St. Matthew’s Ev. Lutheran Church + Benton Harbor, Michigan

The First Sunday after the Epiphany, January 9, 2000

Isaiah 42:1-7

“Behold, the Servant of the Lord”

By Pastor Timothy H. Buelow

“Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations. ² He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets. ³ A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice; ⁴ he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth. In his law the islands will put their hope.” ⁵ This is what God the lord says—he who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and all that comes out of it, who gives breath to its people, and life to those who walk on it: ⁶ “I, the lord, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, ⁷ to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.”

Dear Friends in Christ, the Day of your baptism was very special. You probably don’t remember it like you do other significant days—confirmation, your wedding day and the like—but it could arguably be called the most significant day in your life. On your baptism day you were anointed one of God’s priests. Professor Habeck used to tell us at the Seminary that our baptismal certificate was the most important piece of paper we could ever hang on our walls as pastors, because it is our baptism that made us priests of God and qualified us to serve him.

Jesus’ baptism day was equally significant in his ministry. That’s the day he was commissioned as the special Servant of the Lord. Today we want to look at this so-called “Servant Song” from Isaiah, and see 1. How 1. Jesus Was Anointed the Lord’s Servant, 2. What The Servant’s Task was to be, and finally, we can learn a lot about our Savior by observing 3. His Methodology.

1. Jesus Was Anointed the Lord’s Servant

“Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations.” When David was anointed king a thousand years before Christ, the prophet Samuel poured oil on his head, to show everyone that the Lord had chosen him for this office and to signify the blessings of the Spirit being poured out on him. In Isaiah 42, God promises to do the same thing for his chosen Servant.

Through all their history the Jews were waiting for the Messiah, and do you know what “Messiah” means? It means “the anointed One,” the one whom God designates as his chosen Servant. That’s what the title “Christ” means too. Messiah is Hebrew and Christ is Greek, but otherwise they’re the same word.

When Samuel anointed David, as we said, it was to be king of Israel. Jesus was anointed to be the everlasting King of kings. But he was also anointed into two other offices at the same time. He was anointed our High Priest, to offer himself as the sacrifice for our sins. And He was anointed our Prophet, to tell us the Good News from God, that our sins would be forgiven. Jesus was the only one ever to hold all three of those positions. He still holds them. As our King he rules all things for the good of us, his Church. He still gives us his Word by sending us ministers. And he still serves as our High Priest by interceding for us at the right hand of the Father.

We, too were anointed by God at our baptisms. But something different happened when we were baptized. In our baptism our sins were washed away and we were given faith. Jesus, of course, was without sin. John the Baptist “tried to deter him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?’” Just as John needed to be baptized by Jesus, so do we. Born in sin, born children of perdition, we need to be made children of God. That’s what God does in baptism. He adopts us as his children. He gives us a second birth unto eternal life.

But in another way, our baptism is the same as Jesus’ baptism. As he was anointed into his office as the Servant of the Lord, we too were anointed by our baptism to be God’s servants. The prophet Malachi foretold [3:3] “He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; he will purify the Levites—the priests—and refine them like gold and silver. Then the Lord will have men who will bring offerings in righteousness.” With those words he meant us, of whom Peter wrote: “you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

Through our baptism, we have been anointed into the New Testament priesthood. Jesus is our High Priest, under whom we serve, and through whom all our sacrifices of praise, imperfect though they are, are nonetheless made acceptable in the sight of God.

2. The Servant’s Task

When Jesus was anointed as the Lord’s Servant, the tasks laid out for him to perform had already been determined and outlined from the beginning of time. Our text, the Servant Song of Isaiah 42 summarizes his Messianic task for us in this way. ^1b “He will bring justice to the nations. … ^3b In faithfulness he will bring forth justice; ⁴ he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth. In his law the islands will put their hope.”

The word “justice” really sticks out in those verses. The Servant’s task is to establish justice. What’s meant by those words? Was the Servant to be a new law-giver? Were all his followers to be perfect, just people? If that’s the case, then Jesus was a colossal failure. He was unjustly condemned and crucified. His early followers were persecuted. All his followers to this day, ourselves included, are sinners who do not always do the just and right thing, and much injustice still reigns in the Western world, which used to be known as “Christendom.”

No Jesus wasn’t a failure as God’s Servant. What Isaiah foretold here, is that Jesus, the Servant of the Lord will take the truth of God’s Word, the Gospel through which Old Testament Israelites were justified and forgiven, and he will bring that Gospel to the nations, the Gentiles, until people all over the world have heard and believe in him and are forgiven and justified. You see, Jesus has not failed in his mission. The righteous way, the way of righteousness has been carried to the Gentiles, to the nations. People even on far away “islands put their hope” in him. And something interesting happened as the way of forgiveness through the cross spread to the nations. Believers didn’t treat each other like wild savages and barbarians anymore. Where the cross went, civilization followed. Wherever faith dies out, crime rises. All because those who truly believe in Jesus and trust that through faith in his blood all their sins are forgiven, there people also strive to “love their neighbors as themselves,” and even to “love their enemies.”

But even Christians are far from perfect at this high art. That’s why forgiveness through Jesus remains and always will remain the only way to get to heaven. Through Isaiah the Lord outlines the most fundamental part of the Servant’s task. ⁶ “I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, ⁷ to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.”

Jesus is our Covenant. God made his wonderful covenant with us when we were baptized. On that day he made us into his chosen people. And he renews his covenant with us every time we partake of “the new covenant in his blood” in Holy Communion. He took us out of the blindness of unbelief so we could see the Saving truth. So many unbelievers today demonstrate how imprisoning their unbelief is. It’s hard to even get someone to think of the fact that they will die one day and face the judgment. “I don’t care, I don’t want to hear about it,” so many feel. It’s like the heard of pigs in the region of the Gadarenes, that plunged headlong over the cliff and died together. Nevertheless, Jesus is still able “to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.” We know that, because he has already done so for us.

3. The Servant’s Methodology

Finally, The Servant Song of Isaiah spells out the Methodology the Servant will use to accomplish this work. ² He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets. ³ A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice.

Today a lot of churches would like to disagree with Jesus’ approach. Megachurches and would-be megachurches throw out real Christian worship and replace it with pop concerts or plays or circuses—anything to try to attract entertainment-saturated people. That may attract people, but not to the real kingdom of God, where the true God speaks through the still, small voice of the Gospel to people who are weary and burdened by sin. Jesus did not come like a politician or circus act. He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets. Jesus came as a Good Shepherd. He doesn’t attract sheep by entertaining them, or by screaming at them, but by gently calling them by the Gospel. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. The real church is not made up of “super-saints” who are all wonderful, successful people. There are those in the real church who fall into sin, who have to be reminded to come to church and Bible class. A good look at St. Matthew’s tells you this is the real church, complete with bruised reeds and smoldering wicks. We’re the kind of people who need a gently-speaking, forgiving Savior. We’re bruised, each in his own way, and our faith flames are not always flaring brightly. We need Jesus, the gentle Servant of the Lord.

And as we faithfully serve as his fellow baptized and anointed servants, as his royal priests, we’re going to use the same approach. We’re going to continue to consistently and persistently call out to people with the Word of God, calling sinners to repentance and assuring the penitent of forgiveness. As faithful Servants of Jesus we’ll never turn our services into a street circus. May we let the voice of Jesus gently speak through liturgy and Word and song. May we serve him faithfully as baptized priests, anointed members of his new covenant. Amen.