Author: David Weemhof
Scripture: Isaiah 42:1-25
Worship Liturgy
*Call to Worship: Psalm #95:1-7
We Lift Up Our Praise to God
*Opening Hymn: PH #242
*God’s Greeting:
*Passing the Peace of Christ:
*Hymn of Praise: PH #569
We Receive God’s Grace in Jesus Christ
Call to Confession:
We Respond with our Prayer of Confession:
Words of Assurance:
We respond with Rededication: PH #473
We Hear God Speak to Us In His Word
*Hymn of Preparation: PH #600
Scripture Reading: Isaiah 42:1-25
Sermon: "The Servant of the Lord"
Prayer of Application
We Respond to Our God With Thanksgiving
*Hymn of Response: PH #601
Prayer
Offerings:
God’s Will for our Lives:
*Benediction
*Closing Song of Praise: PH #632
THE SERVANT OF THE LORD
Sermon prepared by Rev. David J. Weemhoff, Sarnia, ON
MESSAGE
Introduction:
When we ask the world -- our society today -- whom they would describe as a real
servant, probably the one person that would come to mind would be a person
like Mother Teresa. She stands out as the epitome of one who is a servant as she
worked diligently on the streets in India. She was an amazing woman in being a
servant to those who were down and out, those who were outcasts within the
community. In that very frail woman we see someone who displayed strength in
gentleness -- a strength that spoke to leaders of nations and shared a message to
those leaders.
In her caring and sensitivity, she showed that in her gentleness was strength.
That’s what we want to hold up in our society as what a servant is to be. That’s
what a servant should be. Even though our society turns to many different
examples of what a servant should be, at least it does come back and say that she
is the epitome of a servant. Certainly, she is one who fulfills what is described in
verse 3 of our passage, where the author talks about a "bruised reed he will not
break and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out." One who is there even at the
weakest point will not be harmful. That’s the picture we see.
But in talking about the servant of the Lord, Isaiah is describing someone who is
greater than even this image that our society has raised as the ideal of servanthood.
And we might say very quickly this has to be a reference to Jesus Christ, because
the only ideal servant that ever lived in this world, of course, was Jesus Christ.
As we look at the words of Isaiah, we find that these words, although fulfilled in
Jesus Christ, should not necessarily be immediately interpreted to refer to Christ.
As we examine the words of Isaiah, we find that the words are spoken to those
who are failed servants, who are his people. These failed servants, who are his
people, he calls anew to be servants of the Lord. Isaiah continues to call them to
renew their mission.Three times in just these first four verses he says that the
servant will bring justice to the nations. He will bring forth justice, and he will
establish justice on the earth. This is a mission that God’s people are called to,
and that we are a part of and called to, as well. We are the servant of the Lord
that is described here.
I. A People in a Far Country
But let us understand that this servant is one that comes to a people that are in a
far country. These words come to a people that are now in exile. The people of
Israel had been transported by King Nebuchadnezzar into a far country, where
they, had for many, many years, beem dislocated from their land. They were
removed from their religious institutions and customs, and they were scorned by
the other nations around them because they were a defeated people. They
realized not only that their exile was the punishment of their sin but they also
wondering whether the Lord was ever going to make things right again, whether
God was going to do anything in their midst. They asked, "Is he going to provide
for us in any way? Is he going to make things right?"
I describe them as a people in a far country because they have been dislocated by
King Nebuchadnezzar, but they are also a people in a far country in the sense
that they are far away from their God, in the midst of their sin, in the midst of
their despair, in the midst of their hopelessness, in the midst of their brokenness,
in the midst of their blindness and their deafness. That’s why I made sure we
included in this reading verses 18 and following where Isaiah is speaking to
Israel, "Hear you deaf, look you blind and see. Who is blind but my servant and
deaf like the messenger I send?" This is Israel in a far country, and it is to this
Israel the Lord speaks these words about a servant, the servant of the Lord, who
is going to speak and to make things right, because that’s the message: to bring
justice to all the earth.
When we think of justice, we think of what takes place in the court rooms across
our land, where people are punished for what they have done wrong. We hope
that a judge and a jury will find those who are guilty, guilty, and give them the
punishment that they deserve for the crimes that they have done. When courts do
this, we say justice is done. But the implication of the word ‘justice’ here is not
simply that people will get their due in a court of law. No, what the people cry
out for in this far country is that God will bring healing and wholeness amongst
his people. In fact, this justice is something that will be shared by all people. It is
a desire for things to be made righteous or more particularly to be made right in
the relationship with their God -- that all these things will come together once
again in light of their relationship to him. That’s their cry. Out of that restoration
of the relationship with God, they will find healing and wholeness as his people
once again. That’s their cry! And that’s what the servant of the Lord is bringing
to them in this far country.
What does this mean for us today? In a way, we can’t identify with people who
are dislocated from their land or removed from their land in a far country
physically. But we know that there are those even within our own community that
are in a far country in the sense that they are exiled because of their sin. They are
experiencing the effects of living outside of a relationship with God. They are
experiencing brokenness and pain and guilt, they are in need of restoration of
relationships. They need hope in the midst of a very hopeless world. Our society
is looking for that. We know that there are many that are seeking those servants
that can bring this kind of hope in their cry for justice or wholeness. But they are
looking to government officials; they are looking to legislation; they are looking
for particular leaders. They’re even finding it in entertainment, trying to model
their lives after entertainers so that they can bring some kind of joy or hope
within their lives. They’re looking for those who will help them get out of their
mundane existence, out of the struggles of their daily life.
Watching programs that describe the rich and famous, I can’t help but think that
people are interested in finding out how the rich and famous are living so that
somehow they can escape their own existence and kind of identify or escape.
They think that maybe, maybe I can have a taste of that.
II. The Servant of the Lord
But who is the servant in that far country? As I said at the beginning, it’s not who
we think it is. We say, is it Jesus? But interestingly enough, Isaiah doesn’t
necessarily point us directly to Jesus at this point, even though we know Jesus
fulfills these words. In Isaiah 41:8 we read who the servant is. "But you, O
Israel, my servant Jacob whom I have chosen, you descendants of Abraham my
friend." Also later on in Isaiah 49:3 we read the same thing: "He says to me, you
are my servant Israel in whom I will display my splendor." So before we jump to
the conclusion that the Messiah Jesus is the fulfillment here, let us look at
Isaiah’s understanding of who the servant is.
The one who is described in verse 42, "My servant whom I uphold, my chosen
one in whom I delight," is the people of Israel. They are understood as the
servant, first of all. The servant Israel is the one who is the deaf one, the blind
one, the servant who is unable to fulfill the role of being servant. That’s why they
are in exile. They have not brought justice to themselves. They have not brought
righteousness to themselves by their own faithlessness, by their own
disobedience. They certainly have not been a blessing in the sense that the
covenant talks about in regards to Abraham’s seed, which would be a blessing to
the nations. They had utterly failed in fulfilling the mandate and mission that
God had given to them to the people around them in a far country. In fact, they,
were brought to a far country because of their sin and disobedience.
But Isaiah’s words here do not necessarily speak of that failure as they do of
hope by calling them and declaring to them that he is going to restore them to be
that servant once again. They are still God’s chosen. He will uphold them. He
says, "I will put my spirit on him (his servant) and I will bring justice to the
nations." He is calling those who will be returning as God’s people, calling them
and equiping them so that they may fulfill their calling to be a servant, so that
they may fulfill the mission that they had failed at. Even though we know that
they failed, the exciting thing is we know that this is still what they were called
and going to be renewed to be. We know this because the Messiah ultimately was
the true Israel. That’s where the fulfillment comes. That’s where we know that
beyond the shadow of a doubt Christ becomes the ideal servant. He takes this
failed role of the Israelites of bringing justice to the nations, making things right:
upon himself. He picks up the mantle of responsibility as God’s chosen servant,
one empowered by the Spirit. He does bring justice and establishes it as a part of
his new kingdom. We find the confirmation of this in the words of Matthew. In
Matthew 12 verses 18-21, Matthew confirms the fulfillment of these words in
Christ and by the work he was doing.
The message of his salvation in these words is the fact that he brings us who
were afar from him and he draws us close through his forgiveness and his
salvation.
But that doesn’t leave us off the hook. As those who are to be Christ-like, we are
addressed by that call to be the servant of the Lord. As it was for God’s people
then, so it is for you and I now. We are to be God’s servant in our far county, or
for those in a far county who are around us. When we take up this task, we know
that God has chosen us for it and he has given his Spirit to empower us. That’s
not to say we do it in violence or revolt as the words say here. We’re not to shout
or to cry out or raise our voices in the streets. This is the way the world seeks to
bring conquest or change, or tries to bring about revolutions -- by a lot of clamor,
by a lot of rancor and a lot of violence in the street. No, we know that Christ
brings his justice through the way of a servant. And so we are called to do so in
gentleness toward those who are wounded. We do not shoot people to bring
healing. Those whose lives seem to be almost at the end of their rope, we seek
not to snuff it out but to restore. We know that’s waht Christ has done.
III. Fulfillment of the Mission of the Servant
Who are the people in our far country? Pastor Jim Cymbala of the Brooklyn
Tabernacle in one of his recent books shares his ministry among individuals
involved in things that are foreign to most of us. He talks about a woman who
was abused by her father as she was growing up. She gets caught in a marriage
as soon as she was able, marrying just to escape. And that marriage breaks up.
She gets involved in work that is unwholesome simply because she has to make
money. She gets into drugs and so on and so forth. To me, that’s a far country,
totally unfamiliar from what I’m used to.
We know people who are struggling with broken marriages, people who are
struggling with dysfunctional homes, people who are struggling with sin in their
lives. These people are the people still in a far country, and whether they’re
crying out or not, they’re calling to make things right. They’re calling for
righteousness. It is to this far country that Isaiah calls the servant of the Lord.
He’s calling God’s people. He’s calling us: "You are my chosen ones." Yes,
indeed, he says I have fulfilled and accomplished the great restoration in Jesus
Christ, yet you are called to carry that message. And because Christ fulfilled it,
won the victory, you are enabled to carry the message of hope and restoration
that my salvation brings to those who are still in a far country, those who are still
dislocated because of sin in their lives and disobedience. It is to those people we
proclaim justice and seek to establish the justice, the making-things-right, the
healing and the wholeness, the restoration that Christ has brought.
Conclusion
We may admire the example of great individuals like Mother Teresa and hold
them as high ideals. We see in the message of Christ that he indeed has taken up
that task. But we are that servant of the Lord called to be Christ-like, to be part
of living in relationship to Christ. We have a mission to accomplish. We know
that because we are chosen and empowered, will be accomplished. That’s the
reason why Isaiah launches into a song of praise in verse 10. He’s celebrating as
if that restoration has already been accomplished. That’s also why we now take
these words and say them as well, because we know they have been
accomplished, and they continue to be accomplished in our midst.
"Sing to the Lord a new song, his praise to the ends of the earth, you who go
down to the sea... let them give glory to the Lord, proclaim his praise in the
islands. The Lord will march out like a mighty man, like a warrior he will stir up
his zeal. With a shout he will raise the battle cry and will triumph over his
enemies." That’s what he enables and empowers us to do to enable us to win his
victory.
