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 3rd Sunday in Advent is taken from Isaiah 35:1-10, it’s entitled, “Overtaken by Joy,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2. A TV commercial seen during the month of December shows a family on Christmas morning with packages unwrapped and children enjoying their new gifts. Mom and Dad are happily observing the happy scene when Dad pulls from the pocket of his robe a small box and gives it to his wife. Inside she finds a magnificent diamond necklace. The voice-over says, “This year, be the Santa of her dreams.” The commercial fades to black as we watch a tear fall from the wife’s eye. She is overtaken by joy. Wives, can’t you just wait?
3. The Prophet Isaiah describes for us today our hope of joy here in Isaiah 35. Gladness and joy are in hot pursuit. Isaiah describes this promise of God for us, who by faith in Jesus, travel on his holy highway toward heaven. It’s not the Grim Reaper who will overtake you in the end. It’s gladness and joy as you depart from this life into the glories of God’s mansion.
4. Sorrow and sighing will be sent packing. In this present age we face many causes of sorrow: disappointments, personal failures, illness. Everyone knows how to sigh. Let me hear your best sigh right now. The Apostle Paul once came upon a man sitting on a bench sighing with his head in his hands. “What’s wrong, brother?” Paul asked. The man spoke of terrible guilt over his sin. Paul gladly told him of the perfect redemption won by Jesus for all people, relieving the man’s guilt and putting his sighing to flight. A little later Paul came upon a woman who also held her head in her hands as she sighed. “Sister, what’s the matter?” Paul inquired. She told how she had lost her job and couldn’t afford food for her family. Paul quickly arranged a collection to be taken at church for her relief, putting her sorrow and sighing to flight. A bit later, Paul came upon another man sighing with his head in his hands. “Brother,” Paul asked, “what could be troubling you so?” “I’ve got two teenagers at home,” the man replied. At which point Paul too sighed and put his head in his hands!
5. The Gospel brings the good news that we have a most certain hope of a heavenly existence where gladness and joy will overtake us for all eternity. All sorrow and sighing will flee. The “great reversal” of sorrow to joy is described in beautiful terms in our text, where the dead places are made to bloom with life by the power of God. This promised reversal of fortunes awaits us in heaven, strengthening us in our times of weakness in this fallen world.
6. Speaking of a reversal of fortune. Here’s an example. One of today’s most successful corporations began in 1916 as a carpenter shop in Denmark. When the housing market collapsed during the Great Depression, the shop was converted to the manufacture of toys. When the wooden toy department burned down in 1960, the company staked its future on the little interlocking plastic bricks it had been making. Today we know the company as Lego, one of the largest toymakers in the world with annual sales of about $8 billion, which they made in 2021 alone.
7. Often success is preceded by difficulties and delays we can’t control—an unfair employer, illness, injury, an unfaithful friend. But we can choose our response as Joseph did when he was sold into slavery, falsely accused of sexual assault, imprisoned, and forgotten by a friend. Joseph believed, as he told his brothers, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives” (Gen 50:20).
8. Our Present Joy. But, our faith isn’t just a matter of “keeping a stiff upper lip” until we finally receive joy in heaven. The Gospel isn’t a “pie in the sky by and by” message. As Jesus informs John the Baptist in today’s Gospel reading from Matthew 11, the great messianic age of joy promised in Isaiah has already made its beginning. By healing the blind and deaf and lame and mute, Jesus showed that the time of joy is with us in the here and now.
9. Joy is present because of these reasons: Jesus has redeemed us from all our sin and guilt, offering himself as the ransom price that delivers us from the punishment of death. Although we don’t deserve this gift, God gives it freely, and we receive it gratefully in faith. The joy of salvation sends all our guilty sighs fleeing. God has granted us the holiness of Christ, welcoming us upon his holy highway to heaven, paying with Jesus’ life the toll that we could never muster. Safe are we on God’s highway.
10. Jesus has redeemed us from death by rising on Easter. Baptized into his resurrection, we are conquerors of death, too. Those precious waters bring new life to our parched souls. Since gladness and joy are stalking us, we can now enjoy each day as God’s gift of life, using our time for his labor.
11. Unbelieving eyes see no change in this world since Jesus was born, but to the eyes of faith in the Savior, everything has changed. Sorrow and sighing must flee, for Jesus lives in us with his everlasting love for our everlasting life.
12. Our Joyful Task. As we wait for joy to fully overtake us, James reminds us in our Epistle for today of our task, to be patient until the Lord’s coming. Trust God’s promise that gladness and joy will never lose your scent. As you patiently await the consummation of joy, be an agent of joy yourself: Alleviate as much human suffering here on earth as you can. Track down the unbelievers you know and pursue them with the Gospel message. Though they may have resisted you in the past, be as persistent in your Gospel-stalking as God has been in persistently pursuing you with forgiveness and joy.
13. As someone has quipped, “If the joy of Jesus is in your heart, don’t forget to tell your face.” Let your face be the billboard that lets the world know: sin, death, and sorrow have been overtaken in you by the joy of knowing Jesus. I know recently someone once asked my 95 year old Grandma Eleanor Taggatz why she was always happy all the time. In a split second my Grandma responded, “Because I know that Jesus loves me!” What a great response to show others the hope and joy we have in Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. I pray that the Holy Spirit will enable you to give such a response to the joy that you have as well.
14. They are after you, gladness and joy. Not only are they after you, they are upon you through the present blessing of salvation that comes through faith in Jesus. Although causes for sorrow and sighing abound, Jesus is an even greater cause of joy. Soon we will sing, “Joy to the world, the Lord is come!” “Rejoice, you pilgrim throng,” and be patient until that day when the tracking and trailing will be complete, and you will be overtaken by joy. 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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