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Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the text comes from the Old Testament reading. You may be seated. In recent memory, or in long-term memory, have you ever been stuck or trapped in a situation where it seemed that there was no way out?
Yesterday, I was on the phone with an army buddy of mine with whom I deployed, and he is stuck or trapped in a situation in the care of his father. His father has acute Alzheimer’s, and he was telling me that some days his father doesn’t even remember his own name. On other days, he tells me his father thinks that he is his brother who played football for Notre Dame. Being stuck in a situation like that or trapped leaves you feeling, and leaves him feeling, very despondent and hopeless.
And it doesn’t have to be in the care of someone. It can be in work, financial situations, your children, your family members. It can be any and all kinds of things that leave you very trapped and cut off. You pray for a release, as he is, and as all of us do, we pray for a release. And then, when the release that you and I have been praying for does come, typically it comes in a manner and form that seems totally counterintuitive. It doesn’t seem to make sense, or maybe we should say it another way. God’s rescue is greater than we could imagine, and God’s rescue is more than either you or I deserve.
The people of Israel have been stuck in Babylon for decades. They would be inside the city of Babylon for 70 years. Only the grandchildren that were from the original people that were exiled there were the ones that actually left and came back to the promised land. Now, the city of Babylon was the most fortified city in the entire world at that time. The city was surrounded by an inner wall which was 21 feet thick— that’s like two pews side by side.
Twenty-one feet thick was the inner wall. The outer wall was about 11 feet thick. That’s about one of those long pews wide. And then, around that outer wall was a traditional literal moat, deep water that would keep anyone from attacking and bridging the walls. Around all of that wall were watchtowers every 60 feet. And the gates— well, the gates, as the text said, were not gates of wood. They were gates of bronze. Something that you can’t build a fire underneath and think you can burn. Something that you can’t take a large sword or pickaxe and think that you can whittle it away. These were the gates that enclosed the people of Israel in the city of Babylon.
So, given that kind of fortification and the people praying for rescue, how would God rescue them? Amen. God would only rescue them as he only would rescue you in a way that shows him to be the God of all. God’s plan of rescuing the people of Israel showed forth that he is the God of all kings, no matter who they are and no matter how nefarious they may be. He is the God of all kingdoms, no matter how powerful and mighty they may seem. God raised up another pagan king in a nearby country.
And not only did he raise up that pagan king named Cyrus in a nearby country, but he raised an entire kingdom surrounding that pagan king known as the Persians. God raised up that king and that kingdom for one purpose: for his people of Israel to be freed by him. He wrote, “I will raise up Cyrus in my righteousness. He will set my exiles free.”
Now, when Cyrus and the Persians came against the world’s most fortified city, you would think it would be an all-out Custer’s Last Stand type of battle, but it wasn’t. The people of Babylon did something very unexpected. Literally, they just opened their gates and gave up. God’s rescue was greater than any that they could imagine, and God’s gift of rescue was greater than they deserved. Amen.
Such an unexpected rescue for such undeserving people is what Isaiah proclaims about over and over in his book for you. For whenever you feel trapped in your own guilt because of your sin, God proclaims to you, “Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be made whiter than snow,” promising you a cleansing that no launderer’s soap can do.
When you are stuck in your gloom and doom because of your sin, he proclaims to you, “You who are walking in darkness have seen a great light,” the light of Jesus Christ that illumines all darkness. When dryness and deadness seem to continually stand in your way, either because of your sin or someone else’s sin, your Lord proclaims to you, “I will turn your desert into pools of water and your parched land into springs.” Where there was nothing but death and dryness, he brings life and green and lush.
Like the Israelites, when you’re surrounded by insurmountable obstacles like those walls, either walls that you’ve created or walls that someone else has created around them, he proclaims what he does with such walls: “Every valley shall be raised up. Every mountain and hill made low. The rough ground shall become level and the rugged places a plain.” When your blindness and your bondage stand in your way because of your sin or someone else’s sin, God’s servant comes and proclaims to you, “I open eyes that are blind. I free captives who are chained. I release those who are in dungeons, sitting in darkness, and bring them out.”
He doesn’t do this, though, with simple words. He does it with action. You know, O God, don’t you? You and you alone know what it’s like. If you’ve ever felt like you’ve had someone lock the door and throw away the key, he knows the feeling. When God locked the door of his affection toward him and threw away the key to hell, so did your Lord go. You know what it’s like to be possessed by your past and how that haunts you at times. He knows what it’s like to be possessed by your past.
And if yours haunts him, think about mine and all of the others with him. That haunts him all the way to hell. If you consider yourselves to be mired in your melee, consider him who drowned in your melee and mine. He knows, doesn’t he? And if ever we think we’re trapped by our transgression or sealed up by our shame, he knows, doesn’t he? Trapped and sealed up so that you can be set free.
Your walls, that either you have built or have been built by someone else, have been broken down by your Jesus. He had become more sin-filled than you because he carried everyone’s sin. And you have been set free. God does these things in ways that are far more miraculous than we could have ever imagined and far more gracious than we ever deserve.
Your Jesus said, “I was dead, and behold, I’m alive forevermore and I hold the keys of death and Hades.” Now, I’m not sure how God’s going to answer the prayer of my friend with his Alzheimer father. And I’m not sure how God’s going to answer your prayer when you’ve cried out to him for that rescue and that release. But I do know this, and so do you. You are not stuck, and you are not locked in with no way out.
Jesus has broken down those gates. Those gates made of bronze and iron and has shattered them. Those gates that are built by your guilt. Jesus has broken down the gates that trap you and trap your loved ones so that they no longer trip you up, torture you, or torment you. And those gates of hell will never prevail against the shed blood of Christ, the baptismal power he’s given you, and the mission of his glorious church, which will never end until the end comes.
Again, God’s rescue is greater than you could imagine and far more than you could ever deserve. And that’s why Jesus said, “If the Son sets you free, you are free indeed.” In the name of Jesus, amen.
The peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds on Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.
