Prepare to Be Comforted (A sermon based on Isaiah 40:1-4)

Prepare to Be Comforted!

A sermon based on Isaiah 40:1-4

Sunday, December 7, 2008 – Advent 2B

 

As many of you know, I recently went on a trip to the Holy Land. One of the things that surprised me about Israel was how hilly it was. It wasn't at all as flat as I'd pictured it in my head. On our way to Nazareth, we had to climb some pretty big hills. And had we come a week earlier it would have taken us a lot longer to get to the top of the hill on which Nazareth sits. We would have had to go slowly up a set of switchbacks that zigged and zagged up the hill. But a few days before we arrived a brand new highway had just opened up—one that took us through a tunnel in the side of the mountain and around to the top shaving 30 minutes off the trip each way.

And how thankful I was in the past two weeks to have the highways that I traveled on in the states! I can only imagine how long it would have taken us to drive to Chicago or Milwaukee without freeways. Driving through the mountains of Virginia and West Virginia alone would have taken a really long time! To climb up each mountain, then go back down each valley, only to go up the next mountain. But that's not how it is. We went through several tunnels that brought the high places lower. And we crossed over even more bridges that brought the low places higher. The road was relatively level. And those preparations others had made it easy for us travel.

It's this picture of road-building that Isaiah uses to describe how one prepares for the Savior. Isaiah prophesied how John the Baptist would prepare the road for the Savior to enter human hearts. And when the road was built, when the people were prepared to meet Jesus, they were comforted, not frightened, at his arrival. Listen now to Isaiah 40, just the first four verses, and let the words of this prophecy prepare your hearts that you too might be comforted by the Savior when he comes again. Isaiah 40:1-4 reads…

 

¹ Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. ² Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the LORD's hand double for all her sins. ³ A voice of one calling: "In the desert prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God. ⁴ Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain.

 

I.              Prepare

 

Why do you think preparations were to be made in the desert? Most view this phrase as a prophecy describing where John the Baptist would carry out his ministry. Matthew tells us that "John the Baptist, came preaching in the Desert of Judea." (3:1) To the west of the Jordan river the land receives some rain that comes in off the Mediterranean. It's green pretty much year round. But to the east, where the country Jordan sits today, it's completely different. Once you travel only a few miles from the Jordan river, it's dry, dusty, and lifeless. That's where John lived eating his locust and wild honey.

But perhaps this is one of those prophecies that has more than one fulfillment. You see, the highway that John prepared wasn't literally a road he built in the wilderness. He was preparing the road into human hearts for the Savior, Jesus, when he came. So some have suggested the desert here is picture of that human heart. And what a fit picture that is, because by nature we're all like spiritual deserts. There's no water and no life, it's dry and dusty and dead. Born spiritually dead in sin, no one is ready to meet the LORD. And since he is coming to judge the living and the dead, everyone needs to get ready.

So how do we prepare to meet the LORD? How do we build that highway for him to come into our hearts? Isaiah explains in verse 4: "Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain."

 First, we need to knock down the mountains. John the Baptist did that when he came preaching a baptism of repentance and saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near." (Matthew 3:2). He did that when he pointed out the people's sins, pointed out God's impending wrath, and changed the people's minds in regard to their supposed righteousness and to their greatest need. In fact, that's what "repent" means: "To turn around, to change one's mind."

And that's something we need to do every day. Martin Luther wrote as the first of his 95 Theses, "When our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, said "Repent", He called for the entire life of believers to be one of repentance." Every day you and I need to be leveled. We need to have the mountains of our supposed self-righteousness knocked down. We need to have our apathy and our arrogance, and our pride—all the obstacles that keep Jesus from entering in—taken out!

But how do we do this? Well, to be honest, we can't. As well as you and I, with a shovel and pickax, could build a superhighway a hundred miles long by ourselves, that's how well we can change our minds about our sins by ourselves. Our hearts must be prepared by God himself. Only he can bulldoze the mountains of pride and sin. And he does through his law!

So perhaps this Advent season we might prepare our hearts for Jesus by spending a little time each day looking into the mirror—the mirror of the law. Photocopy the 10 Commandments from the front of your Catechism and tape them to the mirror in the bathroom. Then ask yourself how well you've done each morning and each night. Have you loved God with all your heart, soul, and mind, above all else, including your own wantsand desires? Have you honored his name in the way you've represented him as a Christian? Have you spoken his name at all? Have you gladly heard and learned his Word with eager desire to hear and learn some more?Have you honored the senators and governors that he's placed in authority over you? …And that's just the first four commands.

It's not fun to do, but we must look into that mirror. We must hear the stern preaching of the law—again and again—until all the obstacles that keep us from hearing, and believing, and appreciating the good news are removed. Otherwise, it will fall on deaf and calloused ears. But when we do let the law knock down our mountains of sin and pride, then we'll be ready to hear that good news. Then we'll be ready to receive the comfort God intends for us…

 

II.            Be Comforted

 

In John's day Jesus came literally to the desert region where John was preparing the way. But he also came figuratively into the people's hearts when they received him by faith. And our Savior King still comes to us today. When our pride has been leveled, the path is prepared for him to come to us through his Word. And when we despair of our own efforts of earning God's favor, then God speaks tenderly to us. Literally he speaks to our hearts. He speaks through his word to our tender hearts that are grieving over our sins. And those words he speaks are not words of chastisement anymore, but words of the sweetest comfort. "Comfort, comfort my people, says your God."

It may seem that John the Baptist's ministry was one of anything but comfort as he called the Pharisees a brood of vipers and told the people that God's axe was already at the base of the tree ready to cut them down at any moment. But John did offer comfort, not by the Law, but in the Gospel. He offered the best kind of comfort when he pointed to Jesus and said, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!"

Jesus is the one who really leveled the mountains of our sin and hauled them away. And Jesus filled the valleys of our human depravity. Those times in our lives when we've failed and have been less than perfect, Jesus has filled in with his perfection. He's straightened out the crooked ways of our nature and made them straight, perfectly lined up with God's will through his obedience given to us.

When we couldn't fill the valleys of our depravity any more than we could fill the Grand Canyon with a shovel from a sandbox! Jesus did it all for us. That's why "Your hard service has been completed: because your sin has been paid for! There is no sin too great for God to forgive, no deficit too large for him to fill, no debt too grand for him to pay. He's filled in our imperfections and made us perfect in him!

In fact, God said that his people would "[receive] from the LORD's hand double for all her sins."Some have said this means that when we deserve to have every blessing stripped away, God gives a double blessing instead. Others have said that God gives double the amount needed to pay a debt. If you owe $5, God pays $10. If you owe $20, God pays $40. In other words, God will give double the amount of forgiveness that you'll ever need. Either way we understand it, God gives blessings of his mercy in exchange for our sins! No wonder he says, "Comfort, comfort my people"! What greater comfort could there be? He calls us his people when we've chosen to side with Satan. He gives us full forgiveness and removes our every sin!

Now, dear friends, let this grace of God fill in every valley of doubt in your heart! God has scooped up Christ's forgiveness and dumped it into the swamp of our hearts. Let the doubts that made it swampy be gone with nothing left but the solid news of Jesus' forgiveness!

Be comforted, God's people! Rejoice in what he's done! And with a heart that's leveled, made smooth, and straightened out, live in thanks for him each day. Continue to live in daily repentance, letting God knock down the mountains of your pride and sin by the bulldozer of his law. Continue to be comforted each day by the gospel that fills up the deepest valleys.

And then when you're ready, help others to get prepared too. Help them by your words. Help them by your generous gifts that support the work of those who prepare hearts for the coming of the Savior. Help them by using your gifts and your talents to remove obstacles and create opportunities to use the Law, and to use the Gospel, to help others prepare to be comforted.

Then we'll all be prepared—each day—for Jesus' return. Then we'll all be prepared to be comforted in the best way, when he removes every sorrow, every tear, and every form of hard service once and for all, when he takes us to glory. Amen! Come, Lord Jesus, come! Amen!