. I know better than God
does.” Do you see how ridiculous that
is? The great reformer, Martin Luther
had a colleague, Phillip Melanchthon, who worried about everything. When Phillip came to Luther with some worry,
do you know what Luther said? He said,
“Let Phillip cease to rule the world.” Stop trying to rule the world. Let your worry go.
And letting worry
go, doesn’t mean, you don’t take action.
You live under the King’s rule after all. So live as the King orders. Pray and love. Do as Jesus calls you to. Do that, and trust the king to deal with the
rest.
And as you do
these things, live with hope. Pessimism
is a profoundly unchristian trait. If
you think the world is getting worse, not only are you wrong, you are behaving
as if the gospel is not true. You are
acting as if God does not exist. You
are living as a functional atheist.
And if you wait
with hope, what will happen? You will
renew your strength. You will soar on
wings like eagles. You will run and not
grow weary. You will walk and not be
faint. Why?
Because this king,
King Jesus, has made a new way. Jesus
made it with his very life. And in
Jesus way, the mountains fall, and the valleys rise. In his way, he pays double for your sin. In his way, Jesus doesn’t just forgive
you. He makes you God’s beloved
child. So when hard things hit,
remember, you are a child of the King.
When things seem slow to change, remember who has overcome the
world. When you worry, remember the
light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
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