“Fearfully and Wonderfully Made” Gen. 2.7-17 Life Sunday Jan. ‘26

 

 

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 today as we celebrate the Sanctity of Human Life is taken from Genesis 2:7-17 (read text) and it’s entitled, “Fearfully & Wonderfully Made,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

2.        Carefully handmade items are often of more value than items that are mass-produced. It’s far more common for a hand-stitched quilt to become a priceless family heirloom than one that was bought at the store. The one will be carefully preserved and passed on from one generation to the next, the other will get tossed in the trash after a few years of use.

3.        Why do handmade items have this value? It’s because every handmade item is a picture of its maker. The desire to create proceeds from the heart of the maker. The design and plan reveal the wisdom of the maker. And the finished product is the incarnation of both heart and mind, produced through hours of labor by a skillful hand that was developed over years of practice. Carefully and lovingly hand-crafted items become keepsakes because they are a lasting connection to the one who made them.

4.        If that is true of a quilt or a piece of art, how much more is it true of us? God’s Word from Genesis 2 reminds us that God made mankind differently than He made the rest of creation. Everything else God made He made by speaking it into existence. But not Adam. With Adam, God got His hands dirty. He  fashioned Adam’s body from the dust of the ground. Then, after the physical form was made, God breathed His own life-giving breath into the dust and made it a living creature. The same care is later given to the creation of woman, as God took one of Adam’s ribs and fashioned a body around that rib and gave her life.

5.        All of creation is God’s handiwork, but Adam and Eve were His masterpieces. They were made in His image. They were filled with God’s own life. They were what God had in mind when He uttered the first “let there be.” God gave Adam dominion over His creation and placed him in the garden to work and care for it because it was made for him and his family. They were reflections of God’s loving character. And by the act of this careful creation of His works of art, God bestowed upon human beings’ great value.

6.        We can’t deny that sin has deeply corrupted God’s masterpieces. We also heard today that God had put the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the midst of the garden and commanded Adam not to eat of it, lest he die. And sadly, we know that he did eat of it, and as a result, sin and death entered our world and cursed God’s masterpieces. Ever since that moment, Adam and Eve and all their children have been broken by sin. We have bodies that can be malformed, become filled with diseases, and grow old and weak and die. We also have minds and souls that have been warped by sin. Instead of thinking the way God thinks and loving the way that God loves, our minds are filled with evil, selfish thoughts, and desires.

7.        But this doesn’t in any way devalue God’s handiwork! God tells us that even now, after sin has entered His perfect world, He still fearfully and wonderfully creates each one of us. King David was a sinner like the rest of us, but the Holy Spirit inspired David to write the words of Psalm 139: “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well” (Psalm 139:13-14).

8.        It wasn’t just Adam and Eve who were hand-crafted by God. Every single human being, from the least to the greatest, is still carefully handmade by God. He designs our form and then skillfully knits us together in our mother’s wombs. Does the curse of sin and death affect us? Of course. But we are all still God’s handiwork. We are still created after the image of our Maker, even if that image is marred by sin. And so, from the moment of conception, until the day that God has determined for death, each person, in every stage and condition of life, has immeasurable value to the Lord. As Dr Seuss has written in “Horton Hears a Who,” “A person’s a person, no matter how small.”

9.        Sadly, because sin has twisted our souls as deeply as our bodies, we don’t always see that great value in all the people God has created. We live in a world that values production. We find value in things that can give us something in return. This is the line of thought that is often used to devalue unborn children or those with disabilities. The argument states that since the size or the condition of their bodies leaves them less able to perform what some consider to be normal functions, they must not have the same value as the rest of mankind.

10.     We can easily fall into a similar error, when thinking about the elderly, the dying, and those with untreatable illnesses. Instead of seeing the value inherent in them as one lovingly made by God and cared for by Him, we place an economic value on them. The sick and dying often require a level of care that takes the sacrifice of both time and money. When dealing with people in such a condition, the devil, the world, and our own sinful nature tempt us to think more about the money that we could save and less about what God’s will is for them. Every day we hear the argument that such people should be allowed to (or even encouraged to) die as quickly as possible at the hands of a doctor.

11.     There are also times when it is sin itself which prevents us from seeing the value in another (or even in ourselves). When a person has made bad decisions and broken God’s Law, we are often tempted to think that God loves them less because of it. And then we end up loving them less as a result. Make no mistake, the woman who gets pregnant out of wedlock, the young girl who in desperation ended her child’s life, and the homeless addict are all still precious to the Lord who knitted each one of them together in their mother’s womb.

12.     Should we try to deny the value of any human being for any reason, we need only to think of the price that God was willing to pay to redeem and save us, who have been broken by sin. St. Paul said, “You are not your own, for you were bought with a price” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). Just what was that price? St. Peter said that you were ransomed from your sins, “not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ” (1 Peter 1:18-19). The Second Person of the Trinity, the only-begotten Son of God, became man. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and allowed Himself to be knitted together in Mary’s womb. The Son of God was born and grew and lived like every man and woman broken by sin so that He might shed His blood and lay down His life for every man and woman broken by sin.

13.     God was willing to pay the ultimate price for us. He humbled Himself and underwent every stage of human life and development from the womb to the grave to ransom His precious creation in any and every condition or stage of development. He was conceived and grew in Mary’s womb to sanctify and save all those in the womb. Jesus lived in the flesh and “took our illnesses and bore our diseases” (Matthew 8:17) to redeem the sick and broken. He bore the shame of the cross to grant peace to those weighed down by the shame of their own poor choices. He laid down His own life to give eternal life to all the dying.

14.     By His own self-giving, God has atoned for the sins of the whole world, and He has reaffirmed the value of every single human life that He has created. You, who were fearfully and wonderfully made by God, have been re-created by Christ. You have been washed in the blood of His Son through the waters of Holy Baptism and have been given new life in Him, a life that will never end. St. Paul writes, “He saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit … so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life” (Titus 3:5, 7).

15.     Your failure to love God above all things and your reluctance to see the value in every person is forgiven. That forgiveness was won at the cross, delivered in your Baptism, promised to you by God’s Word, and confirmed for you by the crucified and risen body and blood of Jesus which you receive at the altar. And though your body will weaken and give way to physical decay and death, it will be raised again to live with God without corruption for all eternity.

16.     And what Jesus has done for you, He offers to all. As Christ has given us this new life in Him, He calls and empowers us to live like Him. Even though sin still dwells in our flesh, God is working in His children to refashion His image in us. Your heart and mind are being renewed day by day to love like Jesus loves and to think like Jesus thinks. Your eyes are being opened to see to all others—the unborn, the weak and aged, the sick and dying, the guilty and shamed—the way that Jesus sees them. He sees them as He sees you, as His masterpiece, wonderfully and fearfully created and recreated by Him to live with Him and the Father and the Holy Spirit now and forever. Amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, until life everlasting. Amen.

 

“Jesus Is the Real Contender” Isaiah 42.1–9 Baptism of Lord Jan. ‘26

 

1.                 Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. The message from God’s Word as we celebrate the Baptism of our Lord is taken from Isaiah 42:1-9, it’s entitled, “Jesus is the Read Contender,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

2.                 Promised the world, delivered an atlas. That was the frustrated summary of a hotel guest who trusted glossy advertising but received disappointment instead. The room wasn’t right. The food was worse. The promises were big; the delivery was small. And that, dear friends, is often how life works when our hope is placed in pretenders. Much worse than a ruined vacation was the story reported by NBC News a number of years ago about Keith Allen Barton—a man who claimed to cure cancer and HIV with alternative treatments. He wore the title “doctor,” but he was no physician. He offered hope to desperate people and delivered heartbreak, financial ruin, and even death. Those who trusted him discovered too late that he was not the real thing.

3.                 Isaiah 42 was spoken into a world full of pretenders like that—false gods, false hopes, false saviors. And into that shattered landscape of disappointment, the Lord speaks one clear word: “Behold, my servant.” Not another idol. Not another empty promise. Not another false contender.

4.                 Jesus is the Real Contender. The Lord’s Servant Who Is Set Apart from the Pretenders. Isaiah 41 ends with God exposing the idols for what they are—nothing. They cannot act. They cannot speak truth. They cannot tell the future. They deliver confusion and emptiness. Then comes the contrast: “Behold, my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights” (Isaiah 42:1).

5.                 God does not ask Israel to shop around for hope. He does not invite them to compare options. He points. Here is my Servant. The people of Isaiah’s day had many places to look for hope. Kings. Armies. Political alliances. False gods like Baal or Marduk. Or simply themselves. All pretenders. And nothing has changed.

6.                 As one Lutheran theologian, my seminary professor Rev. Reed Lessing has put it, an idol is anything we believe will give us what only God can give—meaning, security, identity, worth. Or, more simply, whatever we believe we cannot live without. This week, what felt more necessary: prayer or your paycheck? Worship or your schedule? God’s Word or your phone? The danger of idols isn’t merely disappointment. It’s destruction. False hopes don’t just fail—they enslave. And when they collapse, they leave nothing but guilt, despair, and fear. That is why God says, “No. Not that. Here.”

7.                 This Servant, our Savior Jesus, is set apart. He is chosen. He is righteous. He is upheld by God Himself. And most clearly, He is anointed with the Holy Spirit. At the Jordan River, when Jesus is baptized, heaven opens. The Spirit descends like a dove. The Father speaks: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” That voice echoes Isaiah 42. This is the Servant. This is the One. This is no pretender.

8.                 The Lord’s Servant Is Different from the Pretenders. The false contenders of the world are loud. They advertise. They demand loyalty. They promise quick results. But this Servant is different. “He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice” (Isaiah 42:2). Jesus does not sell Himself. He gives Himself. He stands silent before Pilate. He does not defend Himself against false accusations. He does not manipulate or coerce. He walks the path the Father has set, confident that God’s Word does not fail.

9.                 And listen carefully to how He treats the broken: “A bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench” (Isaiah 42:3). That is pure Gospel. This Servant does not crush the weak. He does not shame the sinner. He does not discard the doubter. If your conscience is bruised by guilt… If your faith feels like it’s barely flickering… If you are weary, worn down, or ashamed… He does not say, “Try harder.” He does not say, “Come back when you’re stronger.” He comes to you. He binds you up. He speaks forgiveness. That is what makes Him different from every pretender who ever lived.

10.             The Lord’s Servant Shines Above the Pretenders Finally, this Servant shines above all others because He actually does what He promises. “I will give you as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon” (Isaiah 42:6–7). False gods imprison. False hopes enslave. Sin always tightens its grip. But this Servant sets free.

11.             One young man named Tyler knows this well. He sits in prison, living with the consequences of his actions. He knows what it is to have no control—told when to eat, when to move, when to sleep. And yet, through Christ, he has discovered freedom. He learned that spiritual bondage is far worse than iron bars. Sin controls. Sin commands. Sin destroys. But Jesus—the Real Contender—breaks chains. As one popular contemporary Christian song sings, “He’s the chain breaker.” It’s a song by Christian artist Zach Williams and it’s all about Jesus breaking the chains of sin, fear, and shame. If hymns wore boots, this one would scuff the floor a bit. Zach Williams sings in the song: “If you've been walking the same old road For miles and miles
If you've been hearing the same old voice Tell the same old lies If you're trying to fill the same old holes inside
There's a better life, there's a better life. If you've got pain, He's a pain-taker. If you feel lost, He's a way maker. If you need freedom or saving, He's a prison-shaking Savior. If you got chains, He's a chain breaker… Oh, if you need freedom (freedom) or saving (saving). He's a prison-shaking Savior. If you got chains, oh, He's a chain breaker.”

12.             Dear friends in Christ. Jesus died for the forgiveness of your sins, and He victoriously rose from the dead. Christ sets prisoners free. Tyler was baptized behind bars, yet given true liberty—the freedom of forgiveness, righteousness, and new life in Christ. That promise was not just for him. It was for you.

13.             Conclusion: God the Father has Promised His Servant, and Delivered the World. The world promises much and delivers little. Sin promises pleasure and delivers shame. Idols promise life and deliver death. But God promised His Servant—and delivered salvation. At the Jordan River, Jesus stepped into the water not because He needed repentance, but because you did. He stood where sinners stand, so that sinners might stand where He belongs—declared righteous, forgiven, beloved. This is the One God delights in. This is the One anointed with the Spirit. This is the One who does not fail. Jesus is the Real Contender. And He has delivered exactly what He promised. Amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, until life everlasting. Amen.