“Are you comfortable?” “Make yourself comfortable.” “Make yourself at home.” “What can we do to make your stay more comfortable?” Perhaps you have heard these statements and questions before and maybe they are statements and questions you have asked. Of course, we might understand that when it comes to human earthly comfort our personal definitions may be different than what God has in mind when He seeks to give us comfort. In our text, God speaking to His people, the children of Israel, gives us a bit of a foretaste of the comfort He desires to give to us.
Before we get to our text let us look at the other two lessons. In our Gospel reading for today we have the account of Jesus sending out the seventy-two with His authority, promise and power. Unlike Jesus’ sending of the apostles on the night of His betrayal when He explicitly tells them to take a knapsack and a sword, in our text Jesus sends them out with no knapsack, no sandals and to greet no one on the road. They are instructed to bring peace, “Peace be on this house,” and yet if it is not a house of peace their peace will return to them. They are to stay in one place while sharing the Gospel and not to move around looking for the best accommodations. And if their message is refused they are to shake the dust off their feet as a sign against that place. Finally, even more than rejoicing in the signs and wonders they might perform they are to rejoice that their names are written in the book of heaven. Indeed, Jesus reminds them as He reminds us, our time in this world is nothing compared to our time in heaven and so more important than investing in this world is investing in heaven.
In our Epistle reading, Paul encourages us to bear with one another, to build up one another. We are to recognize sin and call sinners to repentance, lest they remain in their sin and are eternally condemned, yet as we call sinners to repent we are to recognize our own sin as well. Thus, we are to bear one another’s burdens. We are encouraged to not grow weary in doing good, reminding us that although good works do not merit eternal life, they are a response, a reflection, a result of our faith. Finally, we are encouraged to boast only in the cross of Christ, which is folly to those who are perishing, but salvation to all who believe.
In our text God gives the prophet Isaiah a look into heaven as he speaks words of comfort, delight, peace and rejoicing. Isaiah begins by saying, 10“Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all you who love her; rejoice with her in joy, all you who mourn over her” (v. 10). Isaiah is speaking words encouraging rejoicing to a people who have been disciplined by God and scattered throughout the world. They are to rejoice because God has not forgotten His people and His promise, but in due time will restore them so that He may fulfill His ultimate promise of sending a Savior, the promise we see being fulfilled in our Gospel reading.
Isaiah continues, “11that you may nurse and be satisfied from her consoling breast; that you may drink deeply with delight from her glorious abundance” (v. 11). Jerusalem is the place where God’s temple was built. It is the place where Jesus will be crucified for the sins of all people. It is the place where Jesus will show Himself to be alive. Indeed, God’s desire of the nation of Israel was that Jerusalem would be light to the world shining and attracting others to come and hear the Gospel news of salvation.
Isaiah continues, “12For thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream; and you shall nurse, you shall be carried upon her hip, and bounced upon her knees’” (v. 12). As we understand peace, true peace is knowing our sins have been forgiven, so as Jesus took our sins to the cross in Jerusalem and paid the price for our sins, we know we have forgiveness and with forgiveness is life and salvation. This knowledge of sins forgiven, life and salvation bring true unending peace and joy.
Isaiah continues, “13As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem” (v. 13). Isaiah speaks of what he knows to be most comforting that is of a mother who comforts her child. Certainly after being carried in our mother’s womb for nine month the strongest desire and most comfort an infant has is the comfort from its mother, hearing her voice, being held by her, being loved by her. God’s promise is that He will bring even greater comfort the comfort of peace and sins forgiven.
Isaiah continues, “14You shall see, and your heart shall rejoice; your bones shall flourish like the grass; and the hand of the Lord shall be known to his servants, and he shall show his indignation against his enemies” (v. 14). Even while the children of Israel are in exile they are encouraged to not look elsewhere for lasting satisfaction, peace and comfort, rather they are to look to the Lord. Just as a child’s mother brings such comfort so our Father in heaven meets all our needs most especially forgiveness of sins.
What does this mean? God’s word to His people Israel, through the prophet Isaiah were spoken as words of encouragement while they were being disciplined for their apostasy, while they were in exile, before they were restored to the promised land. While we may not be in exile and while God may not discipline us in the same way as He did the children of Israel, the fact is that our situation is that we are conceived and born in sin. Every inclination of our heart is evil all the time. We are spiritually blind, spiritually dead and enemies of God. God might well discipline us in the same way He did Israel. He might well allow us to be exiled for our unfaithfulness and idolatry. Yet, that is not what He does.
As you have heard me say many times, we get it right when we point to Jesus. The Old Testament points us to Jesus. The New Testament points us to Jesus. All of history, the way we measure time and years, B.C. and A.D. point us to Jesus. Because we live in New Testament, A.D. time we know the rest of the story. We know what God has done, that He has sent Jesus, God in flesh to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. Jesus was born to live perfectly for us in our place, take our sins on Himself and suffer and die paying the eternal death penalty for us. Yet, we know the whole history, He did not stay dead but rose victorious over sin, death and the devil. Indeed, we know that God has recreated us.
And now, as we live in these New Testament times God gives us His authority and promise to go out and share His love, His message of salvation, His good news with others so they to might be a part of His kingdom. Very much like the Children of Israel were to be God’s people in the promised land, a light to the world, so we are to be God’s people, a light to the world we live in today, which is what Paul is encouraging us to do in our Epistle reading for today.
God calls us to life at conception, giving us an eternal soul. God calls us to faith through His Word and the waters of Holy Baptism. And God calls us to our various vocations to live lives of faith always bearing witness of the faith He has given to us. And so God stirs in us to live lives of faith, to live lives as priests in the priesthood of all believers, offering our lives as living sacrifices to the Lord.
The children of Israel were in exile when God spoke His word to them through the prophet Isaiah. We are not in exile, yet we do still live in a world filled with sin and unbelief. Isaiah spoke words of consolation and comfort the promise of a return to the promised land. Today God’s word through Isaiah speaks to us of looking forward, giving us hope and comfort. Just as God kept His first promise and Jesus paid the price for our sins, so we look forward to God keeping His second promise that is that Jesus will return to gather us and all the saints and take us to the promised land of heaven.
Indeed, we can rest assured that as God kept His first promise to send a Savior and the fact that Jesus is that Savior, that God will keep His second promise and will return to take us to heaven. Although as we might rightly admit that we have difficulty in keeping our promises God is faithful and just and He keeps all His promise even in spite and despite our unfaithfulness.
From creation God’s desire has always been to have perfect fellowship with His creation and His creatures, with us. Although that desire was disrupted by Adam and Eve and although all humanity has suffered from their sin and God’s curse, His desire and His promises to care for us, His people has never abated. Our desire as His children is to be with Him in heaven. Our desire for heaven is grounded in our understanding that heaven is a wonderful place, and as Isaiah speaks in our text we know that heaven is filled with rejoicing, delighting, peace, and comfort.
Today we too are encouraged and we rejoice. We rejoice because God is faithful and true to His word. Yes, we may not always keep our promises, but that never negates God’s Word and promises. He is always faithful and true and always does what He says, which is why we are able to rejoice.
Although our image of comfort might be a nice soft or hard bed, depending on our own personal preference, or a nice easy chair, that is not God’s image of comfort. As we have stated time and again, peace, true peace is not simply a short time of calm and serenity in our chaotic world, rather true peace is the peace of having our sins forgiven and our guilt removed. Thus, true comfort is not simply some physical attribute of softness or hardness, rather true comfort is that comfort of knowing that God’s loves us, that He gives to us, that He desires to lavish us with all the good gifts and blessing He has to give. No greater comfort can we have in this world, truly, is the comfort of knowing that our sins have been forgiven, recognizing that God has given us life at conception, that He has given us new life, even eternal life through giving us faith through the waters of Holy Baptism, that God forgives us our sins as we hear each Sunday in the absolution, that our sins are forgiven, and the God forgives us and strengthens us through His Holy Supper, so that as we eat His body and drink His blood He becomes a part of us so that His perfect life becomes our perfect life, His perfect death becomes our perfect death and His perfect eternal life becomes our perfect eternal life. And finally, as we are comforted our desire, the result of such comfort, our response of faith is that we simply cannot help ourselves as we live lives of faith, bearing witness of the gifts of God, even sharing His gifts and love with others so they too might be a apart of His kingdom. We rejoice and say, to God be the glory, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
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