Good News Brings Comfort

The Sovereign Lord is Coming To Bring Comfort

12.10.23 [Isaiah 40:1-11] River of Life (2nd Sunday of Advent)

San Francisco can be the cleanest, safest, most beautiful and incredible city in the world instantly. That might sound like a crazy claim, the kind of thing someone who hasn’t been to or even heard anything about San Francisco might say.

San Francisco can be the cleanest, safest, most beautiful and incredible city in the world instantly. You might think this was a wild claim by a politician with aspirations outside of the state of California.

But it’s not. It’s the claim on Marc Benioff, the CEO and chairman of one of the most valuable companies in the world that happens to call San Francisco home. To the best of my knowledge, Benioff doesn’t have any political aspirations. And he knows San Francisco well. His company, Salesforce, is headquartered there. He grew up there. His parents and his grandparents, too. You might say he’s a little partial.

Maybe cleanest, safest, most beautiful and incredible is a bit far-fetched, but Benifoff caught a glimpse of what was possible. Each year his company hosts the world’s largest tech conference. This year, he threatened it would be the last time it would be in San Francisco, if they didn’t address the issues plaguing the city. Cages were rattled.

And San Francisco responded. Public spaces were cleaned. New coats of paint were applied. Repairs were made. And, at least for a week, the homelessness and drug issues were addressed. Benioff’s town looked the way he hoped it could once again. That was back in September.

Then last month, San Francisco played host to an important economic forum, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation. Foreign leaders and dignitaries from more than 20 countries came to town. And again, public spaces were cleaned. More new coats of paint were applied and repairs were made and, at least for a week, the drug and homeless problems plaguing the city were removed.

Twice, in a matter of two and half months, the city had to go to great lengths to clean itself up because something big was coming to town. Now the question is—can they keep it that way?

Whether you have a soft spot for San Francisco like Marc Benioff or scorn the city as so many do, just about everyone agrees San Francisco has a number of problems and a lot of work to do.

But that’s not our problem. It’s not our work to do. Maybe that sounds like good news. Unfortunately, our problem is even more daunting.

In Isaiah 40, our God speaks of an intimidating project. (Is. 40:3-4) In the wilderness, prepare the way for the Lord. Make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up. Every mountain and hill made low. The rough ground shall become level. The rugged places a plain.

If God were speaking about a physical civil engineering project, this would be arduous and exhausting. It would take a lot of equipment and expertise. But we know that God is talking about something far bigger.

Something big is happening. Someone powerful is coming soon. It’s not a tech conference, or some foreign dignitaries. It’s Triune God who is coming. The King of kings and Lord of lords who will judge the living and the dead. So preparing the way for the Lord is not about cleaning up the streets or even making new ones. It’s about cleansing us from sin and making us new people.

Why do we need to be cleansed? Why do we need to be made new?

Well, look at what God says about us. (Is. 40:6) All people are like grass. All their faithfulness is like the flowers of the field…The grass withers and the flowers fall. This is why he tells the voice to cry out! Why?

God wants us to see two key things about ourselves. 1) We are mortal. Frail. Fragile. We will not stand the test of time. We will all wither and die. 2) Our faithfulness falls, too. In our best moments, we may do the right things. We may look as beautiful as a flower. But it will not last. We may love our neighbor for a time, but only so long as he or she seems to deserve it or it makes us feel good. We may praise God when the blessings are numerous, but it will not last. We will grumble and complain when challenges come our way. We tell the truth and give generously when doing so doesn’t require us to sacrifice anything too important.

But it doesn’t last. Our faithfulness to God and his way of righteousness is not evergreen. It doesn’t take long for us to forget that everything we have—our time, our talents, and our treasures—are gifts from above. It doesn’t take long before we are wishing and committing evil upon our neighbor—even people we once claimed to love. It doesn’t take long before our praises to God turn into curses. It doesn’t take long before we fall into habits of deceitfulness & selfishness. Our faithfulness falls flat.

It’s hard for us to see that from close-up. But we know it from afar.

Let’s shift back to where we began—San Francisco. Do you think it will last? Do you think San Francisco will become the cleanest, safest, most beautiful and incredible city in the world?

I doubt any of us would say that with any degree of confidence. We have seen this play out a time or two. The big city makes a big effort to clean up its image and its streets to host some big event. Maybe it’s the Olympics. They pour countless dollars into doing it right. But then the event comes and goes and things are as bad or worse than they were before. It’s not just a San Francisco problem. It’s a people problem. We do the same with our homes. We do the same with our spiritual temples—our bodies and our lives.

Why should we think this time would be any different? Why should we think it will last? Because it’s not us doing the cleaning. It’s someone more powerful and wise than any tech chairman. It’s someone who loves us more than Marc Benioff loves San Francisco. It’s the Sovereign Lord who has spoken and given us comfort. He is the One who is working this enormous engineering project—raising up valleys and flattening mountains and hills.

How did he do it? Through his everlasting and enduring Word. It is through the Word that we hear of and receive comfort and peace that last. The Lord speaks to us tenderly. He proclaims to us that he has paid for our sins. That, more than that, we have received double for all our sins—mercy and grace.

We have received mercy from our God. He knows what sin has done to us, what it is doing to us now, and what it will do to us without his intervention. The wages of sin, of our sin, is misery and death, suffering and condemnation. The wages of our sin is to be banished to suffer in a place far more abysmal than the worst spot in San Francisco on its worst day with no hope of it ever getting better or coming to an end. This is the existence sinners chose. Each time we rebel against God’s Law this is what we are saying we want. And God could have just let us have it, and have that kind of eternity. But he wouldn’t have that.

When we are faithless, he remains faithful. When we are foolish, he reacts with wisdom. When our love for God and our fellow man has run cold, God is still love. So, at just the right moment, while we were still powerless and ungodly, the Sovereign Lord came with power. Not to strike us down, but to pick us up. Our Sovereign Lord gathers frail lambs in his arms. He carries the broken and the brokenhearted close to his heart. He does not drive us with the threats of condemnation to do more and do better, but he gently leads and guides us knowing we don’t have the wisdom or the strength to find our way to quiet waters or lush fields. He deals with us with great mercy.

His mercy is revealed when he made himself our servant and our Substitute. The Sovereign Lord our God came into this world and made himself powerless. The Son of God had no beauty or majesty, no connections and— contrary to popular myths— did not do miraculous tricks as a young man. In fact, whenever he did a miracle it was an expression of his mercy to sinners. He wanted them to see God’s power and love. He wanted them to get a taste of heavenly eternal comfort, peace, and joy.

But in order to give sinners more than a taste of eternal comfort, peace, and joy, Jesus had to taste death in our place. In order to pay for our sins, he had to put them on his account. This wasn’t some divine accounting wizardry either. This was real pain. Real suffering. Excruciating isolation from his Father. The torment of hell. God experienced all this to bring us comfort. Our Sovereign Lord did not merely say There. There. in the empty way we sometimes do to someone who hurting because they made poor choices but we still pity them. He did the thing that any parent wishes they could do when they see their child suffering. He made it his own. He took up our pain. He bore our sufferings. He was wounded so that we might be healed. This is marvelous mercy.

But it’s not the last. God also gives us his grace—undeserved, unconditional, unearned, unending love. He continues to love us even as we let him down. He continues to care for us even as we speak carelessly. He continues to abide by us even as we cannot always abide by his Law. He does this because he loves us. He tends to us like a Shepherd. He knows our names and our fears. He knows our weaknesses and our needs. So he comforts us.

He has given us a token of that everlasting comfort, peace, and joy in our Baptisms. Through water and Word, God has worked a remarkable transformation. And it was instantaneous. We have been cleansed of our sins. We have been placed safely within his arms. We have been made new people, not with a fresh coat of paint, but with an outpouring of the Spirit and his gift of faith. We know our God as our most Beautiful Savior. And we have the incredible privilege of receiving mercy and grace from our God. Comfort and peace. Amen.