Piercing Love

Introduction/Scripture

Isaiah 49:13–16 NLT

13 Sing for joy, O heavens! Rejoice, O earth! Burst into song, O mountains! For the Lord has comforted his people and will have compassion on them in their suffering. 14 Yet Jerusalem says, “The Lord has deserted us; the Lord has forgotten us.” 15 “Never! Can a mother forget her nursing child? Can she feel no love for the child she has borne? But even if that were possible, I would not forget you! 16 See, I have written your name on the palms of my hands. Always in my mind is a picture of Jerusalem’s walls in ruins.

Pray.

Good morning again and Happy Mother’s day to all. My mom raised three boys and the combination of the us three boys was a potent cocktail. She was the kind of mom that could diagnose a sore throat over the phone from another state. She was always one that was down to listen to all the teenage gossip. My mom gave me my love for the sappy movie and mexican food. She has always been one of my biggest supporters…I remember a soccer game when I was pretty young looking over and seeing her sprint down the sideline as I ran towards the goal…Somehow I scored that goal, because that was a distracting sight to behold. She still cheers me on in ways that I am so grateful.

Did you know we are celebrating a mom this week....Ely Acosta gave birth to a beautiful, healthy boy this week. Jonathan was born Wednesday night/thursday morning.

For many, today is a day of celebrating and honoring the mom’s in our life.

For many this can be a complex and heavy day. There are many in our community that I know woke up this morning dreading the reminder of something heavy. Maybe it is because we have lost our mom, or we desperately want to be a mom, or maybe today is a reminder of the loss of a child, or the reminder that we live in a broken world and relationships break down.

We had a healing and prayer service last Sunday and I was overwhelmed with what people are carrying. Physical pain, illness, cancer, and heartache. By the way, I want to challenge the room here…there will be more invitations to prayer and healing meetings…I hope we will engage with this more seriously. But the remedy for all of the downtrodden is always love.

I chose this text because there is a combination of all these emotions:

love of a mother

celebration

desperation

and the answer of love

Isaiah is a prophet of the people of Israel searching for answers for the difficult world he lives in. Especially by this point in the large book of ascribed to his name.

Now some background of Isaiah:

The prophet is thought to be in ministry about 740 years before Christ and this book comes in the midst of bondage. The northern kingdom of Israel is being led into captivity by the Assyrians and the southern kingdom is headed towards slavery at the hands of the Babylonians. God’s Israel is in a desolate place and his people are crying out to be heard. One scholar describes Isaiah as a man searching for an answer…searching for the answer to their problems. Searching for redemption. In the midst of this desperate situation that is where we find this text in Isaiah.

At an initial glance the rhythm of these verses is confusing. It begins in praise, then quickly drops to the depths of despair.

Isaiah 49:13 NLT

13 Sing for joy, O heavens! Rejoice, O earth! Burst into song, O mountains! For the Lord has comforted his people and will have compassion on them in their suffering.

This is the crying out to praise him. Do not see this as a joyous prayer but more like a desperate cry…repeating what they know of God but unsure if this holds true, this is made clear by verse 14....

Isaiah 49:14 NLT

14 Yet Jerusalem says, “The Lord has deserted us; the Lord has forgotten us.”

In this sense Israel is saying, but I do not feel this way! How can we praise when we are in the position that we are in?! How relevant is this verse to some of our situations? Have we ever gotten to this point where we feel as though God cannot be found. God how can this happen? Where are you in the midst of this garbage? Why have you forsaken me?!

Let me just pause and point out a couple of things for us this morning:

We can stand in our faith and also have doubts

God can handle this honesty

Naming it is the doorstep to healing

Love of a Mother

Then we catch a metaphor that sets it all up for us. God comparing his love to motherhood. Now I want to make something clear here. There are relationships and institutions that God has given us to give us a picture of his love for us. So the love in marriage is a picture of God’s love for the church. Parenting is another snap shot that we have to teach us of God’s love for us. We are broken people and this is a broken world so we do not always live up to this picture. Some here may have experienced brokenness when it comes to a parent, or struggles of being a mother. Just like when some hear God as father, they cringe because of bad relationship. This comparison will transcend that. Take a look.

Isaiah 49:15 NLT

15 “Never! Can a mother forget her nursing child? Can she feel no love for the child she has borne? But even if that were possible, I would not forget you!

This love is like no other. The author is painting a picture for us. The mother loves the baby with everything, even though the baby brings nothing to the relationship at all. They are not a contributing party…they cannot take out the trash or mow the yard. Yet the love is supernatural, it comes from her very being.

This love is inherent and instinctual. Dads in the room, you know what I am talking about....there is some weird magic, this 6th sense, when momma just knows what a child needs or there is something fierce in how momma will advocate and knock down walls for a child.

And why? What have they done to contribute? It is inherent because it is something that is a part of them.

Still even if the analogy breaks down because of brokenness in the world. God will never forget the people of Israel. God will never forget you in the midst of hardship.

but these are only words right? How can this be reassurance for the people of Israel?

Isaiah finds the answer: Piercing Love

The analogy shifts in verse 16. Another image of this love that brings action to the promise.

Isaiah 49:16 NLT

16 See, I have written your name on the palms of my hands. Always in my mind is a picture of Jerusalem’s walls in ruins.

So at first look this seems like another metaphor and here is why: One commentary I read said that it was sometimes true that the servants in the ancient near east would have their master’s name tattooed on their hands. This is to show their devotion, allegiance to the master. But never, never would a master of a servant have their names tattooed on their hands. That would show that the master is devoted to the servant. Well that’s what we have here right? Another beautiful metaphor for God’s love.

But no that is not what it says…it does not say tattooed, it says engraved. That Hebrew word in the verse means to cut into with a hammer and a chisel or a spike.

So think about this…picture it. What would it look like for a man to allow some one to drive a spike through his hands.

Isaiah in his searching finds the answer. In the beginning of the book we see Isaiah experience God in a powerful way in the throne room. An experience that leaves him saying “woe to me, I am unclean.” Then towards the end of the book in chapter 53 he writes these words, hundreds of years before Christ,

Isaiah 53:3–5 NIV

3 He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. 4 Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.

This is the final argument. This is not just words, but a decree, action. Are you feeling forsaken right now? You are not forsaken, he has not forgotten you. Jesus took on all the forsakenness.

In John chapter 20 Jesus appears to Thomas and he says look at my scars…See my love for you. See that your name is engraved on my hands.

Name it. It is the honest doubt that God answers for Israel. It is the honest doubt that brings Jesus to Thomas.