Text: Isaiah 40:1-11 Advent 2B
SN: 0037 12/10/23
Prepare the Way of the Lord
Have you heard the joke that Wisconsin has only two seasons: winter and road construction? Lately, it seems like maybe there is only one season, and construction never ends. Driving in construction can be frustrating. It slows everything down and makes driving a hassle. The lanes are narrow, and we’re not entirely sure what the person next to us will do. The detours don’t seem to be going anywhere near where we are heading. But just think of how terrible driving would be if we didn’t have massive highway projects. Imagine trying to drive narrow, rutted, twisting tracks. It would take forever to get anywhere.
As much as we dislike dealing with construction, we like the finished product. There’s nothing quite like driving on fresh, smooth asphalt that is entirely free from any bump or pothole. This is the kind of road that the Prophet Isaiah describes for us. A smooth, flat roadway through the desert without any imperfections. This roadway is so smooth and level that even the very mountains and hills have been laid low, and the valleys have been raised up. Isaiah is not describing a literal road through the desert. Instead, he is telling us how we should prepare our hearts for the coming of the Lord. This is the same message that John the Baptist preached almost 700 years later.
John echoed the words of Isaiah when he preached his message, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” Both John and Isaiah were preaching a message of repentance. They were using the tools of God’s Word to undertake a massive construction project in the hearts of their hearers. They used the tool of God’s law to break down the mountains of pride and fill in the valleys of guilt and despair in the hearts of the people. They wanted them to turn away from their sins and trust in the promises of God. Repentance is how God’s people prepare the way for their coming Lord. We understand the depth of our sin and our inability to save ourselves. We understand our need for a Savior and find comfort trusting that God has forgiven our sins through faith in Jesus Christ.
The nation of Judah needed a massive construction project. The hearts of the people had wandered far from God. They had broken the covenant God made with them at Mt. Sinai. They had rebelled against God and had worshiped many false gods. God sent Isaiah to call the people back from their sins and lead them to repentance. The first 39 chapters of Isaiah are a harsh preaching of God’s law. Isaiah needed to break down the mountains of sin and pride. He needed to remind the people and announce that there would be consequences for their rebellion. Chapter 39 ends with Isaiah telling King Hezekiah that God would send the nation of Babylon to conquer the nation of Judah. Jerusalem and the temple of God would be destroyed, and the people would be taken into exile.
This was not a pleasant message for the people to hear. It is never pleasant to be reminded of the times we have failed. But our hearts need constant renovation; because of sin, our hearts are not prepared for the coming of our King. Even though we have been reborn through the waters of baptism, we must still struggle daily with the evil wants and desires of our sinful nature. Satan is waging a war against our hearts and wants nothing more than to lead us away from God. We are being assaulted on all sides by temptations. In our weakness, it is easy to fall into sin. The list of the sins we commit every day could go on and on because we know that we break our God's commandments daily. We utterly fail to live to the standard of perfection that he demands and know that our hearts are not smooth and level and prepared for our Lord.
We don’t like to hear these things about ourselves. We don’t want to be reminded of our sins. But dear Christians, it is necessary for us to hear the harsh Words of God’s law. We must be reminded of our sins so that we do not become puffed up with our own pride. Just as it is so easy to fall into temptation, it is just as easy to delude ourselves into thinking that maybe we aren’t that bad. Of if we
are bad, at least we are not as bad as those other sinners who are far worse than we are. Isaiah warns us of these mountains of pride by reminding us that all human works are like grass. Our best righteous acts cannot stand before the glory of the Lord and are like filthy rags. In his commentary on this section of Isaiah, the Lutheran theologian August Pieper describes how our self-righteousness compares to God’s holiness. “The holiness of the Lord is not passive, intransitive, or inactive, but it is an attribute of God that is ceaselessly active and effectively in operation. Without pause it pierces all things with its light, blows upon, judges, and thus sears, burns, and consumes everything sinful, unclean, and unholy.”
Dear friends, God does not want to leave us in this wretched state. God wants to save us. He commanded Isaiah to follow up his harsh pronouncement of the law with these beautiful words, “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak 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.” God would not leave his people in exile but would rescue them with his mighty arm. He would bring them back to the land of their ancestors and restore them as his people. They did not need to fear God’s punishment because their guilt had been paid for.
This is the same message of comfort we have received from the Lord. Our sins have been paid for, and our guilt has been removed by the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. The ministry of Isaiah and John the Baptist prepared the way for the ultimate revelation of the glory of the Lord. The amazing miracle that God himself would take on human flesh and be born as a tiny, helpless baby. God would live as one of us and suffer as one of us. That God would himself endure the shame and agony of the cross and the torments of hell in our place and that God would die for us. This is the great mystery of our Savior.
Jesus Christ, as true God and true man, offered his perfect life as a sacrifice for our sins. By his death, Christ renovated our hearts. He destroyed our mountains of sin and pride and filled in our valleys of guilt and shame. He made us pure and holy. Because of his death and resurrection, we do not need to fear the judgment of God. We have been clothed with the righteousness of Christ and look forward to that joyful day when our Lord will appear in all his glory and take us to our eternal home,
Dear friends, the season of Advent gives us an opportunity each year to focus on repentance. We know that we are sinners, and we know that our sins have been completely paid for by the death of Christ. We do not need to do anything to earn God’s grace and favor. So why do we repent? We repent to acknowledge our sinfulness before the Lord. We repent because, as God’s faithful people, we want to turn away from our sins and live as children of light. That’s what repentance is. We struggle daily against our sinful desires but acknowledge that we fail in that struggle. The Apostle Paul describes our struggle this way, “Indeed, I know that good does not live in me, that is, in my sinful flesh. The desire to do good is present with me, but I am not able to carry it out. So I fail to do the good I want to do. Instead, the evil I do not want to do, that is what I keep doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who am doing it, but it is sin living in me.”
This is why we confess our sins before God and our brothers and sisters in Christ each Sunday. We ask God for his forgiveness and trust that our sins have been forgiven. This is the other side of repentance; we turn away from our sins and turn to the promises of God. We trust that all of our sins have been paid for by the death of Christ. That our salvation is not found in our works but in Christ. We receive that forgiveness as we eat and drink the body and blood of Christ.
Comfort, comfort, my people. Your sins have been forgiven, and your hearts are prepared for the coming of the Lord. Because of Christ, our hearts are a smooth and straight highway ready to receive our King. Every mountain has been laid low, and every valley filled in.