Fellow Redeemed in Christ Jesus,
Commercials encouraging us to buy electronics for Christmas are a large part of the season’s advertising. One selling point about their product is that it will give us thebest reproduced quality of sound.
This is not a new concept. A very early version of this approach was a picture of a dog sitting next to a gramophone, an early version of an MP3 player, with a large speaker. The caption read, “His master’s voice.” The message of course was that the sound was so clear the dog thought it was his master speaking.
This morning we hear our Master’s voice. It is clearly reproduced. We recognize it though he spoke prophetically through Isaiah. Our Master repeated these words early in his ministry in the synagogue at Nazareth. We hear Jesus speak those words in Luke 4, and he adds, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”
We lit the pink Advent candle, the candle of joy, to remind us that his coming draws near. We have joy in the midst of our repentance. Our Master’s message ratchets up that joy. The LORD has Anointed Me. To proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor; to make righteousness and praise spring up.
The Holy Spirit presented this Messianic prophecy in an engaging way. The people who lived before God’s Son came had a chance to hear the voice of the long expected one through the prophet’s mouth. It was a comforting and encouraging message, to say the least. Note again that the words are in the eternal present tense.
The Promised One began by confirming his eternal call to be our Savior from sin. “The LORD has anointed me.” That is what it meant to be the “Messiah,” or, “Christ” in Greek. The Father did not anoint his Son for this office with oil like merely earthly kings, priests, and prophets. At Jesus’ baptism, his Father anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power. So, in prophecy, Jesus said, “The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me.”
The Messiah tells us why the LORD anointed him. “to proclaim good news to the poor.” In poverty is an accurate, eye opening description of our condition in sin. We are by nature spiritually impoverished. Luther often used a description that fits us well, “We are all beggars.” We have nothing in our hands to bring to God. We can only cling to Christ’s cross. The good news is that at Messiah’s cross we receive forgiveness, life, and salvation in his blood.
That poverty breaks our hearts. No matter our intentions and efforts,they always fall way short of the perfect holiness God requires of us. We fall short of God’s glory. That troubles our hearts and pricks our consciences, doesn’t it?. How our sins plague us. How our guilty consciences disturb our rest. How easily and quickly we seem to slip back into our Old Man ways. The Messiah heals our broken hearts and gives rest to our troubled consciences with his Word, child, “Be of good cheer, your sins are forgiven.”
Along with good news and healing, the Messiah has come “to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners.” This is a reference to the Year of Jubilee. Every 50th year in Israel, masters would set free their slaves, authorities would free prisoners. All debts were cancelled. This was “the Year of the LORD’s favor and the vengeance of our God.” The LORD gave freedom to his people and reiterated his coming judgment on his enemies.
Jesus Christ has freed us from the slavery and cells of our sin and guilt. He has released us from Satan’s power and cancelled our sentence of eternal death in hell. That sentence still stands for his enemies who reject him and will not escape his vengeance.
All of this provides “comfort for all who mourn.” Messiah turns our mourning as at a funeral into our celebration as at a wedding. We live our lives praising God’s mercy rather than despairing because of our sins. The LORD anointed me, the Son of God declared, “to make righteousness and praise spring up.”
The final two verses of our text are our response to the Messiah’s work. Because he turned our grief into gladness and clothed us with his righteousness, and adorned us like a bride, we say with Isaiah, “I delight greatly in the LORD, my soul rejoices in my God.”
In Latin this Sunday is calledgraduate, which means, rejoice. That pink candle of joy is the visible expression of these words. Even as we prepare for Christ’s advent with watchful repentant hearts, we prepare for him also with joyful hearts for his righteousness and redemption.
We somehow did not have to work up that righteousness and praise on our own, or from within ourselves. We could do this no more than a seed can sprout in the soil by its own power, or a garden causes those seeds to grow. The LORD is the power of growth. The LORD makes righteousness sprout in our hearts, his righteousness that produces our righteousness in actions. It is his power that works rejoicing in our hearts.
We believers stand as “oaks of righteousness.” As we stand in Christ’s righteousness we blossom and bloom in works of righteousness. People see the power of Christ in our lives. They hear the power of Christ in our voices as we praise God from whom all blessings flow. God has chosen us poor beggars and given us the priceless treasures of forgiveness, faith, and forever in heaven. We can’t keep silent about that.
The Lord has anointed me, Jesus said through Isaiah. That anointing has changed our lives into an unending Year of Jubilee, the year of the LORD’s favor. Come, Lord Jesus. Amen. >SDG>