Isaiah 42:18-25

Hear, you deaf! And look, you blind, that you may see.  Who is blind but My servant, Or so deaf as My messenger whom I send?  Who is so blind as he that is at peace with Me, Or so blind as the servant of the LORD?  You have seen many things, but you do not observe them; Your ears are open, but none hears.  The LORD was pleased for His righteousness' sake To make the law great and glorious.  But this is a people plundered and despoiled; All of them are trapped in caves, Or are hidden away in prisons; They have become a prey with none to deliver them, And a spoil, with none to say, "Give them back!"  Who among you will give ear to this? Who will give heed and listen hereafter?  Who gave Jacob up for spoil, and Israel to plunderers?  Was it not the LORD, against whom we have sinned, And in whose ways they were not willing to walk, And whose law they did not obey?  So He poured out on him the heat of His anger And the fierceness of battle; And it set him aflame all around, Yet he did not recognize it; And it burned him, but he paid no attention.

Sermon for Lenten Wednesday #2                                           02/21/24

The Servant of Isaiah

The Servant Suffers for Sin

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ:

The song was called "Everything is Beautiful".  The line from the song is,  "There are none so blind as he who will not see."  The line of the song sounds as if it could have been about the Servant of the Lord.  The difference is that the Prophet is speaking about a sort of blindness of the Servant of the Lord that both leads to and flows from forgiveness.  Our theme this evening is "The Servant Suffers for Sin".

Oddly enough, being blind and deaf is not entirely a bad thing in our text.  It is an unfortunate condition, even spiritually, but God promises wonderful things for the blind and deaf.  Just before our text, Isaiah says that God will rescue the blind and make the darkness light for them.  He promises and then says that He will not fail to do these things for them.  Then our text begins with the invitation – and command – that the deaf hear and the blind see!  These prophecies are why Jesus healed the blind and the deaf.  He wasn't just being a nice guy, He was identifying Himself as the Servant who was going to bear our sins and suffer such awful things.

But the promise in our text was not merely about physical sight and hearing.  Isaiah says, about the people Israel, "You have seen many things, but you do not observe them; Your ears are open, but none hears." This is a spiritual issue.  The people of Israel have seen and heard the Word of God and yet they act as if they had not.  They do not seem to recognize the promises nor do they trust God in spite of all that He has done for them and spoken to them.  They are spiritually blind and deaf.  Even the threats of disaster have fallen on deaf ears, as they say.  The troubles which God has inflicted on them to awaken them to the danger of their situation does not make them see or understand.

Then comes the Servant of God in the prophecy.  He comes to take their weaknesses and failures and sins, and so He is blind and deaf too.   It is not the same deafness, for the Servant knows God and trusts in Him.  But that is the nature of His blindness.  Who is blind but My servant, Or so deaf as My messenger whom I send?  Who is so blind as he that is at peace with Me, Or so blind as the servant of the LORD?  The Servant is at peace with God, and trusts in God, even while He is carrying the guilt of the nation and the sins of the whole world before God, and even though He will receive from the hands of God the punishment due those sins.

Still, the Servant trusts God and is at peace with God as though He does not know what is coming.  It is the mirror image of the blindness of the people. They do not see or hear the love of God or His goodness, and the Servant acts as though He does not see the wrath of God about to fall on Him.  The blindness of the people leads them into greater sin while the blindness of the Servant leads Him into even more glorious righteousness.  The LORD was pleased for His righteousness' sake To make the law great and glorious.  Those words speak about the righteousness of Christ, perfect righteousness, which keeps the whole law.  That holiness lifts up the Law and makes it glorious!  It is in the face of that perfect holiness that the Servant will die, bearing sins that were not His own.

He died for us because we could not rescue ourselves.  But this is a people plundered and despoiled; All of them are trapped in caves, Or are hidden away in prisons; They have become a prey with none to deliver them, And a spoil, with none to say, "Give them back!"  We had no hope in and of ourselves, there was no way for us to redeem or rescue ourselves.  That is what Isaiah is saying here.  We all stood guilty before the Lord, "Who gave Jacob up for spoil, and Israel to plunderers?  Was it not the LORD, against whom we have sinned, And in whose ways they were not willing to walk, And whose law they did not obey?"  Because of our stubborn blindness and deafness we stood justly condemned before the bar of divine justice.  God Himself is our adversary at law.

But the Servant stepped in, blind to the wrath of God and deaf to the warnings of danger.  It was on His own Servant that the Lord poured out His wrath over sin.  So He poured out on him the heat of His anger And the fierceness of battle; And it set him aflame all around, Yet he did not recognize it; And it burned him, but he paid no attention.  The sinless Servant suffered for sinful man.  He endured the wrath of God and agonies of hell to be the One who rescues.  He has become the One who delivers the helpless people and the One to demand that they be given back to the loving care of God the Father, and the One to stop God's people from being prey for the wicked.

Who is so blind that He is at peace with the Lord?  It is the Servant of the Lord.  Jesus had absolute peace with His Father, trusting Him implicitly and explicitly, and doing so in the face of what He knew lay ahead of Him.  He faced God's wrath over against our sins, and still trusted in God and walked faithfully before Him all the days of His life and even on the cross.  That is the blindness of the Servant – the willful blindness of One who sees clearly but refuses to turn either to the left or to the right.  He trusts God and loves God and walks deliberately and unflinchingly into the suffering appointed for Sin.  There are none so blind as He who will not see.  Who is so blind . . . as the servant of the LORD?

 
The Servant of God, Jesus Christ our Lord, suffered just as Isaiah said He would for our sin and rebellion.  We consider that glorious, willful blindness on our behalf this Lenten Wednesday.  Isaiah asks, "Who among you will give ear to this? Who will give heed and listen hereafter?"  We answer, we will!  After all, faith comes by hearing.  The story of ancient Israel was the story of a people who would not hear, who were deaf to God by choice.  That deafness had to be answered by another deafness – the sort that refused to be turned away from God by anything.  And because our Lord was that Servant, He did not listen to the fears or allow Himself to be frightened from His task by what He saw or suffered, and the Servant of God suffered for our sins that we might be saved.  God grant that you hear and believe and give thanks today.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
(Let the people say Amen)