“They’re here!” the children shout excitedly. “They’re here! Grandma! Grandpa! Did you bring presents?”
The Christmas season is often a time we spend together with family, sometimes relatives or friends that we really don’t see much during the rest of the year. And even if we do see them all the time, there’s something special about getting together for the holiday. If you have company coming over you might do some extra cleaning. You might get out your fine china. You work to decorate your house, especially making use of any decorations given to you by your guests. And the kids watch with baited breath every car that might turn in the driveway.
That kind of excited and careful preparation, that kind of eagerness, is fitting here in the Advent season. Christmases always come and go. So to do our Christmas guests. But what this season is all about, what this holiday is really all about, is the coming of the Lord. Let us prepare the way for the Lord! He comes with comfort and salvation.
Isaiah lived and worked as God’s prophet around 700 B.C. Rome was just newly founded, but Jerusalem was on the brink of destruction. Isaiah’s long book weaves together prophecy and historical narratives, and the verses that serve as our sermon text for today come just after his record of how Jerusalem had only just escaped destruction. Judah was attacked by Sennacherib, king of Assyria. The Judean city of Lachish was totally destroyed, with many people killed and many more taken as captives. Next was Jerusalem, and Sennacherib mocked Israel, he mocked King Hezekiah, and he mocked God. “The gods of the other nations we destroyed didn’t save them,” he said. “What makes you think the Lord will save you?” But the Lord will not be mocked. He promised Hezekiah, “I will save you and this city for my sake, and for the sake of my servant David.” And that night 185,000 men from Sennacherib’s camp died. Even the Greek historian Herodotus recorded this. The way he heard and reported it, they were attacked by a great plague of field mice. Sennacherib went back to Nineveh and later was murdered by two of his own sons.
This was the context then for God’s message through Isaiah in chapter 40. The land had been torn by war. The people had been devastated by death. And through all this Isaiah speaks
Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
2Speak to the heart of Jerusalem and call out to her.
Her warfare really is over.
Her guilt is fully paid for.
Yes, she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.
From the beginning of this chapter God’s word comes like a cool, gentle breeze at the end of a blistering hot day. This is how a loving mother might speak to a hurt and crying child. He says it twice; “comfort, comfort.” And he reminds them of who they are to him. “My people. Your God.” And he assures them. “It’s over. It’s done.”
The terrible war that they had been fighting actually becomes then a picture of something else. See, even though this battle had been avoided, there was no promise of everlasting earthly peace. Quite the opposite, in fact. Even Isaiah prophesied about more war coming their way. The Lord wanted these people to look ahead. He wanted them to know that there was still much for them to learn from his word through his prophet Isaiah. Do not limit this book to the war with Assyria. Don’t limit it to the coming conflict with Babylon. These were two of the greatest empires the world had ever seen, but if we make this book only about them, we are making it so very small. Isaiah is not so small! This is about our war with sin. This is about the horrific war-torn spiritual battlefield of this world from which Isaiah now directs us to look up. “Your warfare is over! Prepare the way for the Lord. Look, here is your God!”
The sheer poetry here of Isaiah 40 is just fantastic. It shifts views and voices, a whole chorus of prophets and heralds for the Lord. Double for all her sins is perhaps referring to double blessings – being saved from captivity to the nations and being saved from captivity to Satan. And then there’s a voice, a herald, “In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord.”
What does it mean to prepare the way for the Lord? How do we go about doing that? A highway in the wilderness? Every valley raised up? Every mountain made low? These are major things. This is not just a matter of vacuuming the living room carpet before Grandma and Grandpa arrive for the Christmas party. But listen to those words a little more closely. Is this a command of what you must do to welcome the Lord? Or is this a joyful announcement of the Lord’s imminent salvation that will not be hindered from reaching you? Hear those words again:
3A voice is calling out:
In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord.
In the wasteland make a level highway for our God.
4Every valley will be raised up,
and every mountain and hill will be made low.
The rugged ground will become level,
and the rough places will become a plain.
5Then the glory of the Lord will be revealed,
and all flesh together will see it.
Yes, the mouth of the Lord has spoken.
I don’t want to be a mountain standing proud with my haughty ego in the Lord’s way when he comes. I don’t want to be a valley of deep moral deficits. But what we see here is not a condition as if the Lord’s coming depends on us, but rather the joyful shout that he will not be hindered when he comes to save.
So of course John the Baptists came as this voice 7 centuries later. And he proclaimed God’s imminent salvation not somewhere in the distant future but walking right there in front of him along the Jordan River. He had come to earth, to the towns of Judah and the city of Jerusalem. He had come to bring salvation. And nothing would stop him, not the rage of Satan, not the traps of the Pharisees, not the betrayal of his own disciple.
And how important this is for us to know! Sometimes I have company coming to my house and the mess is overwhelming. “How will I clean all of this up before they get here?,” I ask. There’s laundry that needs to be folded and dishes that need to be done and I haven’t mopped the floor or made the guest bed and I put it off for too long and now there’s no way that I’m going to have it done before they arrive. But that is nothing compared to the mess of this heart. This heart of mine is less like a messy house and more like a battlefield that has been bombed into oblivion. For me to clean it up would be as useless as walking into the ruins of Berlin in 1945 with nothing more than a broom and a dustpan. We’re completely powerless, like grass and flowers that wither and die.
But listen to the call of Isaiah: “Comfort, comfort, my people!” God says. “Your sins, your guilt, is paid for. Your warfare is over.” Listen to the cry of John the Baptist: “Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
The siege of your sin is no less hopeless than the siege of Assyria. Satan is fiercer than Sennacherib. But the Lord comes with his mighty power to save from both. They are small next to his might. The sight of that glorious manger fills our eyes with wonder. The sight of the cross fills our hearts with awe. The gentle waters of baptism wash over us and the risen Lord speaks to our hearts. “It’s over. It’s done. Here I am. Here is your God.”
Prepare the way for the Lord! It’s not a threatening command. It’s an excited exhortation. He’s coming! He’s coming here! To us! Can you believe it! Let’s be ready, casting our sins at the foot of his cross, filling our hearts with the joy of Word and Sacrament, covering ourselves in his righteousness, watching, waiting, with baited breath, to see him. Is he here yet? He is. With his forgiveness and his grace and his peace, with the gentle care with which he leads his flock. And he will be, when every eye beholds him in glory. He comes with comfort. He comes with strength. He comes with salvation. Amen.
— Pastor Seth Georgson