To A Double Comfort

Every fall, there’s a fashion show that attracts attention from all over the place. Expectant eyes get up early and head up to places around the San Francisco Peaks and the Mogollon Rim and Oak Creek Canyon. They put on their coziest sweaters and fill their travel mugs up with their hot drink of choice and make their way up to places where autumn’s glory dazzles brightest. Everyone is in a rush. Not just because they’re city folk headed out to more remote spots, but because they know that time is running out. Literally. The days are getting shorter. This fact is actually what causes the effect these leaf-peepers seek. As the trees of Flagstaff and Payson and the Oak Creek Canyon receive less and less sunlight they start producing less and less chlorophyll and the results are spectacular. Aspens and maples and oaks flaunt what their maker gave them. The San Francisco Peaks are engulfed in the glowing gold of aspens changing colors. And if you wind your way down 89A, you’ll be greeted by gorgeous orange and ravishing red leaves from the maples and oaks that call that canyon home.

But like other fashion shows, this one only lasts a little while. That’s part of what makes it so sought-after, of course. Because a day with intense gusts or an evening with a dip in temperatures, and those magnificent leaves flutter to their final resting place. The fleeting nature of fall colors is a scene that we’re all familiar with, even if it isn’t really a part of life here in the valley.

The Lord draws on a picture from nature that is quite similar to fall leaves, but was better known to the Israelites that Isaiah was ministering to, and one that, living in the Sonoran Desert we can relate to. In the spring time, between March and May, there was always the threat of a parching eastern wind. Most of the time, winds came from the west—bringing cooler air temperatures and rain from the Mediterranean. But during spring, there was the likelihood of a ruach qadim, or “breath from the east”, much like our late summer haboobs. But this wind was even more destructive than most of our dust storms. This wind kicked up from the Arabian Desert and would kill crops and vegetation almost overnight. The people of Israel knew from experience that in a matter of hours the verdant hillside grasses and the fetching flowers of the field could begin to wither and wilt from this breath of the east.

God, through his prophet Isaiah, wanted the people of Israel to see themselves in these grasses and flowers that ran through the Promised Land. Twice he compares the people to the grass. Twice he mentions that the flowers fade and fall. Clearly the Lord wants his people to mull this metaphor over a little while in their minds.

How are people like grass? The grass is here today and gone tomorrow. The grass looks green and full of life, but in a moments time it can be cut down, caused to wither, and it will leave no lasting impression.

How are people like flowers? Here the Lord’s servant makes a distinct application. The faithfulness of all people is like the flower of the field. For a moment it is beautiful and alluring. But only for a moment. Before too long, it, too, fades and falls.

Why does this happen? Because the breath of the Lord, like the winds from the east, blows on them. In this simple, but powerful analogy, the Lord our God, who fashioned and made us, who knit us together in our mothers’ wombs exposes quite a bit about each one of us. The breath of the Lord is a word that mortifies and condemns.

The breath of the Lord is a word that mortifies because it puts all of mankind’s accomplishments into their proper perspective. Consider how fleeting the finest of human accolades really are. Twenty years ago, who won the Oscar for best actor or best film? Kevin Spacey in American Beauty. It’s hard to even imagine such a movie being made today! And it’s only been twenty years.

You and I haven’t won MVPs or Oscars or anything near that level of importance, but there are still accomplishments that we are proud of. There are awards we have won. There are accolades we’ve achieved. There are things we have done that we are proud of. Yet even these things are but grass. The career you carved out for yourself will be eroded by the winds of time. The business you built with your bare hands won’t last but a few generations. And that is if you’re lucky. Even your relationships will be forgotten. Someday, if everything goes well, there will be a fifth or sixth generation doing some genealogical research—whatever swallows up ancestry.com—and they will see you name and they might be able to piece together a little bit about who you were from the digital footprint you left behind. Coming to grips with our own mortality causes a certain kind of melancholy to wash over us. Our gloom might echo King Solomon’s: Meaningless! Meaningless! Everything I have worked for and accomplished is meaningless.

But it isn’t entirely meaningless. Because there is one who is watching and takes note and will last forever. He is the one that Job described as the one who sees everything we do—the Lord our God. Our Maker and Preserver. The one who breathed and made us and the rest of creation mortal. This One knows us inside and out. He is (Ps. 139:3) familiar with all our ways. He (Ps. 139:2) perceives our thoughts from afar. (Ps. 139:4) Before a word is on my tongue, the Lord knows it completely.

And that is a far greater issue for us than our mortality. If life were meaningless and nothing we said or did was likely to have any kind of lasting impact, we would rightly feel hollow and empty, but we would likely respond by living for the moment. Eat. Drink. Be merry. Find yourself. Love yourself. Gather up everything you can and make the most of this life. Indulge yourself. Amuse yourself. Challenge yourself. Treat yourself. We may not say those things out loud—but look at how you spend your time and energy. We are so inwardly focused that we struggle to even see it, sometimes. Until the breath of the Lord blows on it. When the Word of God lays bare what we really are, our self-idolatry is exposed. In our pursuit of comfort, we spare few expenses and think little of breaking God’s laws. We see the comforts that others have—beautiful homes and cars—and even though we know it is wrong, even though we know those things cannot and do not last, we envy their stuff and the comfort of their lives. We hear people take God’s name in vain, and instead of using the moment to correct and train in righteousness, we choose the path of comfort and pretend like it never happened. We are so desperate for the comfort of conversation and companionship that we will use our tongues to do things God forbids. We lock on to juicy bits of gossip. We take people’s words and actions in unkind ways so that we can judge them behind their back. We speak disrespectfully about authority figures and pretend as if they have not been established by God. And we engage in the most comfortable sin of all—deceit. How many times haven’t you and I lied to make ourselves look or feel better?

And God through his Word exposes all the sin within us. Some is plain to see—the wicked things we have said and done in this life. Others are better hidden from others. Our depraved thoughts and selfishly motivated actions. We are so self-involved, self-obsessed, self-depraved people that when God commands us to love, he knows that by nature we only know how to love one thing: ourselves. So for the sake of society, he tells us love your neighbor as you already do yourself. Yet, we know, from experience, that we are incapable of even doing this. All people are like grass. And all our faithfulness, all our dependability, all our attempts at love fade as quickly as flowers do. It is because of mankind’s sin that we are mortal. God’s Word declared that in the Garden of Eden. (Gen. 3:19) For dust you are and to dust you will return. It is because of our own grievous sin that we are stand condemned. God’s Word pronounces that judgment when it says (Rom. 6:23) the wages of sin is death and (Ezekiel 18:20) the soul who sins is the one who will die. The breath of the Lord has caused each of us to wither and fade. Like the leaves of the aspens and oaks, whatever glory we thought we had flutters to the ground. We are mortal. But more than that (Isaiah 64:6) All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. This is the power of the Word of God.

But that isn’t the final Word from God. The same breath that renders us mortal and reveals our wickedness brings us redemption and comfort. That is the message that bookends our reading from Isaiah 40. It begins with words of tender comfort and consolation. It ends with a poignant & familiar picture of God’s tender love for us, the shepherd.

The Word of God which stands forever predicts the powerful appearance of the Sovereign Lord. This is why the wilderness voice calls out that a highway is to be made for our God. So that the glory of the Lord might be revealed and that all people would see it, together. This is what the mouth of the Lord has spoken. The prophet Isaiah is speaking of a future glory. His people, the Israelites, coming back from exile in Babylon was a token of God’s mercy, but the Lord God had a greater comfort in mind for all his people. God, himself, is going to pay for the sins of his people and they will receive double from his hand. When he does that, God’s people will be filled with good news, they will lift up their voices, they will no longer be afraid and they will say Here is our God!

These words anticipate what the Gospels demonstrate. The glory of the Lord was revealed to mankind for the first time in Bethlehem, when the baby Jesus was born. The shepherds who saw him were amazed at what they had received from the Lord’s hand. Everything was exactly as they had been told. Here was their God. And he came to bring a double comfort to God’s people.

The first comfort he came to bring was temporary. Physical in nature. The book of Acts describes Jesus’ work this way. (Acts 10:38) He went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him. All of Jesus’ healing miracles were pointing to God’s desire to give comfort to all those who were under the devil’s power. So whether people were sick or demon-possessed or leprous, Jesus came to bring them true healing and lasting comfort. And that could only happen if he paid for their sins. And ours.

Jesus came to earn for us a double portion of God’s comfort. He obeyed all of God’s laws, not merely complying with them when it was convenient or when other people might notice or care. He delighted in God’s law. He knew it to be good and perfect. He loved the Lord his God because there was no better way to worship and glorify the Father. Jesus loved his neighbor because his Lord loved his neighbor. Jesus spoke the truth and fled from temptation. When his neighbors tried to press him into sin, he rebuked them—whether they were his enemies or his close friends. He made it his habit to be in the synagogue and the Temple, even though his fellow worshipers treated him so shabbily and behaved so selfishly. Jesus denied himself the comfort of having a steady income, a home or a wife—even a place to rest his head—because as our Shepherd, he is devoted to tending to the needs of his flock. Gathering up his lambs and gently leading us to places of sustenance, comfort, and safety.

And the only way he could secure us forever was to lay down his life for us. This is why he went to the cross. He recognized there was hell to pay for our sins. But he joyfully put himself in harm’s way so that we might be saved. He willingly took our sins upon himself. He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment we deserved for insatiable desire to live for self was upon him. The Lord laid upon him the iniquity of us all. And it killed him.

But God’s Word endures forever. Though sinful people are like grass, our Sovereign Lord rose from the grave with power. That Easter night he stood before his frightened disciples and said: Here is your God. Peace be with you.

And we have received a double comfort. Not only has the Lord our God had mercy on us, but he has given us his grace too. God knew what we were. He had every right and all the power to strike Eve dead the moment she touched that fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But God is patience and his patience is merciful. God has mercy on sinners like Adam and Eve and you and me and that is why we are not blown to smithereens whenever we sin. The Lord has that power. But he used his power to seek and save the lost. He used his power to take away the sin of the world. He used his power to redeem us. And we have received a double comfort. We have received mercy from God. He does not punish us as our sins deserve. But we also receive grace. God loves us like we do not deserve. He sees us as righteous. By grace through faith, Christ’s righteous is credited to our account. When God looks at us, he does not see withered grass but flourishing heirs. People who are growing in the grace and knowledge of their Savior. People who rejoice in the comfort God has given them in his Son. People who understand eternity.

What we have here in God’s Word is the only thing that lasts. At one point in Jesus’ ministry, his popularity had peaked. People were frustrated by what he was saying and not doing. Jesus asked his twelve disciples point blank: (Jn. 6:67-68) You don’t want to leave too, do you? Peter answered “Lord to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God!” We have come to believe and know the same. God is merciful. God is gracious. He has given us double comfort. And he has placed in our hands—in our hearts, minds, and mouths—these powerful and eternal words. We may never win an award of any consequence, but we can point someone to the Christ who has earned for us all a crown of glory. We cannot build a business that will last to the fourth and fifth generations, but we can build someone up in grace and knowledge and God may use that individual to bless generations to come. We may not be able to have any kind of relationship here on earth that anyone else will remember, but we can unite with our brothers and sister in Christ and strive for a unity and maturity that we will know fully in heaven. We love one another better than we love ourselves, we strive to (Jn. 13:34) love one another as Christ has loved us. In this world all people may be like grass and the flowers of the field, but God’s children have been made to (Php. 2:15-16) shine like stars in the sky as we hold firmly to the word of life. Amen.