Holy Monday Vespers Meditation

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Jesu Juva

“Our Faithful Lord and Saviour”

Text: Isaiah 50:5-10

In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

It is easy to hear Jesus in these words of the prophet Isaiah tonight. He is the one who gave His back to those who strike, receiving blow after blow, stripe after stripe, from the soldiers who flogged Him. He is the one who hid not His face from disgrace and spitting, the soldiers punching Him, mocking Him, and spitting in His face. They act like playground bullies with their helpless and hapless prey. But, of course, Jesus is anything but helpless and hapless. He could have stopped it at any time. He could have turned the tables and smote those who smote Him. He could have called down twelve legions of angels to defend Him and fight for Him (Matthew 26:53). Even one would have been enough to put down however many soldiers were abusing Him. Yet He stands there and takes it, all the abuse, because He knows He is taking it for you. For if not Him, then it would be you. And not just you, but you for eternity. An eternity of suffering and dying.

So He is not disgraced. They meant to disgrace Him, demean Him, belittle Him, show Him that He is nothing compared to them. But He is not disgraced, He is not shamed, because He stands there in love. In love for you. This is the Bridegroom laying down His life for His Bride, giving all that He has for His beloved. Many wedding vows today are often made quickly and easily broken. They are often made without much thought and with even less seriousness. Not Jesus. His Word is His promise. What He speaks is truth. You can stake Your life on it. 

So it is for this moment He has come. For this moment He was born. From the day He was baptized in the Jordan by John, His every word, every deed, was to come to this moment. He set His face like a flint and would not be deterred. He came to save, He came to die. He came to save not Himself, but you. So He would die that you might live. It wasn’t easy. Nothing easy about what Jesus went through for you. But your salvation mattered more than anything else. So He would take it. He would lay down His life for the life of the world. 

In fact, all of them, all who accuse Him and torture Him and crucify Him, all of them will wear out like a garment; the moth will eat them up, Isaiah says. Those who think they are something will not last, while the one they think is nothing will live forever. Because the Lord God helps me. Twice it is said in these verses. The Lord God helps me. And those the Lord helps are never put to shame. The world likes to say that God helps those who help themselves. But the Scriptures say that God helps those who cannot help themselves. Which is all of us, really. None of us can overcome our sin. None of us can stave off death forever. None of us can rise from death to life again. So Jesus has come to help us. Jesus has come to save those who cannot save themselves. 

And that is what we hear again this week. The story of our salvation. The Lord has opened our ears to hear, and through the Word we hear to work faith and strength faith in our hearts. That though rebellious, we be forgiven by the one who was not, who kept the Law perfectly for us in every way. That though we, at times, turn backwards and turn away from our Lord in our sin, He calls us back in repentance. To find in Jesus once again our life and our hope. And to hear those words once spoken from the cross and proclaimed ever since: Father, forgive them (Luke 23:34). And you are.

Our verses this night concluded with these words: Let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God. Darkness and no light mean no vision; your eyes are of no use. You must find your way some other way. And for us, that is with our ears. Which is how these verses also began: The Lord God has opened my ear. It is the Word of the Lord that is our guide through this world and life. It is the Word of the Lord that will not deceive us or let us down. It is the Word of the Lord that is only truth. So we rely on the Word. The Word and Name of God put upon us in Baptism which marks us as children of God. And the Word made flesh whose death and resurrection made Baptism what it is - a joining of us to Him, through death to life. So that He whose ears once heard mocking and taunting and disbelief, would now hear the voices of praise and confession and faith. Our voices. The voices we will raise this week, and the voices we will raise with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven, forever.