Sexagesima 2020
Isaiah 55:10-13
February 16, 2020
Zion Lutheran Church + Nampa, ID
Our Old Testament reading for today comes from Isaiah 55 and is one of the most clear and striking passages concerning the power and the effectiveness of the Word of God. Combine it with the Parable of the Sower from our Gospel reading, we hear of an important characteristic of God that has incredible significance to our everyday lives as God’s people. This is how the kingdom of God comes into the world, comes to you, by means of His Word.
We read in Isaiah how the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and it has a purpose. It waters the earth, making things bud and flourish, and providing what we need to survive. This rain is lifegiving water, it’s what brings new life to what exists in the world. And after it has watered and nourished the earth, it evaporates back up into the sky, back to where it has come from.
This reminds me of a TV commercial in Oregon from about 20 years ago. I don’t even remember what it was for, just how it began. It was college graduation and people where all lined up outside to receive their diplomas outside in a stadium. And it’s raining. It doesn’t seem to bother anyone though, but then one girl walks up to get her diploma and she is using an umbrella. Everything stops. The music, the announcer, people just stand there and stare at her. She realizes what has happened, so she puts the umbrella away and then everything starts again and she gets her diploma.
That commercial reflects our life sometimes. We worry about getting wet, and ruining our “special day,” so we pull out an umbrella and hold it over our heads. We want the blessings of God, but we’re afraid to let go of our illusionary sense of control in our life. We’re afraid of what the rain might do to us. We might melt!!! We might shrivel up and die! That’s a real fear because that’s exactly what happens. We have the water of baptism poured on us and we die, connected to Christ’s death. But then we are brought back to life from that lifegiving water through Christ’s resurrection.
Just as the rain has the purpose of watering the earth, so does God’s Word have a purpose of watering souls. Of bringing forth life, growth, new life. Isaiah describes it as the wicked and evil man turning from their thoughts and ways to God’s thoughts and ways. God is above man, and as He rains, as He pours His grace on us, He freely pardons that wickedness and evil that exists in our heart. It declares you forgiven, and as it is done on earth, so it is in heaven. It declares you to be a child of God, redeemed by the blood of Jesus, loved, wanted, righteous, justified for the sake of Jesus.
Can this Word be trusted? For the Israelites of Isaiah time, they were faced with the Babylonian captivity. Seventy years in exile in a foreign land because of Israel’s unfaithfulness. During that time, the Babylonian propaganda would sound persuasive to the captives. Didn’t Babylon’s gods defeat the God of Israel? Isn’t the God of Israel inferior to the gods of Babylon? And all this future promise of a new exodus, of deliverance from captivity, and a coming Messiah to deliver, the waiting has been so long, it won’t actually happen, right?
For us living 2500 years after the Babylonian captivity, we are still faced with the same sorts of questions and the same doubts. Can God’s Word be trusted? We live in a culture that increasingly presents persuasive propaganda. We look around at the spreading of the seed of the Word and all too often we see it fall on ill prepared soil, among thorns and thistles, and snatched away by the devil. And we hear, or even think, “What’s the use? It does no good. You might as well give up and give in.”
And if it were only left up to us, this would be true. We cannot make the Word work, nor make the seed grow. Tampering with God’s word to get it to work the way we want it to work distorts it, alters it, and replaces it with our own words. Our words have no power to fight the devil, to destroy the evil that rises against us, or to forgive the sin that rises within us. Our words are powerless to prevent the bitter fruit of harm against our neighbor. Our words are just words. God’s word is God’s power to destroy, and throw down, to build and to plant.
As a result of the fall into sin, the Lord tells Adam that thorns and thistles will inhabit the land. Now, because of the Lord’s salvation, the plants of Eden will spring up again, and the Lord’s people will be invited back into the lush garden. Just as creation became corrupt in Adam’s fall, in Christ it is restored. You are a displaced people who have tasted of the things of the coming age, but you also yearn for the full redemption of our bodies at the resurrection when Christ returns. Hold on to the promise of your deliverance, do not settle for a permanent existence in this world. Whether or not you understand the ways of the Lord, you can trust His Word is true and will do what it says. And whether or not you trust it, God still sends out His Word. God’s Word will accomplish the purpose for which it was sent. It will never return empty. God said it. That settles it. Faith believes it. Unbelief cannot thwart it.
As you hear it, God plants His Word in your hearts and upon your lips. You can tell the sinner he’s a sinner and show him from God’s law what he’s done wrong. God convicts sinners’ conscience with His law. You can tell the sinner that Jesus is his Savior. Tell him how Jesus died for him to wash away all his sin by His blood and rains down His righteousness freely. God absolves sinners by His gospel. Speak. Speak the word of God. God’s word does not return to Him void. It is never empty sounds, or useless words. It is the almighty power of God to forgive us sinners, raise us up from the death, and give eternal life.
This is true of the written and proclaimed Word of God, and it is true of the incarnate Word of God. For the Word of God proclaimed does what it is sent to do. And what it is sent to do is deliver Christ, the word of God in the flesh. The Word incarnate accomplishes what He was sent to do. He goes to the cross to take the sin of the world upon Himself. He returns to His Father at the Ascension with the success of the atonement and defeating death itself. And now He rains down His righteousness to drench you with His love and grace. Maybe instead of hiding under your umbrella, you ought to be like a child, who not only plays in the rain, but splashes in every puddle that he can find until he is completely soaked from head to toe and loving every minute of it. Let us bask in the rain/reign of Christ.