04/17 (Praise(Day)) – Isaiah 25:6-9 – Return and See

Alleluia!
Christ is risen!

He is risen indeed!
Alleluia!

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our risen Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

This is Easter! What a wonderful day to come together and to see all God has done for us in Christ. Through Jesus we are given: the forgiveness He offers for you; the salvation He won for you; the life He has secured for you.

Throughout this season of Lent, we have been going through a series focused on God’s call for His people to return to the Lord. We have heard some of the most egregious sins committed during Jesus’ Passion, Jesus’ time of suffering, and we have considered our own sinfulness, and been reminded of God’s call to return. We have been comforted by the Word that our God is “gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love,” and most of all that “He relents over disaster.¹” Our attention keeps coming back to Jesus and the sacrifice He made to reconcile us to God the Father. Today, it all comes together as Jesus is risen from the dead and invites His disciples to come and see Him.

Why? Because when they see Jesus risen from the dead, they will begin to understand the significance of everything He has been doing over the last three years. They will start “to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.²” And that realization will lead them to share this Good News with others, that they, too, might come to know “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding.³”

But first, let’s back up a bit and listen to Isaiah as he looks into the future to give us a picture of heaven.

On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined. ⁴

What a vivid picture he paints. A joyful gathering of people “from all tribes and peoples and languages.⁵”

And in this gathering, the Lord of hosts has “swallowed the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations.⁶” This says nothing less than that the Lord has taken away death and taken away the consequence of sin that would otherwise mean eternal separation from God.

It sounds pretty amazing, doesn’t it? We read Isaiah’s account, we picture its fulfillment, and we long to be there.

But how? Because there is a stain cast over all people because “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.⁷” This stain covers you. You can’t wash it off. You can’t remove it. You are trapped beneath it. Your sinful nature clings to you so stubbornly you cannot possibly peal yourself of it. You know you. You know it. Your conscience cries out against you and your thoughts accuse you every waking moment.⁸ It seems impossible.

We all know this and we ask with the disciples: “Who then can be saved?”

Jesus gives the answer: “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.⁹”

God sent His own Son to deal with this problem. He has provided everything we need.

He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.¹⁰”

God stepped in and made it possible. In Jesus your sin is forgiven. In Jesus your salvation is secure. In Jesus you “have an advocate with the Father.¹¹” One who is perfectly righteous. An advocate, a counselor, a lawyer, who lived a perfect life and then offered His own righteousness for you, and took your sins in return. This comes to you though the Means of Grace. Those means by which God comes to you and for you.

He has clothed you with, a white robe washed in the blood of the Lamb,¹² in return for your own filthy garments.¹³

Through Holy Baptism, Jesus has wrapped you in the robe of His own righteousness, which covers all your sin.¹⁴

You have a seat at this Sacred Table! You are invited to this Holy Feast!

Isaiah speaks our heart’s our response:

I will greatly rejoice in the Lord;
my soul shall exult in my God,
for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation;
He has covered me with the robe of righteousness.¹⁵

That very morning Jesus walked out from the tomb, resurrected from the dead, fully alive, and His first task was to invite the disciples to Galilee, to come and see. This very morning, He extends the same invitation to you. Come and see! Come and look on the One who was pierced and see, the plan of salvation has been completed. Come and see what He has in store for you: Your own resurrection! Your very life eternal! Come and see!

But how? Where?

For the disciples, the answer was simple. Go to Galilee. Go to the mountain where you will find Me. So they did. They came to that mountain and worshiped at Jesus’ feet and He gave them a task. It was simple, but profoundly important. Go tell.

You have come. You have seen. You have worshiped. Now go tell.

Go and make disciples of all nations, Baptizing them in th e name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.¹⁶

You might say, “But we don’t have a mountain.” Jesus still says, “Come to Me.” We stand like Thomas at the Last Supper, questioning Jesus. “How can we know the way?¹⁷”

God gives us the way: It is His Holy Word for you. His Holy Baptism for you. His Holy Supper for you. His Church for you. Seek the Lord while He may be found and call on Him when He is near.¹⁸ That is to say, we know where to find Jesus, because God’s promise, and His Word, make clear where to find Him. You will always find Jesus in:

the assembly of all believers among whom the Gospel is purely preached and the Holy Sacraments are rightly administered according to the Gospel.¹⁹

Where two or three are gathered in Jesus’ name²⁰” there He is among them.

We come to this place because it is here we see Jesus. We gaze on the cross of His crucifixion and ponder the penalty for our sins, which He willingly took. We can see Him reach down and claim His own in Holy Baptism. We can “taste and see that the Lord is good²¹” as we receive Jesus’ very precious Body and Blood in, with, and under the bread and wine of Holy Communion. It is here you can see Him.

So we do, but then what? It is no different for us, than it was for the disciples:
Come and see.
Go and tell.

Isaiah’s words are magnificent here:

Behold, this is our God;
we have waited for Him, that He might save us.
This is the Lord; we have waited for Him;
let us be glad and rejoice in His salvation.²²

That is the pattern Jesus lays out for the Christian life:
We trust.
We wait,

He acts.
We rejoice.

We share the news with others.

So simple.
So powerful!

Today, as you have now come and seen the salvation won for you by your Lord and Savior, may you now be moved to go out into the world and share with others what you have seen. Be glad. Rejoice in Him. Share your great good fortune with the whole world you touch. Proclaiming always:

Alleluia!
Christ is risen!

He is risen indeed!
Alleluia!

And may the peace of God, which surpasses all human understanding, keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.²³

Amen.

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