Uncovered Messengers

The Holy, Holy, Holy One Makes Us Holy

2.6.22 [Isaiah 6:1-8] River of Life (5th Sunday after Epiphany)

Fashion is funny, fickle, and fleeting thing. What is fashionable today, likely won’t stay that way for long. And what was fashionable before, is more than likely to make a comeback. Fashion is a funny, fickle, and fleeting thing. Perhaps the easiest place for us to see the fleeting nature of fashion is in jeans. Colors and styles and hemlines swing back and forth. In the 70’s bell-bottom blue jeans became a fashion statement. The jeans of the 80’s were stone or acid-washed, ripped, and tattered. In the 90’s jeans were baggy and wide legged. The 2000’s were tighter and boot cut. First cousins of the 70’s bell-bottoms. 2010 were the decade of the skinny jeans with rips reminiscent of the 80s. Fashion is cyclical. We’re probably due for a repeat of bell-bottoms and boot-cut jeans in the next decade.

You’ve probably lived through a few fashion trends. You might not have bought into them all, but it’s likely that you adopted them a little bit. And I’ll bet, tucked away somewhere, there’s evidence. Like old family photos. Usually, when we find those old pictures—and we know we look bad—we say something along the lines of “well, that’s what people wore back then!” as if we had no hand in picking out our own clothes. Fashion is a funny, fickle thing. In the moment, when everyone else looks like you, it seems like the most normal thing. When you look back, though, it can be embarrassing.

Today, in Isaiah 6, the Lord’s prophet after whom this book is named, gets a good look at himself in the mirror of the law. But he doesn’t just embarrassed. He’s undone. Isaiah sees (Is. 6:1) the Lord, high and exalted, (Is. 6:3) holy and mighty. And it changes how he sees everything ever after.

Isaiah lived in a world that is not all together unfamiliar to you and me. Fashion isn’t the only thing that is cyclical. Isaiah lived in Judah during a time of unprecedented peace and prosperity. (2 Kings 15:2) King Uzziah reigned in Jerusalem for 52 years, longer than David or Solomon. Like David, Uzziah was a military force. He commanded an army of more than 300,000 men. He built towers with catapults into the walls of Jerusalem. Even Egypt respected him. But he wasn’t just a military force. Uzziah rebuilt Judah’s public works and economy. He dug cisterns and improved the land for farming and livestock. (2 Ch. 26:15) His fame spread far and wide. Life during the reign of Uzziah was good. But just because the people enjoyed peace and prosperity doesn’t mean they pursued the Lord’s ways.

The people knew plenty, but they forgot the Lord. They enjoyed many luxuries, but they lived like (Is. 1:4) a brood of evildoers.

The women dressed like they were about to attend the Met Gala— wearing bangles, headbands, and necklaces; bracelets, nose rings, and charms. They carried fine purses, wore fancy tiaras, and admired themselves in expensive mirrors. (Is. 3:16) They were impressed with themselves, but the Lord said they were haughty.

The men were greedy land-barons. (Is. 5:8) Their homes were never big enough. They gobbled up the fields of those who couldn’t afford to keep them in the family. (Is. 5:12) They went from party to party—eating too much and (Is. 5:22) drinking too much and not caring at all about all those they stepped on as they continued to climb their way to the top.

Not only were the men and the women arrogant and greedy, they thought they had God fooled. They held big religious looking festivals. They brought generous offerings and spread their hands out in fine-sounding prayers. (Is. 29:13) They honored the Lord with their lips and with other hollow gestures, but their hearts were far from him. Though the Lord had blessed them with peace and prosperity they had forgotten the Lord and what righteousness & holiness really were. (Is. 1:4) They had forsaken the Lord and turned their backs of the Holy One of Israel.

No one exemplified that more than King Uzziah. (2 Ch. 26:16) After Uzziah became powerful and famous, his pride led to his downfall. He was unfaithful to the Lord his God. He went into the Lord’s temple like he owned the place. Instead of following the Lord’s commands and having a priest burn incense for him, he tried to do it on his own. When 81 priests courageously rebuked him, he raged at them. Until the Lord intervened and afflicted him with leprosy. Suddenly successful, powerful Uzziah wasn’t even allowed to live in his own palace any longer. (2 Ch. 26:21) He was banned from the Temple. And when he died, the people didn’t bury him alongside the other kings because (2 Ch. 26:20) he had leprosy. He was unclean.

The people of Isaiah’s day were haughty and arrogant. Pride infected their hearts as it had King Uzziah. Yet, when Isaiah had the incredible and awesome encounter with the Lord, it was his own sin that stood front and center. (Is. 6:5) I am a man of unclean lips and I am living among people with unclean lips.

Does this strike you as a strange admission of guilt? At first, we might think Isaiah is denying responsibility. I’m unclean, but I’m just like everyone else around me. But that isn’t what he is saying at all. (Is. 6:5) My lips are unclean and I’m living like all the people around me instead of pursuing righteousness.

In this confession Isaiah is driving at one of the most challenging things for us. Like Isaiah, we live in a world where wickedness surrounds us. It’s everywhere. You don’t have to search for sin. Evil parades itself in broad daylight & demands applause. Sin is fashionable. But sometimes when the darkness of sin is so thick, we think we’re doing alright. Without realizing it, we’ve let the world reset the standard for holiness.

Our wicked world loves gossip rags and salacious rumors about famous folks. And maybe you personally don’t care who’s dating whom in the celebrity world. But think about how eager we are to hear juicy gossip. How we can’t help ourselves but to spread those rumors, too. We are quick to cut down those we think are beneath us. We are quick to slander those we think have slighted us, too. We are people of unclean lips.

But our lips are unclean for other reasons, too. It’s not just what we have said, it’s what we haven’t said that makes us unholy.

Consider how many times we have seen, with our own eyes, someone falling into temptation. Every day. But instead of warning them, instead of rebuking them, instead of encouraging them to pursue righteousness, we say nothing. We tell ourselves it’s not our place. It’s not our problem. We’re not the right people to say something right now. We are people of unclean and selfish lips.

And don’t forget how many times someone has sinned against us and we have not spoken the words their souls crave: I forgive you. Instead, we’ve said things like It’s no big deal or Don’t worry about it and we’ve denied the existence of holiness. In moments when it was a big deal, we have denied them forgiveness. We’ve used our lips to call into question their sincerity or their resolve to make amends. We’ve demanded that they show us they’ve changed before we will really forgive them. We are people of unclean lips because (Mt. 12:34) the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.

Just like Isaiah. So his self-diagnosis is ours, too. (Is. 6:5) Woe to me. I am ruined. When he is thrust into the presence of the God who knit him together he is unraveled. As he stands before the God who gave him life and breath, he senses that he deserves eternal destruction.

But this encounter with the (Is. 6:3) Holy Holy Holy Lord Almighty does not end with Isaiah’s exasperation or the extermination he likely expected.

Do you see how God’s servants respond to Isaiah? Messengers who humbly cover their own faces and feet lest they gaze into the surpassing holiness that is God or stray from his paths quickly fly into action. Literally. Going first to the altar and grabbing (Is. 6:6) a live coal with the sacred tongs, the seraphim takes that live coal and (Is. 6:7) touches Isaiah’s lips. Think about the fear that must have washed over Isaiah in that moment. Even before they brought a burning coal to his face he was convinced he was ruined. Then remember what happened to Uzziah when he arrogantly went into the Temple to offer the incense. And don’t forget that any live coal would burn you, too. This was the last thing that Isaiah would have wanted. It was the last thing a sinner would have asked for.

But (Heb. 1:14) all angels are ministering spirits sent by God to serve those who will inherit salvation. God does for us what we cannot do for ourselves. Mankind cannot earn forgiveness. Isaiah could not atone for even a single one of his sins. But God could. And did. Even before he asked. The Holy, Holy Holy One makes us holy.

It began with Christ taking on flesh and blood—living among people with unclean lips. Yet, unlike Isaiah and us, his lips remained holy. He meditated on the precious Word of God. He spoke the truth in love and carefully rebuked sinners with compassion. He worshiped the Lord his God not just with his lips, but (Jn. 4:23-24) in spirit and in truth—with an undivided heart. He prayed regularly, joyfully, and selflessly. Jesus lived a holy life. He was a man of clean lips. But he didn’t just come to show us it was possible to be unstained by the sinners around you. He came to take away our guilt. He came to do for you and me what the seraphim did for Isaiah. Though our sins are like scarlet, Jesus came to make them white as snow. (Is. 17:7; 41:14) The Holy One of Israel came to (Is. 43:3) save us and to make us holy.

Only God could do something so marvelous. So the Son of God took our place on the cross. The holy, holy, holy Lord Almighty became weak, was mockingly referred to as king of the Jews, and literally (2 Cor. 5:21) became sin so that we could become holy in God’s sight. Christ experienced the searing pains of hell so that our guilt might be wiped away. On the cross of Calvary, that great altar outside of Jerusalem, the holiness and love of God collided and changed us. God made full atonement for all our sins. Jesus paid the ultimate price for our wickedness.

But (Acts 2:27) the Lord Almighty would not let his Holy One see decay. After three days, the lips that (Heb. 2:9) tasted death in our place were raised back to life again. One of the first things the victorious Christ Jesus did was seek out the unclean lips of his disciples. Men who had professed their devotion to him, but fled when he was arrested. People who said they would rather die than fall away, but fell into temptation and denied even knowing the man. To them, Jesus spoke words of (Jn. 20:21) peace and (Jn. 21:15-17) forgiveness. Then he called them to be (Acts 1:8) his witnesses. He commissioned them to speak for him and about him.

And that is what he does to you and I as well. God knows who we are—what we have said and what we have not said. He knows we are not capable of holiness on our own. But he has sent his Holy Spirit to kindle in us the fire of his love. He has blessed us with his indwelling Spirit to strengthen our lips in difficult days. To thank and praise him when things are not going our way. To call upon him in the day of trouble. To honor him even before we have experienced deliverance. And to speak of his holiness and love.

It will not always be a fashionable message. Some will say it’s a bad look to warn people about the consequences of wickedness or to rebuke those who have sinned. But, when you have seen the Lord Almighty, when you know the Holy, Holy, Holy One who has (1 Jn. 2:2) made atonement for your sins and not only for yours but for the sins of the whole world, how can you not speak up? How can you respond any differently than Isaiah? (Is. 6:8) Here I am. Send me. Amen.