Return to Sermons | Home

Jesus Knows Our Every Weakness
Isaiah 49:1-6

 

Click for Audio


Pastor Kevin Vogts
Trinity Lutheran Church
Paola, Kansas

Second Sunday after the Epiphany—January 19, 2014

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Our message is based on today’s Old Testament Reading from the 49th chapter of Isaiah, especially this lament: “But I said, ‘I have labored to no purpose; I have spent my strength in vain and for nothing.’”

The first question that comes to mind when we hear this complaint and lament of frustration and discouragement is, “Who is it that is talking like this?  Who is it that is complaining of failure and disappointment?”  The obvious answer can be quite startling at first.  For, if we look at the context of the entire text and chapter, the one who is complaining in this verse about his frustration and discouragement can be none other than the Messiah, Jesus Christ, the divine Son of God.  He is the one who in this text cries out in disappointment, “I have labored to no purpose; I have spent my strength in vain and for nothing.”  And that is a very important lesson for us.  For, if Jesus himself became frustrated and discouraged, is it any wonder that we sometimes feel that way too?

You are invited to follow along the Old Testament Reading in the bulletin as we consider this text verse-by-verse under the theme, “Jesus Knows Our Every Weakness.”

“Listen to me, you islands; hear this, you distant nations.”  This introduction to our text is similar to the cry, “Hear ye, hear ye.”  It means something very big and important is about to be revealed, and everyone should listen carefully.  Something very big and important is about to be revealed, not just for the ancient Hebrew people, to whom Isaiah was writing, but for the whole world. 

The phrases “islands” and “distant nations” go across not only geographic space but also across time, over the centuries, and refer to places and people that are “distant” in more ways than one; far off in both time and space, like the “island” we call North America, and the “distant nation” of the United States.  The Lord is making this pronouncement to places like Block, Kansas, and to people like you and me: “Listen to me, you islands; hear this, you distant nations.”

The Messiah is a worldwide Savior because sin is a worldwide problem.  As Paul says in Galatians, “Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin.”  Sin is like a spiritual disease that has infected the entire human race, including you and me.  But, the Good News is that the cure for sin also comes for the entire human race: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

“Listen to me, you islands; hear this, you distant nations: Before I was born the Lord called me.”  The Messiah who comes to save the whole world is the eternal Son of God, as Jesus said at the Last Supper when he prayed to his heavenly Father, “You loved me before the creation of the world.”  The Messiah who comes to save the whole world is the eternal Son of God, and from eternity, even from before creation, it was God’s plan to save the world through him.  God does not wing it, or improvise on the fly.  He planned before the foundations of the universe to send his Son to be our Savior.  As Paul says in Ephesians, “He chose us in [Christ] before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.” 

“Before I was born the Lord called me; from my birth he has made mention of my name.”  The name “Jesus” itself means, “The Lord saves.”  His very name tells us who he is, and why he came: the Lord, who came to save us.  His very name tells us the Good News of our salvation.

“From my birth he has made mention of my name.  He made my mouth like a sharpened sword.”  Some 700 years after these words were written, when the promised Messiah finally came, there had arisen distorted ideas about who the Messiah would be, and what the Messiah would do.  Many thought that he would be a great warrior king, like Alexander the Great, and he would lead the Hebrew people to conquer the world and create a mighty world empire. 

However, the Messiah’s mission is not political or military, but spiritual.  And the only weapon the Messiah wields in his spiritual battle is the power of the Word: “He made my mouth like a sharpened sword.”  That is why he tells his disciples when they want to fight his arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane, “Put your sword back in its place.”  Never should the sword be taken up in the cause of furthering the faith.  But, the Word of God, which the Messiah proclaims and which is proclaimed by his followers in his name, is like a sharpened, mighty, spiritual sword, that indeed conquers the whole world, spiritually, and creates a worldwide spiritual empire.  As Hebrews says, “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword.”  And as Paul says in Ephesians, “[Take up] the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”

“He made my mouth like a sharpened sword, in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me into a polished arrow and concealed me in his quiver.”  The ancient people understood that a “polished arrow” was one very specially crafted and held in reserve in the quiver for some special, unique purpose.  Hebrews says, “In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son.”  Over the centuries, God again and again sent to the world his regular arrows, the prophets, like Isaiah, who proclaimed the Word of the Lord in his name, especially the promises of the coming Messiah.  But, over the centuries, God all along reserved in his quiver the “polished arrow,” the one ultimate Prophet, reserved for a special, unique mission. Paul puts it this way in Galatians, “When the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman.”  And Peter writes, “You were redeemed . . . with the precious blood of Christ . . .  He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake.”

“In the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me into a polished arrow and concealed me in his quiver.  He said to me, ‘You are my servant, Israel.’”  The name “Israel” started out not as the name of an entire nation but as the alternate name or title of a single individual, the patriarch Jacob.  In this verse also, “Israel” is used not for the entire ancient nation, but as the alternate name or title of one individual, the promised Messiah.

“You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will display my splendor.”  Moses once asked the Lord, “Show me your glory,” and the Lord replied, “No one may see me and live.”  The word “awful” literally means “awe-full,” something so full of awe that it is terrifying.  Our God is an “awe-full” God, so full of awe that it would actually be deadly to encounter him face to face without some filter or go-between.  We are told that at Mount Sinai, “[The Israelites] trembled with fear and stayed at a distance, and said to Moses, ‘Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die.’” 

The gap between our humanity and God’s divinity, our sinfulness and God’s holiness, our weakness and God’s perfection, is so great, so “awe-full,” that to encounter God is terrifying beyond what we can bear.  There was a #1 song some years ago that asked, “What if God was one of us?”  And that’s exactly what happened.  God’s solution for bridging the gap between his divinity and our humanity, his holiness and our sinfulness, his perfection and our weakness, was to become one of us.  The Gospel of John puts it this way: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. . .  No one has ever seen God, but only begotten Son, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.”  In the person of Jesus of Nazareth, God displayed his splendor in a way that we could comprehend, by becoming one of us.

“’You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will display my splendor.’  But I said, ‘I have labored to no purpose; I have spent my strength in vain and for nothing.’”  The Gospel of John says, “He came unto his own, and his own received him not.”  You remember how when Jesus preached even in his hometown synagogue the people drove him out and tried to stone him.  Jesus put it this way, “You are ready to kill me, because you have no room for my word.”

Our text is prophesying this rejection, this frustration and disappointment and seeming failure of the Messiah’s ministry.  For over ten years our nation’s soldiers have been serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.  With all the suffering the people there have endured under terrible, tyrannical, wicked rulers, you would think our soldiers would have been welcomed with flowers as liberators, but instead they were met with bombs and bullets.  In that same part of the world, 2,000 years ago, when God finally sent to ancient Israel the reserved “polished arrow” from his quiver, when he finally “displayed his splendor” in his chosen servant, whom they should have welcomed with flowers as their great liberator, instead he was welcomed with stones, and curses, and shouts of “Crucify him, crucify him!”

From our human perspective, the Messiah’s mission was a failure.  The Gospel of Mark reports that his own family said, “He is out of his mind.”  About halfway through his ministry, the Gospel of John reports, “Many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.”  One of his own inner circle of 12 disciples betrayed him.  And the Gospel of Matthew says sadly that when he was crucified, “All the disciples deserted him and fled.”  Three years of intense ministry, traveling all across the country, preaching countless sermons, performing countless miracles, and finally he was left all alone to suffer and die on the cross.

“But I said, ‘I have labored to no purpose; I have spent my strength in vain and for nothing.’”  Is that how you feel sometimes?  That you have labored to no purpose, that you have spent your strength in vain and for nothing?  You have strived and struggled at work, in your family, with your marriage, with your children, in your church, or in some other cause or effort, but it seems to be a frustrating, fruitless failure.

Remember that Jesus is truly human, just like you and me.  He took on a human nature, with a human soul, and feelings, and emotions.  “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death” he said in the Garden of Gethsemane.  The shortest verse in the Bible tells us that “Jesus wept” at the graveside of his friend Lazarus.  We are told he was tired, hungry, thirsty.  And, in our text, he is frustrated and discouraged: “But I said, ‘I have labored to no purpose; I have spent my strength in vain and for nothing.’”

If Jesus himself became frustrated and discouraged, is it any wonder that we sometimes feel that way too?  As the hymn says, “Jesus knows our every weakness.”  He knows your hurt and pain and frustration and disappointment, because, as another song says, “Jesus walked this lonesome valley.”

“Yet what is due me is in the Lord’s hand, and my reward is with my God.”  Despite his frustration and discouragement, Jesus has confidence in his heavenly Father and the ultimate success of his mission.  He has confidence because the Father himself called and appointed him to this mission of salvation, and, so, despite how things look like a dismal failure, he trusts that his Father will give success.

In the same way, in your own life, God the Father has called and appointed you, in your various callings in life: in your work, in your role as a spouse and parent, in your service to the Lord in his church and other areas.  Despite your frustration and discouragement, like Jesus you can have confidence in your heavenly Father and the ultimate worth and value and success in the eyes of God of your labors and struggles.  Paul puts it this way in 1 Corinthians, “Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”

Like Jesus himself in our text, you may feel frustration and discouragement.  But, like Jesus, also have confidence, because the Father himself has called and appointed you to serve him in your various callings in life, and so despite how things may look like a dismal failure, trust that the Father will give blessing and success.  Not necessarily success in the eyes of the world, but the success which really counts, success in the eyes of God, when he commends you, saying, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”  As the next verse of our text says, “For I am honored in the eyes of the Lord and my God has been my strength.”

“Yet what is due me is in the Lord’s hand, and my reward is with my God.  And now the Lord says—he who formed me in the womb to be his servant to bring Jacob back to him and gather Israel to himself, for I am honored in the eyes of the Lord and my God has been my strength—he says: ‘It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.’”

Jesus’ mission did not fail, but he succeeded beyond anything else in the whole history of the world.  What looked like utter failure at Calvary was really the greatest victory ever won.  Nothing less than victory over sin, death, and the devil for the whole world.  Across the centuries the Good News of forgiveness has radiated out from Calvary’s cross, and, just as prophesied in our text, out of every nation on earth God has gathered together his Church, including you and me: “It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.”

When you feel frustrated and discouraged, remember “Jesus Knows Our Every Weakness.”  For, even Jesus himself lamented, “I have labored to no purpose; I have spent my strength in vain and for nothing.”  But, like Jesus, also have confidence, because the Father himself has called and appointed you to serve him in your various callings in life.  And, just as Jesus’ apparent failure on Good Friday was ultimately revealed as a great success on Easter Sunday, despite how things may look in your life, despite how you may feel, the Father is with you and blessing you.  “Yet what is due me is in the Lord’s hand, and my reward is with my God. . .  For I am honored in the eyes of the Lord and my God has been my strength.”

Amen.

  Return to Top | Return to Sermons | Home | Email Church Office