Isaiah 66:10-13
Please listen with me to a reading from the 66th chapter of the Prophet Isaiah, beginning at the 10th verse, which was the versicle in today’s Psalmody:
“Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all you who love her; rejoice for joy with her, all you who mourn for her; that you may feed and be satisfied with the consolation of her bosom, that you may drink deeply and be delighted with the abundance of her glory.” For thus says the Lord: “Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream. Then you shall feed; on her sides shall you be carried, and be dandled on her knees. As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; and you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.”
So far our text.
The city of Jerusalem is portrayed here as a place of nurture, comfort, and peace for God’s people. This was literally true in the era of the Old Testament, since the temple, which was in that city, was the focal-point of God’s presence among his people.
But the biblical imagery of Jerusalem as a place of nurture, comfort, and peace extends far beyond the literal city, and far beyond what used to happen there in the days when the physical temple still existed. The spiritual Jerusalem, and the living temple of God in our New Testament era – which are embodied in the Christian Church – are also a focal-point of God’s presence for us, and of God’s forgiveness and reconciliation toward us.
In the Old Testament, the temple in Jerusalem was indeed the special gathering place to which the people of Israel were always drawn. God had established the original tabernacle, and later the temple which replaced it, as a unique place where his Word and Law were to be taught, and where the animal sacrifices that he commanded for his people would be offered, by the priests whom he had called to carry out these necessary ministries.
Indeed, God made himself uniquely accessible to his chosen nation at his temple. The people of Israel were set apart in faith and in holy living through the Scriptural instruction that they received there. And they were reconciled to God, and to each other, through the sacrifices that were offered there on their behalf.
Especially on the day of atonement, the high priest carried the blood of the sacrifice for that day beyond the temple curtain, and into the holy of holies, as a propitiation for the sins of the nation. He sprinkled some of the blood in that inner sanctuary; and he sprinkled some of the blood upon the people who had gathered there for this sacred ceremony.
They knew that their sins were an offense to their holy God. Their sins accordingly needed to be atoned for, according to God’s Law, by the death of a sacrificial substitute. The wrath of God’s judgment against them was poured out, not onto them, but onto that substitute.
Of course, we must never forget that the Scriptures which the priests taught and explained at the temple included, as their chief and primary content, comforting and hope-filled prophecies of the coming Messiah. Likewise, we must never forget that the animal sacrifices which were offered to atone for the sins of the people, did not – in themselves – have an inherent power to bring peace and reconciliation, or to confer forgiveness.
No saving merit resided in the blood of those creatures. Rather, these sacrifices in Jerusalem had this power, and this effect, only because they were connected, in God’s heart, to the coming ultimate sacrifice of his Son – of which they were types and foreshadowings. The Epistle to the Hebrews explains that
“Every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.”
Indeed, Jesus – the divine-human Messiah – has now come. The Old Testament has been supplanted by the New Testament.
The animal sacrifices of the Mosaic Law have been brought to an end, since the true and ultimate sacrifice – toward which they pointed, and of which they were a picture – has now been accomplished once and for all time on Calvary’s cross.
God’s people are therefore no longer drawn to the physical temple in Jerusalem, as the special place where they can have a saving encounter with the Lord. There is, in fact, no more physical temple in Jerusalem.
But God’s people – of all nations now – are drawn to a new temple; to a living, spiritual temple; to a temple that is not limited to one geographical location. In this temple, they are drawn to a new and fuller teaching – concerning Messianic fulfillments and not only Messianic predictions.
And they are drawn to another sacrifice: not to a recurring sacrifice that is still being offered over and over again, but to a finished sacrifice.
From this finished sacrifice blessings do, however, continue to flow: the blessings of an enduring peace and reconciliation with God, and of a cleansing forgiveness before God; the blessings of a new kind of membership in a new kind of nation, and of a new kind of citizenship in a new kind of kingdom.
The Epistle to the Hebrews explains this to us as well:
“Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.”
“Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”
If you see allusions here to what goes on in a biblical and sacramental Christian church, that is not a coincidence. This is, in fact, what the author of this epistle wants you to see.
The inspired author speaks of the importance of not neglecting our meeting together as a congregation. But before that, he sets forth what it is that pushes us, and that pulls us, to these gatherings.
He reminds us that our hearts have been sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and that our bodies have been washed with pure water. That’s what baptism is and does, according to Christ’s institution, through the power of his Word.
Everything that you as God’s child think, say, and do in God’s house – from beginning to end – is built on the foundation that was laid for your life of faith by your baptismal union with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
In your baptism God started you out on a lifelong journey: on a roadway of daily repentance and faith. And along this roadway, according to the Third Commandment, there is also a weekly “rest stop,” on the Lord’s Day, at the Lord’s House: where he continually provisions you for this journey with his gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation.
You are, as it were, gently pushed by your baptism to the regular gatherings of your fellow-baptized. And, you are at the same time gently pulled to those gatherings by the invitation and the command of the Lord’s Supper, where Jesus says not only “This is,” but also “This do.”
In what we have read from the Epistle to the Hebrews, we are reminded that “we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh.”
We are also reminded that “we have a great priest over the house of God”: namely Jesus, who sacrificed his body and shed his blood, to atone for our sins; and who, as the resurrected Savior, gives us his body and his blood in his Holy Sacrament here and now, to apply that atonement to each of us in forgiveness.
In and through the Christian gospel in general, and the Sacrament of the Altar in particular, the holiness of Christ is credited to us, and our fear of God’s holiness is thereby taken away.
Without this imputation, and without Christ’s forgiveness, we in our fallen and corrupt condition could not endure God’s holiness. And if we were still clothed and covered in the filth of our sins, God in his righteousness could not endure us.
But his Son Jesus Christ, whose flesh and blood were offered in sacrifice on Calvary’s cross, earns justification for us, and pulls back the curtain, granting us access into God’s own presence.
When you come to Holy Communion, you are coming to the holy of holies of God’s new temple, in his new Jerusalem. And through the mercy of Christ – who is your eternal high priest, your redeemer, and your intercessor – God lets you in!
These stupendous things – which we confess to be true on the basis of Holy Scripture – are not happening everywhere. These encounters with God, these washings from God, and these reconciliations with God, take place when and where the means of grace, which Jesus left for his church, are in use.
In other words, for you – as members and worshipers at Bethany Lutheran Church – these extraordinary and marvelous things, which are of eternal significance, happen here, in this sanctuary, on every Lord’s Day and festival.
And this is why the Epistle to the Hebrews calls upon Christians like you always to remember where your spiritual home is, and where the ordinary portal to the heavenly holy of holies – for you – is to be found:
“Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another…”
Good works in God’s eyes are works which are the fruit of faith. And within your Jerusalem – in this church – faith is birthed and fed by the Word and sacraments of Christ: which nurture your spiritual life, even as the promises that Christ makes in his Word and sacraments are the object of your faith.
It’s a circular thing. And that ongoing back-and-forth – between the means of grace and faith – is what happens in the liturgy: as God’s Word of law convicts us, and as God’s Word of gospel comforts us; as Christ speaks to us in the Scriptures and through the lips of his called servants, and as we speak and sing back to him in joyful thanksgiving for the saving truth of what he tells us.
God wants you to be here for this. He knows that you need this.
It doesn’t harm God when you are absent, except in the way that all things which bring harm to his beloved children harm and grieve his Fatherly heart. And being disconnected from the means of grace, and from public worship, does harm you.
The requirements of your vocation, limitations that are placed upon you by illness or injury, or other circumstances beyond your control, may occasionally result in your needing to be absent from these gatherings: so that you are not able to heed that inner yearning to be in your beloved Jerusalem. Yet at the same time, God’s mandate, “You shall keep the day of rest holy,” is not silenced.
You will need to be persuaded in your own conscience that your absences from God’s house can be justified before God – when you are absent – as you weigh and balance the obligation that the Third Commandment places upon you, over against the other obligations that God has placed upon you in workplace or home.
Ultimately, no other human being can sit in judgment on your conscience, as God’s Word molds and shapes your conscience. But God can judge you; and your conscience can and will bear witness within you, testifying through that inner voice either of God’s approval, or of God’s disapproval.
If your absence from his house is not due to a real necessity, but is a matter of negligence, indifference, or a bad habit, then the divine admonition of the Epistle to the Hebrews is directed to you: Do not neglect to meet together, as is the habit of some.
As you ponder these things, and consider your obligations to God and to your own soul, think also of your obligation to your fellow church members. They value the encouragement to their faith that your presence brings, as you sing and pray, confess and commune, with them, and with all who are here gathered.
They miss you when you are not here. They miss your companionship on the roadway to heaven on which we are all traveling.
Let us all pray, then, that what St. Paul writes to the Thessalonians, will touch our hearts, recalibrate our priorities, renew our commitments, and draw all of us close to him, and close to each other, within the fellowship of Christ’s body:
“For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that…we might live with him. Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.”
“Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad with her, all you who love her; rejoice for joy with her, all you who mourn for her; that you may feed and be satisfied with the consolation of her bosom, that you may drink deeply and be delighted with the abundance of her glory.” Amen.