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 on this Good Friday is taken from Isaiah 55:6-11, it’s entitled, “The Word of the Lord Returns to Him with Success,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2. “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord” (Is 55:8). That’s never clearer than when you see God hanging dead on a cross. This is not how I would choose to go about being God. I recall seeing a bit of graffiti on a table in the university library where I earned my undergraduate degree. There was a crude drawing of a crucifix with these words beneath. “Christians worship a criminal executed by the Romans.” The artist was mocking the Christian faith, but he was hardly original in his tactic. The catacombs of Rome have similar graffiti mocking those who worship Christ crucified. From the first century until now, the message of the cross has been foolishness to the world.
3. The world looks at the cross and sees defeat. More than defeat, the cross proclaims shame and contempt. The cross was devised not only to subject its victims to excruciating pain, but also to put them on display. Crucifixion typically took place in a public location, along a road perhaps, to maximize the number of people who would see it. That had a great effect. Don’t get out of line or you’ll end up like this guy. It also magnified the shame of crucifixion. While dying, crowds would pass and sneer. That is exactly what Jesus encountered. He was mocked and ridiculed even while dying to save the very people who were berating him.
4. This makes no sense. God dead on the cross. God humiliated and ashamed. God put on display to be mocked and trampled under the feet of ungrateful sinners. Yet here we see the Lord’s design worked out to perfection. The incarnate word of God, Jesus Christ, dies that He might return to His Father having done what He descended to do.
5. That is the wisdom of Is 55:10–11: “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” Rain isn’t an accident of nature. Rain is a gift of God. He sends it for a clear purpose—to water the earth that it may yield its increase so that God’s beloved creation may be fed. A rainy day may disappoint you because you had grand plans for outdoor activities and the rain has spoiled it. Don’t be disappointed, because the rain is the assurance of God’s love. He wouldn’t have you go hungry, so he sends the rain. In short, God sends the rain, and it accomplishes his purpose.
6. So, it is with the Word of the Lord. It accomplishes his purpose. The Word succeeds in that for which the Lord sent it. It is true of the written Word. Confirmands recite in monotonous tones the words of Scripture. There is no fanfare. They are not excited. But the Word of the Lord will not return to him empty. It will succeed in the purpose for which he sent it. Young minds will be formed and filled by the Word of God. Another generation will have the faith poured into their ears that it may pour forth from their mouths in confession of Christ’s saving name.
7. So, it is with the spoken Word of the Lord. A pastor speaks the Words of Absolution to a mass of blank faces that are as emotionless as a rock. And when the sermon is delivered, instead of blank faces he sees many who are fighting off sleep. He wonders if the prophets had to face this. They faced even worse. When they spoke the Word of God, they were routinely rejected. It wasn’t blank stares or drooping eyes, but violence that stared back at them. Thus, John the Baptist was beheaded. Elijah lamented that Ahab and Jezebel had killed off the prophets of the Lord and he was left alone. In spite of the violent opposition that met the prophets, the Word of the Lord didn’t return to him void. It accomplished the purpose for which it was sent. The Word will succeed in absolving sin because forgiveness isn’t dependent upon the excitement or even the appreciation of the one who receives it. It is dependent upon the Word of the Lord. The spoken Word will ground the faithful in the truth, even when they fight sleep, because though they are tired, the Word is living and active. And even when the Word of the Lord is rejected, it succeeds in its purpose, condemning their sin.
8. So, it is with the incarnate Word of the Lord. The eternal Son of God, who is proclaimed by John to be the Word, takes on flesh that the Word might dwell among God’s people. He accomplishes what he is sent to do. He is successful, though the world is blind to his success. His success is so complete that he takes the written Word into himself as he fulfills every detail of the written Word. His fulfillment of the spoken Word is perfect as he becomes the Prophet of prophets. The prophets who preceded Christ’s earthly ministry spoke by a higher authority: “Thus saith the Lord.” The Incarnate Word, Jesus, speaks by that same authority, his own authority: “I say to you.” But Jesus would meet even greater opposition than the prophets who were martyred, certainly more resistance than today’s pastor who battles against ears that have grown cold to the Word of God. Still the Word of the Lord, our Savior, Jesus, accomplishes what he was sent to do. He was sent to be rejected that he might suffer and die.
9. His rejection isn’t just a historical detail of Good Friday as the masses stream by the cross and mock him. The rejection of Christ is found today. It’s not only among those who mock Christ today. Christ is rejected by us. You see it in our failure to seek after the Lord as Isaiah proclaims: “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts” (Isaiah 55:6–7). Christ, the Incarnate Word, is as near to us today as he was to those who crucified him. He is present for us as the Word in his spoken and written Word. Here he is near for us and yet we do not return. Eyes remain heavy; ears grow dull. We are tantalized by the world’s empty promises that our days will be filled with excitement. Our eyes focus upon whatever glitters and gleams. So, we do not return, though he has called us without abandon.
10. The Lord will not tire to call you, because he is faithful. Isaiah calls you, saying, “Let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon” (Isaiah 55:7). The Lord doesn’t call you to return that he may exact judgment upon you. He calls you back that he might pardon you . . . in abundance. A little pardon won’t do. The Lord pardons in bunches and then some. More pardon than there is sin. That is the way of the Lord with you. That is what his Word does. He has written it in his Word. He proclaims it in his Word. He puts pardon into flesh with his incarnate Word.
11. Heaps of pardon with unending compassion doesn’t happen by accident. It comes at a cost. A cost that must be paid by the Incarnate Word. And it all comes together right here at the cross. Here the Word accomplishes that for which he was sent. At the cross the Word succeeds in the Lord’s purpose.
12. The cross—that is why the Lord sent his Word. “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth” (Is. 55:10–11). The rain accomplishes the reason for which it is sent—making the earth bring forth life. Life from the ground. So shall the word of the Lord bring life from the ground. On the third day, there will be life from the ground. That is just the first fruit. Life will explode from the ground when the Incarnate Word returns on the Last Day that he might accomplish what he is sent to do, that he might succeed in the purpose for which he is sent—life!
13. And it is all because of this day. The Word succeeds by the cross. The cross is why the Word will return to the Lord forty days after rising from the dead in success. The Lord doesn’t gauge success as we do. He gauges success by pardoning. And Christ, the Incarnate Word, has succeeded in winning for you an unending supply of pardon. You can be certain of it. There is no doubt that God will pardon you when you see him dead on a cross.
14. This is the height of divine wisdom. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Is. 55:9). This is the cross. Amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, until life everlasting. Amen.
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