Jesu Juva
“Some Messiah!”
Text: Isaiah 49:1-7
In the Name of Jesus. Amen.
I have labored in vain; I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity.
Have you ever felt that way? Maybe it was for a school project that you tried really hard on, or a test you studied really hard for, only to get a bad grade. Or maybe you’ve given your all at work, even working unpaid overtime, yet you keep getting passed over for raises, promotion, and recognition. Or maybe you planted a vegetable garden. You dug and planted, watered and fed, weeded and cultivated, and . . . nothing. Or what is produced is snatched up by critters and you spent your strength, your time, your energy, for nothing. I think we’ve all felt this way at one time or another, for one thing or another.
But here, these words from the prophet Isaiah, they are about the Lord’s servant, the promised Messiah, the one come to save, the one who would glorify God! And they seemed to come true. He came to His people, but His people rejected Him (John 1:11). When He preached in His hometown, the people He grew up with tried to throw Him off a cliff (Luke 4:29). When His words offended people, they walked away and left Him (John 6:66). The religious leaders hated Him and kept trying to trick Him and get Him to say something wrong so they could accuse Him (Mark 12:13). And when they couldn’t get Him that way, they got Him crucified by twisting Pilate’s arm.
But how things seem to be to us are not how they are with God. Isaiah would later say that God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, nor His ways our ways (Isaiah 55:8). So when Jesus came and God was not glorified but crucified, it did seem that all was in vain, all was lost. That’s what the disciples thought. And that’s what some said who taunted Jesus on the cross: He came to save others, but He cannot even save Himself (Luke 23:35, 37)! Some Messiah!
Yes! Exactly. This was exactly God’s plan, to save not just His people, but all people, the whole world. To use rejection for redemption, captivity for freedom, death to defeat death, humiliation for glorification. So of this seeming failure we hear this: You are not a failure. In fact, It is too light a thing - too small a thing - that you should be my servant to raise up [just] the tribes of Jacob and to bring back [just] the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth. Jesus Himself would say this, too: And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, - that is, crucified - I will draw all people to myself (John 12:32).
And He has drawn you. Through His Word proclaimed to you and His Spirit working in you, He has revealed to you and implanted in you this truth: that in this rejected, crucified man from Nazareth is your salvation. That through His death you have life. For He is much more than a man from Nazareth - He is God’s Son in human flesh. And that this great good news and faith has reached to the ends of the earth we hear from the book of Revelation, when in his vision of heaven, John reports seeing people from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages. And not just a few, but a great multitude that no one could number (Revelation 7:9).
So Jesus did not labor in vain. He did not spend his strength for nothing and vanity. In fact, the reality couldn’t have been more different. And for you, too. Maybe some of the things we do in this world and strive for in this world don’t work out. That happens. We are not always successful. But whatever the Lord is doing in your life and working in you will work out, according to His purpose and for your good. What the Lord does is never in vain, for or nothing. Even if we can’t see the purpose or understand the means, that’s okay. Faith believes. Not blindly, but believes because as we will celebrate on Sunday, Jesus’ tomb is empty. And not because His body was stolen, but because He rose from the dead. And if God can use rejection, cross, suffering, and death for our good and the good of the whole world, then He can - and will - use whatever you are going through, too. Don’t trust what you think. Trust the Word of God. The Word that never lies. The Word that became flesh. The Word that rose from the dead. And the Word that has made you His child.
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