The Double Comfort Is Yours in Christ :: Isaiah 40:1-11

Four days ago, we gathered in God’s presence and heard the Word of the Lord, through Saint Paul, that reminded us our hope comes from our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself on behalf of us for the purpose of redeeming us from all lawlessness and to purify to himself a chosen people. The Apostle Paul was far from the first preacher of hope. In our Old Testament reading today, the Prophet Isaiah gave us words never to forget ... the Gospel of comfort from the God of all comfort. 

YHWH GIVES COMFORTING WORDS OF HOPE TO HIS WAITING PEOPLE

I.

So what are you waiting for? As the psalmist reminded us in our Introit, God does not desire the death of a sinner. He speaks peace to his people, to his saints (Ps 85:8), so that they will turn and live. He speaks peace to his people because no one will ever repent on a word of Law alone. Israel needed words of hope, the Gospel. We need words of hope, the Gospel. The world needs words of hope, the Gospel. So today God announces what we didn’t know we were waiting for. 

Israel ... which had become a nation of sinfulness, forgetfulness, covetousness, rebellion, wickedness, jealousy, immorality, idolatry ... was enslaved far from home ... exiled in Babylon. The cities and towns of Israel and Judah had been destroyed. The glory of the Lord had departed from the temple. The temple had been laid to waste. The presence of the Lord with his covenantal love and forgiveness was no longer among God’s people. The people were left with no forgiveness. Just death. Just destruction. Just despair. It’s no wonder why they sang what is now Psalm 137: By the waters of Babylon, there we sat and wept. ... On the willows, there we hung up our lyres. ... How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land (Ps 137:1-3, 4). 

So God sent them Isaiah ... the fifth evangelist ... with a word of comfort ... double comfort actually. Comfort is good. Double comfort is very good. It gives us hope.

Listen to the Word of the Lord again: Comfort, comfort, my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is complete, that her iniquity is paid for, that she has received from the hand of YHWH double for all her sins (vv 1-2). 

This word of comfort is a Gospel word. It is a word of consolation and repentance. It is a word of being sorry and moved to do something about it. Comfort is a word of faith. It is the word of Psalm 23, reminding us the protecting and sustaining power of God is his means of grace. It is the word of absolution Joseph uses in addressing his brothers who tried to kill him. 

We can never hear or share God’s word of comfort enough. Comfort, comfort my people is always more than we expect, desire, need, or deserve. It is proclaimed in the face of your rebellion, your pride, your stubborn refusal to repent. It is proclaimed in the face of your inability to correct the wrong and the damage you have done. It is proclaimed so that all will believe in Jesus ... in what he has done and will do ... without you ... so that no one can boast. 

Comfort, my people, is proclaimed so that we will turn and share his comfort.

To give and receive comfort, which is a form of double comfort, there are in fact conditions that must be met. But those conditions for forgiveness are all met by God in Christ. And this truth is at the center of the everlasting Gospel. This truth shatters all monuments to man’s glory and the decisions man makes. This truth raises every sinner who falls into the valley of doubt. This truth levels all the mountains of pride and self-righteousness. This truth smooths the walk out of the wilderness. 

II.

Please now turn to page 324 in your (Lutheran Service Book) and join me in confessing this truth from the Lord’s Prayer. As the head of the household should teach it in a simple way to his family: What is the Fifth Petition? And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

What does this mean? We pray in this petition that our Father in heaven would not look at our sins, or deny our prayer because of them. We are neither worthy of the things for which we pray, nor have we deserved them, but we ask that He would give them all to us by grace, for we daily sin much and surely deserve nothing but punishment. So we too will sincerely forgive and gladly do good to those who sin against us.

III.

Listen up, all you sinners. Listen up, all you saints. 

Listen up, all you who are tired of working and watching what you work for break down and wear out. Listen to the voice crying in the wilderness ... 

Return to your baptism, and behold, the glory of the Lord. On account of Christ, the blind receive their sight, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not scandalized by the cross. 

We find our comfort first there ... in Christ crucified.  

The glory of the heavens has been revealed here on earth. God in the flesh came calling,  gathering, and enlightening us that on account of Christ crucified our sin is forgiven. Jesus ... who came first in the flesh without sin, became sin for you on the cross so that the body of our sin would suffer and die the death it deserves, crucifixion on a cross. As Isaiah will tell us later, he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. He was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement for our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed (Isa 53:4-5 NKJV). 

There is no forgiveness of sins without the shedding of blood. There is no forgiveness without a perfect sacrifice. And Jesus has met that requirement. He shed his blood and died for you. And because God was just and the justifier of those who have faith in Jesus ... he raised our Lord from the dead, giving all who have faith in Jesus the hope of eternal life. 

Now we have double comfort. 

IV.

Jesus did all this because as the voice cries, All flesh is like grass, and all its covenantal love is like the flower of the field, which is to say all of us break our covenants, but God doesn’t. Grass withers and the flower fades when the spirit of YHWH blows on it. Surely the people are grass. Grass withers and a flower fades, but the Word of our God will endure forever (vv 6-8). 

It provides us with double comfort: It forgives our sin and gives us eternal life. The word of God has leveled the highway into our hearts. He gives us purpose. 

Go on up to a high mountain, Zion, announcing good news. Raise up with strength your voice, Jerusalem, announcing good news. Raise it up, fear not. ... Behold, your God. Behold, the Lord YHWH will come with might, and his arm ruling for him. Behold, his wages are with him, and his work before him (vv 9-10).

Our incarnate and crucified Savior has fulfilled the conditions required for our forgiveness. He has done everything well for you. For Christ’s sake, God has given us double forgiveness for all our sins. 

So share this good news … not only with your friends and neighbors but your brothers and sisters here. As Paul tells us, this is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God, returning to the baptism that saves you, hearing the word of absolution, firmly believing it, not doubting that this word of forgiveness is just as valid and certain as if Christ our dear Lord spoke it himself. And receive the body and blood of Jesus in the sacrament of the altar knowing it is for you ... for the forgiveness of your sins.

Like a shepherd, he will pasture his flock. With his arms, he will gather lambs. And in his bosom, he will lift up and guide those nursing (v 11).

Brothers and sisters in Christ, behold your God. 

Behold, your good shepherd is calling. 

Behold, your king is coming. 

Behold, his tender word of double comfort is yours ... in Jesus’ name. Amen.