Introducing the Servant of the Lord

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Pastor Peter Metzger

The Baptism of Our Lord

Isaiah 42:1-7

First Lutheran Church

Lake Geneva, WI

January 8, 2017

“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; he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth. In his teaching the islands will put their hope.”

Introducing the Servant of the Lord

In 12 days we will inaugurate the 45th President of the United States of America. Since 1937, January 20th has served as important date for the governmental makeup and the future of our nation. It’s the day when the president-elect takes the oath of office, promising to the entire country to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution.

It’s an important day because it’s the day the “president-elect” officially becomes the “President of the United States of America.” For better or worse, he is the guy and January 20 is the day he begins his real work. No more stump speeches or smear campaigns. No more campaign promises or nationally televised debates. Inauguration day marks the beginning of the new president’s service to our country.

In a similar way, Jesus’ baptismal day marked the beginning of his formal, official and public service to mankind. We read about the events of that day in our Gospel Lesson from Matthew 3 this morning, but I’d like to focus on our First Lesson, from Isaiah 42, because there the prophet Isaiah introduces Jesus as the Servant of the Lord, the Messiah, the Promised Savior of the world, and explains who he is, how he will conduct himself, and what he will do.

Who He Is

Isaiah begins by identifying Jesus. He records the words of the Lord, saying, “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight.”[1]

Just as many politicians today receive celebrity endorsements and are supported by sitting governmental leaders, Jesus also received his endorsement and support from what you could call an influential third party, i.e. from God himself. In fact, as we look at these descriptions of Jesus from Isaiah 42, we find that all of them are spoken in the context of his relationship with God.

Jesus is the Servant of the Lord. He is upheld by the Lord. He is chosen by the Lord and it is the Lord who delights in him.

Each of these descriptions – apart from their connection to the Lord – are good qualifications for the promised Messiah. He’s a servant, which means that he is not there to advance his own agenda but to serve his master and to do his master’s bidding. He is supported, which means that he is not a lone ranger, but has the backing of a powerful and influential person. He is chosen – or you could say “elected” – which means that out of all the other options he proved to be the best, hand-picked to serve in this capacity, and the fact that he is the cause for the delight of his master shows that he is good at what he does.

But when you take all of those descriptions – as Isaiah does in his prophecy – and connect them to the Lord, then the picture of this promised Messiah becomes even more bright. The master whom he serves and by whom he is supported is none other than our good and gracious Father in Heaven, which means that the mission he was hand-picked to accomplish and which he has accomplished to the delight of our Heavenly Father is a mission that you and I can get behind. The Servant of the Lord did not come for any selfish purpose. He did not assume this responsibility for the glory that would come of it or the power that he could wield. The Servant of the Lord came to do what the Lord directed, which we read at the end of verse 1, to “bring justice to the nations.”

More on that in a minute. From here, Isaiah proceeds not to the mission itself, but to how Jesus as the Servant of the Lord will conduct himself during that mission.

How He Will Conduct Himself

What follows in Isaiah’s prophecy is a list of 7 qualities of Jesus. As we read them, it’s hard to ignore that every one of these qualities is referenced in contrast to negative qualities of other people. Isaiah records that Jesus will NOT shout; he will NOT cry out; he will NOT raise his voice in the streets; he will NOT break a bruised reed; he will NOT snuff out a smoldering wick; he will NOT falter; and he will NOT be discouraged.

You and I can probably think of politicians who shout and cry out and raise their voices, people who like the sound of their own voice, who are ostentatious, obtrusive, boisterous, who – when given the chance to be heard – bloviate like a cow in labor. That’s what people do; they intimidate you by what they say; they strike fear in your heart; they talk until the falsehood that flows out of their mouths starts to sound like truth.

But not the Servant of the Lord. He doesn’t have to rely on shouting over the noise in order for his message to be effective. His word is truth and it is effective not because of the way it is preached or the way it is heard, but because of what it says.

And so, when we look at this world and hear all the voices vying to be heard, we don’t have to fear that the still, small voice of God will be lost just because other voices are more prominent right now. We don’t have to fear that the message that we share with this world is ineffective because it’s not as flashy or flamboyantly delivered as some others may be. We have the truth of the Word of God, and wherever it is preached – no matter how small or meek the setting may be – it is the power of God for the salvation of souls.

So Jesus, as the Servant of the Lord, does not shout, cry out, or raise his voice. He speaks in a tender and loving way that does not demand our attention but captivates it with his care and compassion, which is also what we see demonstrated in these images of the bruised reed and the smoldering wick.

Isaiah records: “A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.”[2]

These are two incredibly vulnerable things. A reed, or a cattail like you might see growing out of the east end of Lake Como, is not the sturdiest stalk you could find; the 9 year old boy who wants to “sword fight” wouldn’t pick a reed to fight with because it would flop like a wet noodle the first time he swung it. But here God tells us that his Chosen Servant wouldn’t break an even bruised reed. Or a wick that’s on the verge of going out, that has the faintest glow of an ember that flickers with every passing breeze will not be extinguished by the tenderness of this Servant of the Lord.

Brothers and sisters, you and I are broken and weak. We are broken by sin and weak in faith. God calls for us to be perfect, to keep his commandments, to love him above everything in this world and to love our neighbors as ourselves, but how often don’t we get it backwards? We love ourselves more than anyone else and show it by how we talk about them and by pampering ourselves while we ignore the needs of those around us. We fall in love with the things of this world, forgetting who put them here for our enjoyment; we chase after created things and fail to love and honor the Creator with all our heart and soul and body and mind.

And how does the Servant of the Lord deal with us? With tenderness and compassion. He is not careless or callous; he is not severe or unkind. He is gentle and gracious with us, meeting us in our weakness and binding our broken hearts with his forgiving love.

Isaiah tells us that the Servant of the Lord is soft-spoken and tender-hearted, but don’t mistake his compassion for weakness, and don’t assume that his tender-heart lacks an iron will, because in the next verse Isaiah records, “he will not falter or be discouraged.”

Really this is a poor translation of Isaiah’s original words, because when Isaiah writes “falter” he is using the same word he did for “smoldering,” and when he writes “be discouraged” he is using the same word he did for “bruised.” In other words, what God is saying of his Servant is that he is not broken or weak. He may be tender and compassionate, but he is not a softy or a pushover.

Friends, we must be careful not to make this mistake, thinking that because Jesus offers free forgiveness for all sin that he merely overlooks it or downplays it. Jesus takes sin very seriously, which finally takes us to the mission he was hand-picked to accomplish, i.e. to bring justice to the nations.

What He Will Accomplish

Three times in four sentences, God repeats this refrain: “he will bring justice to the nations,” “he will bring forth justice,” “till he establishes justice on earth.”

God’s justice demands payment for sin. Paul tells us, “The wages of sin is death.”[3] Ezekiel writes, “The soul who sins is the one who will die.”[4] David reminds us, “There is no one who does good, not even one.”[5] God’s iron will is that sin must be paid for.

But God’s mercy demands pardon from sin. Ezekiel also writes, “’As surely as I live,’ declares the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live.’”[6] Paul reminds us, “The wages of sin [may be] death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”[7]

God’s justice – the justice that this Servant was hand-picked to bring – demands payment for sin. God’s mercy demands pardon from sin. Both are met in Jesus. He is both the payment and the pardon in one person. By his death on the cross he paid for our sin and pardoned us from it. That was his mission; that was the role he assumed when he took on human flesh and blood; and that was the task he began at his baptism, in full sight of all who were there, with the full support of his delighted Father in heaven, with full power from the Holy Spirit who descended upon him in the form of a dove.

Jesus’ baptismal day was his inauguration day, the day he began his public ministry in this world to be light and life to all who believe, to be our Savior from sin and our hope for everlasting life. Amen.

  1. Isaiah 42:1 ↑
  2. Isaiah 42:3 ↑
  3. Romans 6:23 ↑
  4. Ezekiel 18:4 ↑
  5. Psalm 14:3 ↑
  6. Ezekiel 33:11 ↑
  7. Romans 6:23 ↑
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