It was the Lord’s delight to crush the Messiah Jesus for the sinners of the world. Reminding us how we would have nothing without the Suffering Servant.
Our text for this Sunday is taken from the centerpiece of the concluding section of Isaiah 56-66. It is an image rich text about light and marriage which shows the outside world what living in relationship with God looks like. It is a great pericope to preach about how faith shines in culture, and an opportunity to give a Christian teaching on marriage from the Bible’s perspective.
The original hearers for Isaiah have been suffering and to them God seems silent. Suddenly, from Isaiah 60, a light from God has come and His people reflect that light to all the world. This image is reflected in the teaching of Jesus (Matthew 5:19) where He calls His people the (reflected) light of the world. God is the source, and we are reflecting His light to the dark world the way mirrors do in a lighthouse. It answers the question: How do unbelievers see God’s light in the world? God’s light is seen through Christ who is Himself the light of the world reflecting His truth through the Church in Word and Sacrament. Isaiah’s hearers thought they had no hope, but God was not done with them yet. He was coming like a bridegroom and with Him the great wedding feast of the Lamb without end. God is still not done yet. His great desire is that all the nations might come to His great wedding feast.
Since this is an image rich text, we can use an image-based structure to help give scope and sequence to our homiletical task:
“This sermon structure uses two or more images in the sermon to signal movement or development to the hearers during the course of the sermon. Each image is associated with a particular thought or experience for the hearers and the sermon moves from one section to another by moving from one image to another.
In working with more than one image, the preacher needs to determine how the images hold together as a set of images. Do they have a thematic or stylistic coherence? Working with images that are too widely varied in style or subject matter can create confusion for the hearers, as the images work to break apart the sermon rather than hold the experience together as one intentional meditation upon God’s Word.
Also, the preacher will want a coherent movement between images during the sermon. That is, as the preacher moves from one image to another, there should be a logical or experiential appropriateness to such movement. This could involve movement within a metaphorical field (from dark world to a light found in relationship to a teaching on marriage as a mirror of God’s love for the Church in this world), typological movement (from the light in the darkness to the Son of God as bridegroom for His bride the Church), a dynamic reversal (from the waiting for the bridegroom in darkness to the light of the dawn of His coming in Christ), the development of a theme (the revelation of the Bridegroom and the Bride), or the contextualization of God’s mission (God has given a witness to all the nations through the light shown in marriage as an image of the love of God for His people).
Finally, as the preacher integrates the images into the sermon, he can choose to work inductively leading from an image to the statement of an idea (that connects to the text, to the theological confession, to evangelical proclamation, or to the lives of the hearers) or deductively, beginning first with a statement of the idea and then entering into the image as a way of developing it for the hearers. A variety of inductive and deductive movements can generate a continuing interest in the flow of the sermon.”[1]
Specifically, here in Isaiah “glory” has to do with God’s localized presence on earth.
Places to develop the two images from our text are verses 2, 4, and 5. In verse 2, you can mine the significance of the word “glory” in Isaiah and never run dry on material to preach. Specifically, here in Isaiah “glory” has to do with God’s localized presence on earth. Think “sacramental” presence connected to God. This is not saying marriage (verse 5) is a sacrament, but it does mean that married people partake in the sacraments and God’s glory is received by them there and, consequently, is then reflected back to the world. The new name concept in verse 2 can be connected to Baptism, but it would also be textually prudent to make the connection to the Messiah in Isaiah 9. In verse 4, you have the strongest connection to the crucifixion and death of Jesus as a substitutionary atonement for our sins. When speaking of the “delight/desire/will” of the Lord in the midst of the “forsaken” and “desolate” one, you have a direct connection to Isaiah 53:10. It was the Lord’s delight to crush the Messiah Jesus (suffering servant) for the sinners of the world. Reminding us how we (the bride) would have nothing without the Suffering Servant (Jesus our Bridegroom). Finally, verse 5 would be an excellent place to develop Luther’s image of the wedding ring in the divine exchange, from his work entitled The Freedom of the Christian:
“The benefit of faith is this: that it unites the soul with Christ, like a bride with a bridegroom. By this “mystery” (as Paul teaches), Christ and the soul are made one flesh. For if they are one flesh and if a true marriage—indeed by far the most perfect marriage of all—is culminated between them (since human marriages are but weak shadows of this one), then it follows that they come to hold all things, good and bad, in common. Accordingly, the faithful soul can both assume as its own whatever Christ has and glory in it, and whatever is the soul’s Christ claims for Himself as His own.
Let us examine these things in detail to see how invaluable they are. Christ is full of grace, life, and salvation; the soul is full of sins, death, and damnation. Now, let faith intervene and it will turn out that sins, death, and Hell are Christ’s, but grace, life, and salvation are the soul’s. For if He is the groom, then He should simultaneously both accept the things belonging to the bride and impart to the bride those things that are His. For the one who gives His body and His very self to her, how does He not give his all? And the one who receives the body of the bride, how does He not take all that is hers?
This is truly the most delightful drama, involving not only communion but also a saving war, victory, salvation, and redemption. For Christ is God and a human being in one and the same person, who does not and cannot sin, die, or be damned; and His righteousness, life, and salvation are unconquerable, eternal, and all-powerful. When, I say, such a person shares in common and, indeed, takes as His own the sins, death, and Hell of the bride on account of the wedding ring of faith, and when He regards them as if they were His own and as if He himself had sinned—suffering, dying, and descending into Hell—then, as He conquers them all and as sin, death, and Hell cannot devour Him, they are devoured by Him in an astounding duel. For His righteousness is superior to all sins, His life more powerful than death, and His salvation more invincible than Hell.
So, it happens that the faithful soul, through the wedding ring of its faith in Christ her bridegroom, is free from all sins, secure against death, protected from Hell, and given the eternal righteousness, life, and salvation of her bridegroom, Christ. Thus, “He takes to Himself a glorious bride without spot or wrinkle... making her clean by washing... in the Word of life,” that is, through faith in the Word, life, righteousness, and salvation [of Christ]. As Hoseah 2[:19] says, [the Lord] becomes engaged to her “in faith, in mercy and compassion, in righteousness, and judgment.”
Who can even begin to appreciate this royal marriage? What can comprehend the riches of this glorious grace? Here, this rich, upstanding bridegroom, Christ, marries this poor, disloyal little prostitute, redeems her from all her evil, and adorns her with all His goodness. For now, it is impossible for her sins to destroy her, because they have been laid upon Christ and devoured by Him. In Christ, her bridegroom, she has her righteousness, which she can enjoy as her very own property. And with confidence she can set this righteousness over against all of her sins and in opposition to death and Hell and can say, “Sure, I have sinned, but my Christ, in whom I trust, has not sinned. All that is His is mine and all that is mine is His.” As it says in the Song of Solomon [2:16]: “My beloved is mine, and I am His.” This is what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15[:57]: “Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” But this “victory” is over sin and death, as he notes in the previous verse [verse 56]: “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the Law.”[2]
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Additional Resources:
Craft of Preaching-Check out out 1517’s resources on Isaiah 62:1-5.
Concordia Theology-Various helps from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, MO to assist you in preaching Isaiah 62:1-5.
Text Week-A treasury of resources from various traditions to help you preach Isaiah 62:1-5.
Lectionary Kick-Start-Check out this fantastic podcast from Craft of Preaching authors Peter Nafzger and David Schmitt as they dig into the texts for this Sunday!
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[1] https://concordiatheology.org/sermon-structs/dynamic/imagistic-structures/multiple-image/
[2] Timothy J. Wengert. The Freedom of a Christian, in “The Roots of Reform,” ed. Hans J. Hillerbrand, Kirsi I. Stjerna, and Timothy J. Wengert, vol. 1, “The Annotated Luther.” Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2015. 499–502.
