Sermon March 7, 1999 Blinded For Us based on Isaiah 42:14-21
Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Blindness is what many would consider a severe handicap. Yet, there are many things which a blind person can learn to do. Reading using Braille printing comes to mind. We might look to the work of Lutheran Braille Workers to see how important Braille publications are to the blind around the world. This organization has some 7,000 volunteers who contribute their time to the Lord's Work. Braille books are produced in forty languages and large-print books in fifteen languages. 52,000 large-print books and nearly a quarter-million braille books were produced in 1994. The goal of the organization is to reach out with God's Word to the blind.
The common theme of our scripture readings today is blindness or being in the dark. The Gospel has the miraculous healing of the blind man by Jesus. The Epistle tell us who are now children of the light to behave in accordance with this.
In our Old Testament lesson Isaiah spoke a prophecy of God of one who would be blinded for us. Isaiah spoke this about 700 BC, long before the people of Judah were taken away into exile in 586 BC. Isaiah spoke the prophecy which deals with that exile before it happened. In our text he speaks a prophecy that deals with the time after the exile. In fact, Chapter 42, containing our text, deals with the Servant God will send to save His people. The words which begin this chapter are familiar to us as words fulfilled by Christ.
Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations. He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice.
The Gospel writer Matthew quotes these very words from Isaiah 42 and he shows how Christ fulfilled this prophecy. Later in Chapter 42, in our text, we have words that prophesy more about Christ, all in the context of our condition and our need for Christ.
God begins by commenting through Isaiah's mouth, that He has been quiet for some time and has not taken action.
For a long time I have kept silent, I have been quiet and held myself back. But now, like a woman in childbirth, I cry out, I gasp and pant. I will lay waste the mountains and hills and dry up all their vegetation; I will turn rivers into islands and dry up the pools.
The exiled people of Judah would hear this message with a sense of relief. They would be in exile for some 70 years before they returned to their home land. They would see that long period of exile as a time when God was inactive. He did nothing to rescue them. Now God promises He would act.
The words also apply to the promised coming of the Messiah. God promised to send one to save His people. In Genesis the redeemer is promised, the seed of Eve. To Abram is promised a descendant who would bless all people of the ground. On it goes, down through the ages, with God promising to send one to save His people. Now Isaiah has the future revealed to him, and he speaks about the future as if it were already accomplished. Isaiah tells us that God will act in the future, but that this is so certain that he can describe it as already being accomplished. He promises to deliver, like a woman in labor. He promises to transform the world. God will act using His almighty power to change the way things are going in the world in a dramatic fashion, hence the metaphor showing the power of God in laying waste to the mountains, running the rivers over their banks and drying up the pools.
These metaphors of changes in the physical world get more personal as Isaiah describes the Lord's work with those who are blind:
I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them.
God promises to lead the blind in a new way. If you are blind, you either depend upon others to help you get around, or you have a mental picture of where you are going. Part of my seminary education involved working at a St. Louis area church. The assistant pastor at that church was blind. In order to avoid causing this pastor problems, we needed to be careful about moving things around, like chairs and other objects which he might run into. He knew the way which was familiar, but if it ever became unfamiliar, like with a chair in the way, then this blind pastor would get in trouble without someone to guide him.
So it is with the blind in our text, whom God guides along new ways and unfamiliar paths. The blind need lots of help and guidance as they go along these ways and God is there to guide them.
Now God promises even more than leading the blind. He promises that they will see again. The darkness which is before their eyes will be turned to light. God also promises to make their way easier too, by making the rough places smooth. They will find the way easy and the road level.
Finally, in this section God adds His "Amen" to this prophecy. He affirms that the things promised are the things He will do. He will not neglect or turn aside from His promises. What God says He will do, He will do. Amen, amen, it shall be so!
Now we must ask exactly who these blind people are which Isaiah speaks about? To understand it simply as those without physical vision is to dimish the scope of God's work among us. Rather than dealing with the physically blind, the prophecy here is more concerned with the spiritually blind. These are those who cannot discern matters of the spiritual world. They cannot tell where they are going. They are not able to guide themselves spiritually. This indeed describes the state of every sinner before God.
Isaiah writes in Chapter 59:
So justice is far from us, and righteousness does not reach us. We look for light, but all is darkness; for brightness, but we walk in deep shadows. Like the blind we grope along the wall, feeling our way like men without eyes. At midday we stumble as if it were twilight; among the strong, we are like the dead…We look for justice, but find none; for deliverance, but it is far away. For our offenses are many in your sight, and our sins testify against us.
Truly because of our great sins, each of us in blind before God. We have broken His laws over and over. We know what God demands of us, yet we fail to do it, and thereby we prove we are spiritually blind.
Being blind means we need God to lead us away from danger to safety. We cannot lead ourselves into salvation. We cannot walk out our sinful mess.
Some will try to save themselves. Others will turn to other gods, that is, to idols to be saved. In reality, turning to an idol or other god to save you is just like trying to save yourself, for all idols and other gods are false and powerless. God comments on this pursuit of idols in our text by saying: But those who trust in idols, who say to images, 'You are our gods,' will be turned back in utter shame. Those who trust in something other than God, the one, true, Triune God, will find themselves coming up short when judgment day arrives. They will be turned back from heaven in utter shame.
WAKE UP! I thought I would try to catch those of you who are sleeping. In the same way God hopes to catch those who are not really listening to Him and watching what He does. God says, through Isaiah: Hear, you deaf; look, you blind, and see! God wants all people to pay attention to this prophecy and how He fulfills it. Indeed, the next point is a crucial point to understand in seeing how God would save the world. Isaiah speaks for God and says:
Who is blind but my servant, and deaf like the messenger I send? Who is blind like the one committed to me, blind like the servant of the LORD?
The Lord promises a servant who is more blind than any other and a messenger who is more deaf than any other. No one can compare to the one the Lord sends. Now is God speaking of physical handicap here? Yes. In fact, who do you know who has suffered the greatest loss of power and strength? Jesus Christ is this servant who put up with limitations far below his original powers. God came as Jesus and He voluntarily accepted handicap so that He could serve as our substitute. This is the amazing point about God's promised servant-He will be a humble servant. Even though Isaiah writes much about this suffering servant so many missed it. If they had paid attention they would have seen that God's servant was the one who was nailed to the cross.
In being nailed to the cross, Jesus showed His greatest handicap for us. He took on our sins as He was punished with the death those sins deserved. Therefore, as our sins handicap us with blindness and deafness, Jesus took on those sins and became blind and deaf in our place. He didn't just take on the sins of one person or two, but of all people. In this way, Jesus became the most handicapped of anyone. No one could claim to be more blinded because of sin than Jesus was on the cross, as He took our places and carried our sins.
As a result of the actions of Jesus Christ, God takes on blindness in another way. Through Christ, God becomes blind to our sins. Through Jesus' sacrifice there at Calvary, God no longer sees our sins. Since our sins are so great an offense against a just and holy God, it takes great blindness for God to not see our sins. Who is so blind as the servant God sends?
Now God places before us the challenge. Many commercial products are advertised with a challenge today. They get you to try their product for 30 days or whatever trial period, and then decide if you like it. They challenge the consumers to try it out.
God has placed before us the good news here. He has told a prophecy to be fulfilled 700 years after it was written, which lays before us what God will do to save us. Now, we read it some 2000 years later. We know what God has done. We have read about it. Now, knowing what we know, what will our response be? Isaiah writes: You have seen many things, but have paid no attention; your ears are open, but you hear nothing. This is the challenge. You have seen what I did, says God, now will you follow it? You have heard through your ears but will you listen? God lays before us the good news of our salvation in Jesus Christ. He calls us to faith in Christ. Now, will you reject this salvation? Will you return to the idols and other gods? Will you return to trying to save yourself? Will you return to blindness and deafness?
God challenges us, not because He wants us to buy one product over another but because He loves us. The text concludes by giving God's motivation for sending His servant. It pleased the LORD for the sake of his righteousness to make his law great and glorious. As a result of God's great righteousness, He was delighted to do this for us. God made His directions for us great by calling us to faith in Jesus Christ. He did this out of His righteousness, not ours. God sent His servant to become a sacrifice for our sins and thereby be blinded for us. He sent Jesus to lead us out of darkness into light. He comes to lead us into life everlasting. Come, follow the suffering servant, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.