- Psalmody: Isaiah 9:6a; Psalm 98:1a; Psalm 98:3b-4a, 2; Liturgical Text; Psalm 89:11, 14a; Psalm 98:3b
- Lection: Isaiah 52:6-10; Hebrews 1:1-12; John 1:1–14
In the Name of the Father and of the ✠ Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Our Christmas Day text from Isaiah begins similarly to how the pericope from chapter seven did last Wednesday; a somewhat midstride proclamation set in developments of prophetic detail within a book resplendent with messianic language. If we back up to the beginning of tonight’s fifty-second chapter, Isaiah’s words begin their work of wrangling into our minds images of themes and aspects about the coming Christ encountered in the Church’s yearly cycle. The chapter begins, “Awake, awake!” likely conjuring up fresh memories of singing the stellar hymn “Wake, Awake for Night Is Flying” on the Last Sunday of the Church Year. It is built on Christ’s words to His Bride to look ahead, to wait expectantly and watchfully for the coming Bridegroom.
Isaiah continues, “Put on your strength, O Zion; Put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city! For the uncircumcised and the unclean Shall no longer come to you. Shake yourself from the dust, arise; Sit down, O Jerusalem! Loose yourself from the bonds of your neck, O captive daughter of Zion!”: expectant words for a people given beautiful garments in preparation for a deliverance that is certain. The captors of the original hearers of Isaiah’s words are given in literary picture of that which binds all mankind. The darkness of sin needs the Light to come into His own that we may be awakened to the joy of being loosed from our bonds by His gracious visitation. Consider more of Isaiah’s context to see how he is the prophet par excellence when it comes to prophesying the Deliverer, the Messiah, the Servant to come with beautiful feet, bearing good news upon the mountains of our lowly state.
Remember that the Virgin Conception and the Name Immanuel prophecy came in the midst of wicked King Ahaz refusing, in false piety, to ask God for a sign as the threat of Israel and Syria loomed. Ahaz trusted in his foolish earthly wisdom instead of humbling himself in repentance and faith in God and sought out a pact with his enemies the Assyrians to help fight off the impending danger from the others. It was successful, if one may call it that, for in his attempt to avoid forced submission to Israel and Syria, he volunteered his submission to Assyria, making himself a vassal to the mighty enemy and subject to large amounts of regular tribute to be paid, by which he did even out of the treasury of God’s holy temple. Faith in and obedience to the Lord of hosts are the only means by which our enemies, internal and external, are vanquished.
As the years of the eighth century BC drew to a close, Isaiah’s life and ministry continued on, and the Assyrian oppression of Jerusalem and Judah only increased. That pagan nation was the one with which the prophet was intimately familiar as the LORD said through him, “My people went down at first Into Egypt to dwell there; Then the Assyrian oppressed them without cause.” Yet, 52 verse five shifts from Jerusalem’s current threat to what was to come nearly a century after Isaiah died, so his eyes and words beheld warning for all who were to live after him and the promise of how God would resolve man’s cursed plight. The LORD prophesies of the exile to Babylon saying, “Now therefore, what have I here,” says the LORD, “That My people are taken away for nothing? Those who rule over them Make them wail,” says the LORD, “And My name is blasphemed continually every day.” In the Babylonian exile, the LORD’s name was blasphemed by the pagans holding God’s people captive and it was blasphemed in the mouths of those faithless ones from among His chosen who were the very reason why God sent them there in judgment. Their unbelief, idol worship, and vain love of the world more than their Maker, mirrored the heart of wicked King Ahaz. Likewise, for us, God is never to be blamed for evil that we bring upon ourselves. Just as we are not to be credited with our own salvation, He is not to be blamed for our self-imposed destruction. Oh, how dire the situation for all mankind as is seen in the great captivity. Yea, the LORD is a righteous Judge and a merciful Redeemer, purchasing us out of our own self-burying debt. Let those who fear the LORD now say, “His mercy endures forever.”
All that is what leads us into the slice of paradisical Christmas pie bespoken in Isaiah 52, beginning at verse 6: Therefore. Therefore; considering Jerusalem’s blight; considering our own conundrum of sin and its wages of death, which led to exile in Babylon for the ancient Judeans, or which leads to exile from God for all sinners in this age, now sing we, now rejoice at what God has done, what we rush to Bethlehem to see, as is recounted in a historic Introit: While all things were in quiet silence, and that night was in the midst of her swift course, Thine Almighty Word, O Lord, leaped down from heaven out of Thy royal throne. St. John’s words proclaim this marvel of the Incarnation and Nativity as well as Isaiah from centuries prior: My people shall know My name; Therefore they shall know in that day That I am He who speaks: ‘Behold, it is I.’ ” How blessed it is to be looked upon by God and hear Him say, “My people.” How blessed it is to know His Name. How blessed it is that God is where His Word is, that God is where He speaks.
We know His name, called by that blessed virgin as was given her from above in the words of an angel. Having received this everlasting Light, we turn from blaspheming His holy name to knowing it, to treasuring it, to praising it, and to calling upon it, for it is God Who speaks on Christmas Day in His Word made flesh for us.
But He keeps giving more. There’s more for the exiles in Babylon. There’s more for us await, yea, suffer but for a little while longer, waiting, watching for our rightful home of a new heaven and a new earth. Yet, glory to God in the Highest that it was this one down to which the Lord’s Almighty Word leaped. How beautiful upon the mountains Are the feet of him who brings good news, Who proclaims peace, Who brings glad tidings of good things, Who proclaims salvation, Who says to Zion, “Your God reigns!”: deeds of the Almighty Word incarnate, conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary and brought forth on this day to great celebration of angels, shepherds, kings, prophets, saints, and churchgoers who come to tell the angels that we, too, have heard on high!
Beautiful are the feet of the incarnate Son of God, born today in Bethlehem, and called JESUS because He saves His people from their sins. Beautiful is the fact that He took up feet, first little ones that flexed and felt their way against newborn air to later being pierced upon the tree by those whose likeness He came in, by those He came to save. Yea, He died for us all.
We are fools to remain in Babylon, if we so choose by our love of this world and in the stubbornness of our flesh to love sin more than Savior. The Word has come down, first delighting all the watchmen to lift up their voices; whose swords are turned into pruning hooks by the Peace from above. The LORD brings joy to the waste places of Jerusalem, cleansing it by His precious blood spilled upon its holy hill. It, too, now has Divine Salvation, true Christmas Reason to break forth into joy and sing together. Yes, the LORD redeemed Jerusalem and brought the exiles home, but the Word doesn’t stop there.
The LORD has made bare His holy arm In the eyes of all the nations; And all the ends of the earth shall see The salvation of our God. We see Him today, praising Him at His birth, rejoicing as we receive His Body and Blood by faith awaiting our exile, our pilgrimage, where God is with us, to end, that we may be with Him eternally. The Almighty Incarnate Word has tread with beautiful feet upon the mountains bringing the Good News of His sure salvation to all who believe in His name. May the Good News proclaimed into every far reach of our hearts and minds by our Incarnate Lord deliver us this and every day out of dark woes of sin unto perpetual joy in His Name that we, His people, now know.
In ✠ Jesus’ Name. Amen.
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