Free Living :: Isaiah 55:1-5
What’s the best way to focus a crowd, to get their attention, to quiet the conversation long enough to say something important? I suspect most people try the passive, saying “Can I have your attention, please?” But if you’re really bold, you’ll just stand up and shout out, Yo! Listen up! Or better yet, The Lord be with you!
A preschool teacher might begin clapping, drawing the attention of the children in her midst to the excitement she’s providing. Or if you’re at a wedding reception, you probably find it highly effective to tap your spoon against the side of a glass. That gets everyone’s attention that it’s time for a toast or a kiss.
Today, the prophet Isaiah is calling for your attention. The word he uses is quite literally, Hoy! There, you’ve learned a new Hebrew word. Hoy!
In our reading today, from Isaiah chapter 55, the English Standard Version would have you believe the first word of Isaiah 55 is Come! But make no mistake, in Hebrew, Hoy! isn’t a command, and it definitely doesn’t mean come.
Hoy! is used only four dozen times in the scriptures, half of which are in Isaiah. Hoy! is a plea ... an attention grabber. It reverberates. Hoy! normally has negative connotations ... as a lament or in a prophetic threat. We normally translate it as Woe!
So today when you hear Hoy! Pay Attention! You need to Listen diligently. Incline your ear and hear so that your soul may live!
HOY! GOD HAS CHOSEN YOU TO RECEIVE THE GIFTS OF CHRIST FREELY
This is our word for today.
I. Hoy! Some say there are no free rides.
The United States of America has long been the land of promise and plenty. I’m sure we are all familiar with at least a portion of the poem on the Statue of Liberty.
Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
the wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!
Our country was settled by people from all over the world ... all of them looking for a better life ... a life of freedom ... a life of liberty ... a life of prosperity. They cried Hoy! to their homelands, fleeing tyranny and persecution.
Are you looking for a better life, too?
In the decade before the Civil War, they came by the hundreds of thousands through the Port of New Orleans, up the Mississippi, and across the Ozarks into Appleton City and points beyond. In the early 20th century, they came by the millions under the shadow of Liberty, lured by the thought that her streets were actually paved with gold.
Hoy! They cried when they found out they weren't.
They all had something in common, though: an American dream. So they paid dearly for what they thought would be a better life. Hoy! Nothing in life is free, they cried. Today, they are still coming, across the southern border, fleeing poverty and violence.
Would it surprise you that each time these people have come, they’ve been greeted with ... Hoy! Turn around! What are you doing here? The Lutherans, the Irish, the Blacks, name your crowd. They all heard the same thing.
Hoy! You can’t have my job. You can’t have my money. You can’t have my land. Hoy! It’s all mine! If you want a piece, you have to work for it, like me. You have to earn your own way to the top. You have to pay your own dues. Hoy!
In some ways Isaiah was addressing the same problem.
Isaiah was a prophet in the eighth and seventh centuries BC who had been called by YHWH to preach this message of Hoy! against idolatry. As a Jerusalem insider, Isaiah saw firsthand the extravagance, injustice, and spiritual failure confronting the me, myself, and I world we live in.
And so he began crying out the word God gave him ... Hoy! Hoy! Hoy! to idolatry
Why do you ignore the sin you know so well? (5:18-19). ...
Why do you embrace the evils the world calls good ... notably abortion on demand? (5:20) ...
Why do you ignore the perversion of justice and racial discrimination in our cities? (5:22-23). ...
Why are you looking the other way as people kill themselves with methamphetamines? (5:11)
II. Hoy! It’s difficult to hear this word from the prophet Isaiah.
We don’t think it affects us. We like to define our lives by how good we have it. We insist on maintaining our merit-based society.
Our text from Isaiah 55 presents a paradox, though ... how can you buy anything of value without money without paying your dues? How can you get ahead in life without merit? How can you set yourselves right with God without your own sacrifice?
Have you seen the price for a four-glass bottle of wine? Or a fillet mignon? And have you noticed how much a bottle of water costs at Casey’s? How can you enjoy any of the riches of life without money?
Of course, the implication is ... Hoy! You can’t!
We face this same dilemma spiritually. Christians around the country are allowing the philosophies and religions of the world to merge with ours. Have you embraced karma and reincarnation and the prosperity gospel, too ... all of which pervert God’s Word?
Hoy! Repent, each and everyone of you who do not call upon God’s name in every trouble, who despise His Word, who don’t hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it.
But that’s why you’re here isn’t it?
So Isaiah calls our attention to a wholly beautiful word for the day. Hoy!
Isaiah declares something dramatic, employing one of the best attention getters in Hebrew to do something no other provider does ...
Hoy! all of you who are dying of thirst, recognizing your sin and your need for a savior ... come to the waters. Even if you are penniless, come, buy and eat! The wine and milk are free. Why spend money on something that isn’t bread? Why work for things that don’t satisfy? Listen intently, and eat what is good; it will be a delight. And you will live.
III. Hoy! The treasures of heaven are yours ... They are free to you, bought and paid for on account of the Suffering Servant.
Do you hear the Gospel now? Though you were dead in your trespasses and sins, facing a debt you couldn’t repay, YHWH your God has proclaimed the Gospel to you and given you free living! The Lord of heaven and earth has confirmed his covenant with you, his eternal covenant, the covenant of steadfast love and faithfulness to you, the covenant proclaimed to David. Behold, I made him a witness. ... to declare that Hoy! You are forgiven and free on account of the son of David, our Lord Jesus Christ. Isaiah calls him the suffering servant.
Jesus did for you what you couldn’t do for yourself. Jesus humbled himself, taking on human flesh, becoming like you in every way. He emptied himself of everything and lived as no man has before, wholly righteous. Then he cried out Hoy! As he became the suffering servant described in Isaiah 53. He was despised and rejected, a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. ... He became stricken by sin, smitten by God, and afflicted ... All for you ... Then he went to the cross, where he was wounded for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities. ... Now with his stripes we are healed ... not were healed ... are healed.
So come, brothers and sisters in Christ. Come to the table to receive the fruits of forgiveness.
Here, you will be filled (Mt 5:6).
Here, everyone who thirsts, will be refreshed with living water, and will delight in his rich food. (55:1, 2) You will not find a better meal on earth than the Lord’s Supper. We really should receive it more often. Our Lord Jesus Christ, the righteous one, has instituted this meal for you ... to give you the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation.
You can’t buy these gifts. They are for all who have been called by the Gospel, enlightened, and sanctified. Come, plunge into the waters of life, and partake of God’s feast of good things.
Jesus has paved the way for you, making it all possible.
Hoy! He has paid the ultimate price for you.
Why do men labor and sacrifice so much to earn salvation? They give away billions to charity in hopes that God will be good to them. But those who are attracted and betrayed by the glitter of this world will go their own way ... even God cannot keep them from such foolishness. You, however, all of you who have been baptized here in this font ... you don’t have to accompany them and cry Hoy!
Instead, recognize for once that the best things in life really are free!
The King of Kings has called each of you to embrace that for which you were created: His righteousness, His saving grace, and eternal life with him in paradise. Through this covenant of love, God is glorifying you (vv 4-5) not because of what you have done, but what he had. He has already begun this good work (Phil 1:6; Eph 5:25-27) in your baptism. And he will bring it to completion through the resurrection of the dead!
By glorifying you ... or better yet, beautifying you ... endowing you with his splendor ... the Lord will energize the nations and draw all people from every tribe and tongue to himself. Then when the people you do not know (v 5) see Christ through you, they will run with eager anticipation toward this covenant of bread and wine and water and word ... and they too will eat and be satisfied (Matt 14:20).
So until that day when we celebrate the feast in heaven, we gather here thanking God that we can see, and hear, and know that ...
Hoy! God’s fruits of salvation are ours!