Sunday Service | The Sixth Sunday of Lent: March 28, 2021
Take one minute to focus on quiet and trust:
Breathe in: I quiet my heart.
Breathe out: I let go and trust God.
Isaiah 52.13-53.1-12 NLT
“See, my servant will prosper; he will be highly exalted. But many were amazed when they saw him. His face was so disfigured he seemed hardly human, and from his appearance, one would scarcely know he was a man.
And he will startle many nations. Kings will stand speechless in his presence. For they will see what they had not been told; they will understand what they had not heard about.”
“Who has believed our message? To whom has the Lord revealed his powerful arm? My servant grew up in the Lord’s presence like a tender green shoot, like a root in dry ground.
There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance, nothing to attract us to him. He was despised and rejected— a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way.
He was despised, and we did not care. Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins!
But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own.
Yet the Lord laid on him the sins of us all. He was oppressed and treated harshly, yet he never said a word. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter. And as a sheep is silent before the shearers, he did not open his mouth.
Unjustly condemned, he was led away. No one cared that he died without descendants, that his life was cut short in midstream. But he was struck down for the rebellion of my people.
He had done no wrong and had never deceived anyone. But he was buried like a criminal; he was put in a rich man’s grave. But it was the Lord’s good plan to crush him and cause him grief.
Yet when his life is made an offering for sin, he will have many descendants. He will enjoy a long life, and the Lord’s good plan will prosper in his hands. When he sees all that is accomplished by his anguish, he will be satisfied.
And because of his experience, my righteous servant will make it possible for many to be counted righteous, for he will bear all their sins. I will give him the honors of a victorious soldier, because he exposed himself to death.
He was counted among the rebels. He bore the sins of many and interceded for rebels.”
During this Lent Season, we have spent a lot of time looking at this prophetic song in Isaiah. Our hope has been that we not only ingested these verses as a way to prepare for Easter, but that we have also digested the heart, intention, and power of God to pursue us as a whole, and as individuals, to lead us into intimacy, freedom, and justice.
We have wrestled with the topic of sin and how God has sent his servant for us to see so that we will overcome death and the wages that separate us from the one who loves us first.
As Israel was experiencing the pain and suffering from being exiled, God was present, revealing how he is coming to carry the weight of their pain and suffering with them.
We know too well that often the story of Israel is our story too. We feel the hardships, pain, and judgements of this world and we suffer. And this song of the suffering servant is for us too, to turn our eyes to how God is moving in our present circumstances to bring peace, comfort, and true justice here and now.
But what is the justice of God? The mercy and grace of God?
Jesus.
And Jesus reveals to us that death does not need to be our story. In fact, God the father’s heart is for us to be in life. So the justice of God is that he reveals and empowers us to conquer death so we can remain and thrive in life.
The catch? We do it with him. Because he is life.
We are dependent upon God for life. Somehow we can twist that into believing that means we are enslaved to God. The conversation with God about sin is not about our worth, but about the actions we take that cut us off from life and from God.
Our readings in Isaiah have steered our attention to how God feels about us and how he empowers us to overcome. The justice of God, or Jesus, reveals that we deserve life.
God is revealing to the world that we are created for life. Let us then take hold of this gift that has been given.
Today is Palm Sunday.
Jesus enters into Jerusalem victoriously to end the exile of Israel, but truly to end the exile of all humanity. His foe is not flesh and blood. You are not God’s enemy; the powers and principalities of this world that try to control humanity through politics, economics, and religion are.
Jesus enters Jerusalem on this Palm Sunday ready to fulfill his calling and transform Isaiah’s prophetic song from poetry to our reality.
This day we get to hold on to and celebrate hope.
Jesus’ passion is on display. His love for you is completely revealed.
Our Justice has come.
Jesus meets us in this tension. He calls us to look to him.
There is so much hope.
As Isaiah finished his prophetic word that we have been studying, he goes on to share how the affects will transform our world as a whole.
I want to look at the next 3 verses, in Isaiah 54.1-3 (NLT):
“Sing, O childless woman, you who have never given birth! Break into loud and joyful song, O Jerusalem, you who have never been in labor.
For the desolate woman now has more children than the woman who lives with her husband,” says the Lord.
Enlarge your house; build an addition. Spread out your home, and spare no expense!
For you will soon be bursting at the seams. Your descendants will occupy other nations and resettle the ruined cities.”
Isaiah brings Hope in 54.1-3. The word “offspring” in 53.10 is the same as the word “descendants” in 54.3. The servant died to see his offspring and justify many (53.10-11).
As a result, it’s time to enlarge the tent so there’s room to fit them all in. God’s people are like a barren woman who now has a vast amount of children. So it’s time to build an extension (54.2).
This idea of a barren woman is connected to the idea that wealth was seen in having a family that you can pass down your legacy.
As Israel is being exiled by Babylon; it's easy for them to relate to this language. And for us it can seem questionable about what kind of legacy we will leave as we walk through the many trials and seasons of life.
These verses point us into another direction, just as Jesus does as he walks into Jerusalem and the people are singing hosanna in the highest. He was there not to conquer, but to submit and therefore break the power of death.
The story of salvation had started with a barren woman—Sarah, the wife of Abraham. She had borne a child in her old age, and so the story continued when it looked as if it might fail. Now, as the story reaches its climax, the barren woman is God’s people as a whole rejoicing to see many new children.
The church in the West feels small. We see few conversions. Numbers are declining. Churches are closing. But remember, this is just one place in the world and this is just one moment in history.
Jesus is up to something. He has always been up to something. He gathers his creation to himself so that we can be found and made whole.
We belong, We are loved, God is pleased with you.
And what's amazing is that it's not just for us.
By “us” I mean our tribe; the people that look and think like us.
Instead, Jesus is on the move for ALL humanity.
So this call is for us to expand our house. In other words, have hope and be willing to look to the servant rather than your own understanding.
What Jesus is doing is so much bigger than what we can imagine or fathom. He is Justice and he makes all things new.
I believe the call of this passage has been for us to look outside of ourselves.
This has been a rough year. We are all carrying the weight from it in unique and common ways.
Let us not forget though that we have one that sees us too.
We can put our Hope in Jesus and his methods because he has acted out of genuine love for all of us.
We are worthy. How can I be confident to say that? By looking at the cross.
By remembering that his tomb is empty.
Yes. This is where my hope comes from.
This is how I know I am worthy. Because Jesus took away all that got in my way of seeing and knowing that I belong, am loved, and am so pleasing.
This is true for you as well.
This is true for humanity as a whole.
And Jesus keeps revealing this truth.
So let us lift our eyes to Christ Jesus--and find our hope and salvation.
Let us trust his ways as we navigate with him through our pain and suffering.
May we gather together to worship the lamb that was slain and rose from the grave to reveal the power of God’s love.
One day we will stand around the throne of the Lamb and see people stretching as far as the eye can see.
And we will say, “Where have they all come from?”
And then maybe we will say, “Worthy is the Lamb. This is the reward that Christ deserves.”
I want to end with Revelation 5.9-10:
“And they sang a new song, saying: “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth.””
On this Palm Sunday, on this last week of Lent, may we see the servant that has come.