1.
Grace,
mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ. Amen. The message from God’s Word this morning as
we begin Holy Week with Palm Sunday is taken from Isaiah 50:4-9 and is entitled,
“Opening Our Ears to Hear Jesus,” dear
brothers and sisters in Christ.
2.
Why
do we have ears on the outside of our heads? Why not on the inside? Because
we’re not supposed to listen to ourselves. I wonder how much of our misery
stems from our almost religious devotion to our own thoughts and feelings. We
spend every moment of our lives within a mental universe. The quality of that
environment matters. Are our ears open to the Word of God? Do we understand
what it means to listen to God?
3.
For
instance, it’s ironic, but a person could come to
church every Sunday—including Palm Sunday and Easter—and not see the whole
picture. The triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem and the glorious
resurrection give us a picture of Christ we all love to see—seated on a donkey,
radiant, worshiped, victorious. But if that’s all we see, we miss our very
salvation. Forgiveness and eternal life look also like the rest of Holy Week: a
weakened and bloody man, his back shredded by the whip, humiliated by the
plucking one by one of hairs from his beard, cheeks and eyes dripping with the
spit of mocking soldiers. Can you see that?
Can you hear that with your ears the passion and suffering that our Lord
Jesus endured for you for the forgiveness of your sins? Jesus, 7 inch spikes
fixing him to the cross, for every breath forced to lift his chest by pushing
against those nails in his feet, pulling against those nails through his
wrists, the wounds in his back being reopened with each struggle against the
rough wood. Our word excruciating comes from the Latin meaning “out of the cross.” Can you see that? Can you feel that? Can you hear the pain and suffering our Lord
Jesus endured for you? As part of the humiliation of crucifixion, victims were
usually naked, really naked, no tastefully-placed white loincloth. Mothers, can
you picture your sons made a public spectacle like that? We’re not allowed to
see that in our stained glass windows. But our salvation looks like that.
Without it, there’s no reason for Palm Sunday, and there’s no Easter for
us. That’s Jesus giving us glory and victory. So we should see
it and hear it, this week.
4.
Do
you remember studying your memory work when you were in Lutheran Day School,
Confirmation class, and Sunday School? Why
did you do that? Why do you suppose that
we go through the observance of Lent, Holy Week, and Easter year after year,
after year? So that your ears, your
heart, and your mind are focused on the Word of God and on the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ. When you’re younger,
you may not think that your Bible memory work means a whole lot, but you’ll be
surprised at how it will reappear in your minds later in life when you’re faced
with a difficult situation, where the words of the Lord will instruct you on
how to act and live. I’m still amazed at
how the 80 and 90 year old homebound members I visit are still able to recite
the catechism to me and the verses of Holy Scripture they learned so many years
ago.
5.
In
the New Testament we are told, “He who
has ears, let him hear.” If the Bible urges us to use our ears, they must
be important. Think of the words of the prophet: “Hear the word of the Lord”
(e.g., Jeremiah 2:4). Go all the way back to the foundation of Israel’s faith:
“Hear, O Israel” from Deuteronomy 6.
At least 394 times the Old Testament refers to the word of God coming to us.
6. The Christian faith has come to us
in words, not images that we see on the computer or TV screen. If God’s way of getting through to us is the
Word, then we need to learn what it means to listen. Isaiah brings us to the third of his four
Servant Songs in Isaiah 50. It’s about listening. The nation of Israel had a
hearing problem, and it was their undoing (48:8). But the Servant of the Lord
was a good listener. He had an ear constantly open to God (50:4, 5). The one
who fears the Lord also listens obediently to the servant (50:10). All who seek
righteousness are good listeners (51:1, 4, 7). Dr. Isaiah is calling us in for
a hearing check. He wants to retune our ears so we can hear the word of God
again.
7. The Lord’s servant appears first in
Isaiah 50:4–9. Here Isaiah writes, “4The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who
are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary. Morning by morning he awakens; he awakens my
ear to hear as those who are taught. 5The
Lord God has opened my ear, and I
was not rebellious; I turned not backward.
6I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those
who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting. 7But the Lord God helps me; therefore I have not been
disgraced; therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall
not be put to shame. 8He who
vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who is my adversary? Let him come near to me. 9Behold, the Lord God helps me; who will declare me guilty? Behold, all of them will wear out like a
garment; the moth will eat them up.” Only
Jesus can open our ears so that we may believe in Him and His Word and gladly
hear and learn it.
8. The truth is we’re disobedient
servants. We often despise preaching and
God’s Word. Being a Christian is hard
work. We’re constantly at war against
our Old Adam, our old sinful nature.
Because of our sin we will often find other more entertaining things to
do rather than hearing and receiving the life giving Word of God. Our sinful nature wants us to despise the
faith that was given to us in our Baptisms, to think that the Lord’s Supper is
merely bread and wine and not also the very body and blood of our Lord Jesus
Christ.
9. Like hired servants, we rebel against
God’s Law. We don’t want to learn and
listen to our master’s teaching. We
rebel against our master in sinful disobedience. We run away from our Lord Jesus if we feel
that our lives are threatened like the disciples did when they abandoned him in
his hour of need. Our disobedience and
unwillingness to listen to God’s Word has made us servants of sin. Those who sin are servants of sin (Jn
8:34). And, because we’re servants of
sin, we don’t serve our neighbors in love.
10. But, thanks be to God that Jesus is
the true Servant. Jesus is obedient to
his Father’s teaching. He’s given the
tongue of those who are taught (v 4), and he speaks the Father’s Word. He’s given the ear of those who are taught (v
4), and he listens to the pleas of his people.
Jesus is obedient to his Father’s will (v 5). He actively obeys by serving God and his
neighbor. He passively obeys by giving
his back to those who strike, his cheeks to those who pull out his beard. He
didn’t hide his face from disgrace and spitting (v 6). And what’s more? Jesus is even obedient unto death all for you. When he was accused and tortured, he “set [his] face like a flint” (v
7). Jesus remained in faithful service
to his Father, even though it ended in his death on the cross.
11. Christ, the true Servant, serves us
with his perfect obedience. Baptism
connects us to the obedience of Jesus.
Baptism gives us obedient ears to hear Christ’s Word rightly. Baptism gives us obedient tongues to confess
Christ’s Word to a disobedient world that surrounds us. The true Servant serves us his body and blood
to forgive all of our disobedience. Christ’s
Divine Service to us moves us to serve him and our neighbors in love. As Christ’s perfect obedience was vindicated,
so will we who are in Jesus be vindicated (vv 8–9a). Christ was vindicated when he was raised to
life at the end of this Holy Week. We
will be vindicated when, in the resurrection, all will see that God has
declared us perfectly obedient by our incorporation into Jesus.
12. The true Servant is the one we see
on Palm Sunday, riding into Jerusalem in humbleness on the colt of a donkey. He’s
the Suffering Servant, who goes forward to the cross in obedience to his
Father’s plan of redemption. The hymns proclaim, “A Lamb goes uncomplaining forth” (LSB 438:1) and “Ride on, ride
on in majesty! In lowly pomp ride on to die” (LSB 441:2). It’s for us sinful servants that Jesus obediently goes
forth to die. The faithful Servant will die for us sinful servants, an exchange
of sorts. But, the true Servant is also
the risen Servant, who is present here to serve us with his perfect obedience.
Because of his Divine Service, we’re no longer servants of ourselves and
servants of sin listening to our own sinful nature, but we’re transformed into
servants in his likeness. We’re freed from listening to and serving our sin in
order to serve God and our neighbor.
Amen.
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