Last Sunday of the Church Year (2024)

Isaiah 65:17-25

My Brothers and Sisters in Christ, today we look at the Old Testament lesson where the prophet Isaiah explains why we look forward to the coming of Jesus. The Epistle and the Gospel and our lessons last week emphasized that the end will come suddenly, and without much warning and many will be caught unaware. It is a day that we long for, for it is a blessed place, and it is one that we hope our neighbors, our family, and that all people might enter into it.

The Former Things

The former things will be no more.

When Jesus returns to make all things new, the world as we know it will cease. The Scriptures tell us that they will not even be remembered or come to mind. Now that sounds a bit terrifying, because we have seen people in this life who have reached that point and it sounds awful, but what it means is

It’s the End of all things evil.

at the judgment, Jesus is not doing away with the physical world forever, but God will make a new heavens and new earth. Those people who belong to Him will be in paradise a place where

There will be no more sorrow or war.

All the tragedies that we struggle with in this life are brought to a final end. This restoration of creation will undo the effects of sin. Not only the losses that we deal with of our flesh, and suffering at the hands our neighbors, but

Even natural disasters will stop.

The Earth itself was cursed when Adam fell into sin, and that is why St. Paul speaks how the creation groans waiting for the day of its redemption. All the disasters that plague the planet are a reminder of the end of all things. Now God works through death and resurrection

New Heavens and Earth

The present cosmos passes away.

Peter speaks about this in his epistle how the whole creation is reduced to nothing. For the very same word that spoke all things into existence has promised to reduce them to nothing and that they will be burned up and dissolved to nothing. For

God creates something new.

God does not remake what has been, but rather makes all things new that they might be free from sin. This even pertains to our bodies that will be made new in the resurrection. Our present flesh will be transformed into something else, and something better. How much better, well that is difficult to say, because what is a body without sin? That’s why Paradise is

It is a place of inexpressible joy.

How does one even begin to talk about a world that is free from the effects of sin, a world that is without war, that is without sorrow? It was strange and foreign to the Israelites who had been besieged, and it is foreign who us as well who have the whole world brought to us through the news. So

How can you describe a world without sin?

The Holy Spirit guiding and speaking through Isaiah uses the language of poetry to express these ideas in a way that we begin to understand what God has given us, but if we read it like a narrative, it will be confusing, and contradictory even, for instance in

The New Jerusalem

How can one be young at 100?

Those two ideas are in conflict, and they don’t work. We can say that age is just a number, but the bigger the number gets, we find that life gets a bit more challenging, and we aren’t able to do what we think we should be able to do.

Nor will the old fall short.

To fill out there days, means that they won’t grow tired or weary, but they will be able to keep on going as opposed to finding all of their plans, hopes, and dreams slip away from us due to age. That will no longer be, because we won’t age like we do here. What do these things mean?

This means death is no more.

If a young man died at 100 years old, you wouldn’t say he is young, but we will be considered young at 100. We would say they have lived a good full life at that point unlike a child who is lost after just a few days, or a grandfather who doesn’t get to see his grandchild grow up.

All tragedy is gone.

All of these things that we long for in this life, that we hope for, we fight for, we plead and pray for God to save us from, we will see fulfilled in the new creation. Jesus in his ministry gave to us a glimpse of what that world looks like, and it is why people would flock to him seeking healing not only for themselves but for their loved ones.

The world isn’t as it should be, that’s why we look at the world and we have this sense that things aren’t right, they aren’t as they should be, it’s why suffering vexes us so much, it’s why we long to see the restoration of all things. Christ came to heal the creation.

The Healing of Creation

Your work is no longer meaningless.

That’s one of the great struggles we have in all our labors. When we look at the Law and all the law requires, it demanded perfection, and no matter how hard you tried, your works could never be declared good, and so it made us throw up our hands and give up. For we remained sinners under God’s wrath, but Jesus the one through whom all things were made good, came that you might have forgiveness. So that you though a sinner, might be declared Good in God’s sight through Jesus’ blood on the Cross. That is why the

It is a place of peace.

For Jesus has saved us from the powers of sin, the powers of death, and from God’s wrath. We are no longer fearful of our Creator, but the dividing wall that kept us separate from the peace of God has been removed, and we will never have to fear being separated from God again.

Even the former terrors are gone.

When the prophet describes the relationship here between predator and prey, even these animals that cause us terror today will be gone. It is a place of unparalleled peace, and prosperity. There is one thing to note there is

No Place for Wickedness

The serpent’s food remains dust.

This calls us back to the curse that GOd laid upon the serpent when he led Adam and Eve into sin, and brought death into the world. Satan will be banished and locked away in hell for all eternity.

There is no room for wickedness.

Even the book of Revelation speaks to this in Chapter 21:8 the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.

For these things have no place in the Kingdom of God, and they have no place in this kingdom. It is for that reason, that

It is vital that your sins are placed on Jesus.

Jesus is the only one who can put your sins to rest and declare you righteous by the blood of His cross. It is Jesus who washes your sins away in Holy Baptism, and gave you the robe of righteousness without which you will not see heaven. So seek forgiveness in the gifts that Jesus has given you, and don’t lay aside that robe and join in the world’s wickedness.

That is why we are always called to repent.

Confess your sins daily, and do not let them remain on you, but return to the Baptismal font and remember when God called you His own dear child, and promised you a place in His Kingdom. That’s why in the Small Catechism Luther encouraged us to make the sign of the Cross in the morning and at night. It isn’t meant to ward off evil, but remind us of who we are. For the sign of the Cross was made both upon our forehead, and upon our heart to mark us as one redeemed by Christ.

So my brothers and Sisters in Christ, let the end of the world come, for when Christ returns in power and glory and might, we shall enter into the Kingdom that God has prepared for His people. As the days grow increasingly evil, let us not lay aside the gifts that Jesus has given, or join in with the world and its sins, but instead look ahead to the day of Christ’s return, for then we shall be freed from all sin, suffering and pain as we enter into a paradise that all of us long for. In Jesus name. Amen.