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Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. Please be seated.
During the Advent and Christmas seasons, we hear a lot from the prophet Isaiah. Especially we hear about his prophecies about the coming Messiah, the chosen, anointed one of God to come into our world to free it from the oppression of sin. We heard that today in the Old Testament reading. We heard from Isaiah bringing good news, binding up the brokenhearted, proclaiming liberty to the captives, comforting those who are mourning, and proclaiming the year of the Lord’s favor.
Now the first audience that Isaiah spoke to were the Israelites around 700 BC or so. And the book of Isaiah seems to be in two parts. The first part or the first 39 chapters tell about how the Israelites were disobeying God, how they were treating others badly, and even worshiping false gods and idols. And these sins would eventually lead them to being overrun by another country and taken into captivity. The first 39 chapters of Isaiah are pretty much bad news. Bad news about what’s going to happen to them, about their captivity, about how they would be heartbroken about this and be in mourning about that, having lost everything: their city, their nation, their families, their friends, their temple, seeming also to lose favor with God. That’s the bad news section of Isaiah, the first 39 chapters.
But then chapters 40 to 66, including our Old Testament reading today from chapter 61, are mostly good news, telling the Israelites how they would be freed from captivity, they would return to their land, rebuild their temple, and seem to have God’s favor again. So, it’s easy to imagine just how good that news sounded to the Israelites. The good news that they heard when their world seemed to be collapsing and they were just on a road of destruction and captivity and mourning and brokenheartedness. Yeah, it was very good news back then. And it’s good news for us today. But not just because it comes from Isaiah. Yeah, Isaiah back then was anointed and chosen to bring this good news. But wait, there’s more, okay? Someone greater than Isaiah was coming. Someone else was going to proclaim God’s favor.
Isaiah often prophesied about who this was, this coming, again, chosen, anointed Messiah. Of course, we know that turned out to be Jesus. And Jesus, at one point, read these verses and applied them to Himself. He did this in Luke chapter 4; you can read it there. When Jesus is in a synagogue on a Sabbath day meeting and he gets up in front of everybody and reads these verses from Isaiah chapter 61. And when he was done reading them, he says to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” And then the people tried to throw him off a cliff. Not such good news, right?
Yeah, Jesus claimed these verses are me. I am the chosen, anointed one to do these things: to bring good news, to bind up the brokenhearted, to comfort those who mourn, and to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor. And it’s good news for us because Jesus has fulfilled that prophecy. He’s the chosen, anointed Messiah that Isaiah and all of the Old Testament was saying was going to come, who was going to come and do these things. It’s good news for us. But I want us to step back just a little bit so that we can see why this is such good news for us.
Again, Isaiah, he brought bad news to the Israelites too. There’s 39 chapters of bad news that he has for the Israelites, and that is also bad news for us. What he was saying to them applies to us because like the Israelites, we too sometimes disobey God. We treat people badly. We worship the false god of ourself, making our desires like idols that we’re pursuing. We worry, we lie, we cheat, we steal; we commit sins in our actions, in our words, and even in our thoughts.
And our sin can leave us feeling brokenhearted and bound and captive to sin. Maybe you know what that’s like. You’re stuck in your sin; you’re involved in doing some sort of sin that you can’t shake. You can’t shake the shame or the guilt of it; you feel captive, like in prison to it, bound by it. Well, there is good news for you and not just from Isaiah, but, again, from Jesus himself. Because he’s the one. He’s the anointed and chosen one who comes to bring good news. He’s the one who brings it. He’s the one who binds up broken hearts. He’s the one who frees captives and comforts those who mourn. He’s the one who forgives sin. He’s the one who forgives your sin. And he does this by his suffering and his death. That is good news.
It’s not that Jesus just proclaims good news, but he brings it in what he’s done for us. Something else Isaiah said about the coming Messiah, he said this: he has borne our griefs, carried our sorrows; he was pierced for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds, we are healed. This is what Jesus went through to bring you this good news.
And Jesus knows all about bad news. He knows all about being captive, and being abused, and being falsely arrested, and beaten, and spit on, and killed. He knows what it’s like to be brokenhearted. He knows bad news, and he’s an expert in good news. Again, Jesus doesn’t just proclaim good news, but he brings it and gives it by what he’s done. By that birth, life, death, and resurrection, Jesus brings good news because really, he is the good news. And His death and His resurrection, that’s the best news that a sinner could ever hear.
No matter what you’ve done, no matter what you feel captive to, or in prison in, or shame or guilt that you can’t shake, no, there is forgiveness. Christ has done so much to make that happen for you so that it is good news. In the bad news of your sin, there is the good news of Jesus, and he proclaims the year of the Lord’s favor.
Now, that sounds like a good one for this year, right? 2020 is the year of the Lord’s favor? This seems to be more like a bad news kind of year, right? I mean, everything is going on: COVID, racial tension, civil unrest, political conflict, hurricanes, coin shortages, murder hornets, toilet paper hoarding. It goes on and on, doesn’t it? This is a year that we don’t want people to say, “How do we want to remember 2020?” Who wants to remember it, right? We’d rather just throw this thing up and feel better about it. This seems like a world today that is just full of captivity. And we’re mourning. We’re full of broken hearts. It doesn’t seem like the Lord’s favor at all.
But no, this is still the year of the Lord’s favor. It’s still a time of good news. Again, Jesus brings good news because He is the good news. And the favor of the Lord doesn’t depend on the events of the world. The favor of the Lord doesn’t depend on what’s going on in the world. The favor of the Lord depends on the events of Jesus Christ and what He’s done. God, that will always be good news no matter what is going on in whatever year. His birth, His death, and His resurrection are God’s favor all the time. God’s favor doesn’t depend on what’s going on in the world. God’s favor depends on His love for you in Christ.
Even in 2020, maybe especially in 2020, there is the good news of Jesus and he still brings it. And we followers of Jesus, we know that, right? We know the peace and the comfort that Jesus brings; we know the good news of Jesus, but there are so many people out there that don’t. And you probably know them: family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, classmates, you know, whatever. People that feel just brokenhearted right now. They’re captive, or they’re mourning the events of this year.
Now all they know is bad news. I quit watching the news because it was just all bad. Instead of watching the news, I’m going to read the Bible. I’m going to read some good news, hey? In a recent Gallup poll on assessing mental health over this past year, it showed a decrease from 43% of Americans to 34% who said that their mental health is excellent. And I took this poll asking people, “How would you rate your mental health this past year?” Only 34% said that it was excellent, down 11 points, and that’s the lowest in two decades.
But there was one demographic group that showed an increase in their excellent mental health. One demographic group, and those were people who attend a religious service weekly. It was up four percentage points. Everything else was negative, was down—only one. And again, we know the value of that. We know the value of consistent connection with the giver of good news. We hear that good news here. When we confess our sins, we hear the words of absolution. And then, even better, the good news is put into your hand and into your mouth in Christ’s body and blood, given and shed for you. Again, we know the value of that.
And I can tell you that this past semester at University of Lutheran, we were able to worship in person. I mean, it’s good to be a small congregation these days, right? We were still able to worship in person, and that proved to be a huge, huge blessing to our students because church was the only time consistently throughout a week that they were around any other students at all. It was really, truly a sanctuary for them, especially to hear the good news during these difficult times, and again, we know that.
But there are people out there who don’t. Let’s tell them. Tell those with broken hearts that need that comfort of Jesus, those that need freedom from the captivity of their anxiety of these days. Tell them that there’s Jesus; there’s good news for them too. Invite them to St. Paul, maybe especially at a Christmas Eve service, or help them connect online or in person with one of our Bible studies that are offered. We’ve got a really good pastor here. Let’s help connect other people to his teaching here.
We have really caring people in this church. Church, let’s help connect people out there that don’t know that good news. The one who, when he was born, the angel said to the shepherds, “I bring you good news of great joy to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor,” especially to those that don’t know it right now.
So throughout Advent and Christmas, may it be the good news of Jesus that captivates you, that frees you from the anxiety of this world and of your sins, as we rejoice in celebrating his birth. In his name, Amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
