The question remains, how do we get connected to this Isaianic Servant? How do we get into a relationship with Him so our perspectives and lives might be changed? We want to see God rightly, so where do we look?
In Epiphany, we finally get the first of four of Isaiah’s servant songs (the three others being 49:1-6; 50:4-9; and 52:13-53:12). There are several things common to each of these which we can draw out, but I want to focus on the power of the word of the Servant, so we have a connection to the liturgical situation for our preaching on the Baptism of our Lord. In each of the songs, the Servant “does not cry out” (42:2) but wields his “mouth like a sharpened sword” (49:2), while having an “instructed tongue” (50:4), that “He did not open” (53:7) when suffering for the sins of others. Hence, the emphasis on the word
Now, Israel had been using their word’s as well but for a different purpose. They complained the ways of the Lord were not just, that God’s words were a burden. So, in the servant song of chapter 42, God responds to the people. He responds by choosing His humble Servant to bring the right way to God’s people and to all the nations. He gives them His word that the anointed (messiah) One will mercifully bring them back to God. This was gospel to Isaiah’s audience because the Servant is presented to the Israelites who were exiled in Babylon in the sixth century. Their temple was destroyed, and their king, Zedekiah, had his eye’s gouged out after witnessing the death of his sons. Isaiah speaks to a people whose way of life had come to a sudden end by Nebuchadnezzar. The exiles knew only frustration and defeat. They chaffed under the burden of the world around them. Having known freedom, they now were embittered by their restrictions. No wonder they would say: “My way is hidden from the Lord; my justice (מִשְׁפָּטִי / mish-pa-Ti “justice; judgment; just claim; ordinance”) is disregarded by my God” (40:27).
This is perhaps an opportunity to explore a theological confession which could come from the context of our reading. This could be a time to instruct God’s people on the proper relation between Law and Gospel in terms of the “Third Use of the Law,” an area that has suffered much in current preaching. Namely, preachers tend to think the Third Use of the Law is a great way to end a sermon because it gives us an opportunity to “respond” to the homiletical event. But the Third Use is still law. Therefore, it still kills, and leaves sinners condemned.
How can we help our hearers have a right understanding of the Third Use? I suggest the following analogy I once heard at a theological symposium:
I used to hate driving 25 miles-per-hour (mph). Honestly, I loathed it. Cars are not even made to go that slow. I used to imagine some sick judge was out there creating these ridiculous laws he knew were dumb because he wanted to fill his courtroom with convictions. In fact, I used to intentionally drive just over 25 mph when I was next to a police officer on the road so I could justify to myself that he knew that I knew that 25 mph is just ridiculous. I used to hate driving 25 mph... until I had a kid.
Once I had a child, my whole understanding of that law changed. Because I value the life and relationship I have with my child, I can now honestly say 25 mph is WAY too fast if you are going to be on my street, because that is where my child plays with other children on the block. In fact, 25 mph is frightening to me. I am now one of those lawn-chair parents who mad-dogs every person driving down the street (the concept of the “street” will connect to Isaiah 42 and Acts 8 for you below), so they know that I know what they are doing. In fact, if you are coming to my street, I would just prefer you park your car at the end of the block and walk to wherever it is you are going to on my block, and when you are done, return to your vehicle on foot and then drive away from my street. My pharisaical perspective is admittedly extreme, but I know the wisdom of that law I used to chafe under, because my whole life was changed when I was put into a relationship with my child. Now, does not mean I drive perfectly today? No, I still break the speed limit. But these days, instead of doing it out of defiance, I now know when it happens, I am filled with regret and slow down. This is not just because of a fear of punishment, but because I know it is just, good, right, and beneficial.
This is like the Law of God. Before Christ, we chaffed under the Law and hated God because of it (First Use). But now, our whole perspective on the Law has changed because we have been put into relationship with God’s Son, Jesus. To our shame, at first, this relationship made us realize we are sinners (Second Use). But the Gospel changed us and our whole perspective about everything including the Law. In fact, we have to be careful now not to become pharisaical about it. Of course, this does not mean we keep the Law perfectly, only the Son of God did that for us. It just means we agree the Law is just, good, right, and beneficial (Third Use). I am grateful God is merciful to me a sinner and has given me His Son to change everything I know about this world.
But the Gospel changed us and our whole perspective about everything including the Law.
In a similar way, Judah in our Isaiah text is chaffing under the Law and only the Servant can bring them back to a right understand of God’s ways. The Servant will not cry out against those in the street (42:2). Instead, He will be gracious and merciful, not breaking a bruised reed in the water or snuffing out the low burning fires (42:3). This is the character of Isaiah’s messianic (anointed) Servant. He is characterized by grace and mercy.
The question remains, how do we get connected to this Isaianic Servant? How do we get into a relationship with Him so our perspectives and lives might be changed? We want to see God rightly, so where do we look? Well, let us search in another place where one of Isaiah’s “Servant Songs” was being read on a street (verse 2) or at least on the “road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza” (Acts 8:26). There the Ethiopian eunuch was reading Isaiah’s Servant Song from Isaiah 53:7-8, and he asked Phillip, “‘Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?’ Then Phillip told him the good news about Jesus” (Acts 8:34-35). Jesus, the Isaianic Messianic Servant, accomplishes the Father’s mission to bring justice and order to a fallen and shattered world through the power of His life, death, and resurrection. The words of that Servant Song the eunuch was reading speak of the very work of Christ in His ministry through crucifixion and resurrection. The way you are brought into relationship with Jesus, the way you are connected to the work He did on the cross and empty tomb is in the waters of Baptism. Romans 6:3-4 says it clearly enough: “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” Therefore, because Phillip obviously connected Isaiah’s Suffering Servant with baptism, it is no coincidence the Ethiopian eunuch asks (Acts 8:37): “What prevents me from being baptized?” and he was baptized right there on the side of the street. Talk about a life changing experience on the road.
This is how you are brought into relationship with God’s Son, through the waters of Baptism. It is the way your perspective and life are changed. When you are connected to Christ by the power of His working and Word, you are forever changed. This is a good chance to catechize:
“How can water do such great things? Answer: It is not the water indeed that does them, but the Word of God, which is in and with the water, and faith, which trusts this Word of God in the water. For without the Word of God the water is simple water and no Baptism. But with the Word of God, it is a Baptism, that is, a gracious water of life and a washing of regeneration in the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5-7).[1]
In Baptism, God takes our wayward lives and brings them back in to order through the justice He meted out on His Son on the cross for you, and now you live in relation to God and His Word in a whole new way. Admittedly, not perfect, but perfectly loved. God has mercy on us and keeps us by His grace the rest of our lives.
At this point, a better way to end a sermon with these themes can come from a more colorful structure than: Law, Gospel, Response (Third Use). Perhaps now, we can make the dynamic of the sermon: Law, Gospel, Celebration. This certainly suits Lutheran theology better, because “celebration” asks a better question at the end of the sermon. Rather than a law question which asks, “What are you going to do to respond to the Gospel?” celebration asks “what” you are celebrating and “who” you are celebrating. The answer, of course, is “only Jesus” and “only the Gospel.”
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Additional Resources:
Craft of Preaching-Check out our previous articles on Isaiah 42:1-9.
Concordia Theology-Various helps from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, MO to assist you in preaching Isaiah 42:1-9.
Text Week-A treasury of resources from various traditions to help you preach Isaiah 42:1-9.
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[1] Paul Timothy McCain, ed., Concordia: The Lutheran Confessions (St. Louis, MO: Concordia Publishing House, 2005), 340.
