{"id":19665,"date":"2024-03-24T08:20:51","date_gmt":"2024-03-24T07:20:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theologie.whp.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/?p=19665"},"modified":"2024-03-25T08:23:57","modified_gmt":"2024-03-25T07:23:57","slug":"isaiah-5213-5312-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/isaiah-5213-5312-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Isaiah 52:13-53:12"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good Friday | 29 March 2024 | A Sermon on Isaiah 52:13-53:12 | Samuel Zumwalt |
\n<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Isaiah 52:13-53:12 <\/strong>\u00a9\u00a02001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers<\/a>]<\/strong><\/p>\n

13\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>Behold,\u00a0my servant shall act wisely;
\nhe shall be high and lifted up,
\nand shall be exalted.
\n14\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>As many were astonished at you\u2014
\nhis appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance,
\nand his form beyond that of the children of mankind\u2014
\n15\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>so\u00a0shall he sprinkle\u00a0many nations;
\nkings shall shut their mouths because of him;
\nfor that which has not been told them they see,
\nand that which they have not heard they understand.
\n53\u00a0<\/strong>Who has believed what he has heard from us?
\nAnd to whom has\u00a0the arm of the\u00a0Lord\u00a0been revealed?
\n2\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>For he grew up before him like a young plant,
\nand like a root out of dry ground;
\nhe had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
\nand no beauty that we should desire him.
\n3\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>He was despised and rejected\u00a0by men;
\na man of sorrows,\u00a0and acquainted with\u00a0grief;
\nand as one from whom men hide their faces
\nhe was despised, and\u00a0we esteemed him not.<\/p>\n

4\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>Surely he has borne our griefs
\nand carried our sorrows;
\nyet we esteemed him stricken,
\nsmitten by God, and afflicted.
\n5\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>But he was pierced for our transgressions;
\nhe was crushed for our iniquities;
\nupon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
\nand with his wounds we are healed.
\n6\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>All we like sheep have gone astray;
\nwe have turned\u2014every one\u2014to his own way;
\nand the\u00a0Lord\u00a0has laid on him
\nthe iniquity of us all.<\/p>\n

7\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
\nyet he opened not his mouth;
\nlike a\u00a0lamb that is led to the slaughter,
\nand like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
\nso he opened not his mouth.
\n8\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
\nand as for his generation,\u00a0who considered
\nthat he was cut off out of the land of the living,
\nstricken for the transgression of my people?
\n9\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>And they made his grave with the wicked
\nand with a rich man in his death,
\nalthough\u00a0he had done no violence,
\nand there was no deceit in his mouth.<\/p>\n

10\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>Yet\u00a0it was the will of the\u00a0Lord\u00a0to crush him;
\nhe has put him to grief;
\nwhen his soul makes\u00a0an offering for guilt,
\nhe shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
\nthe will of the\u00a0Lord\u00a0shall prosper in his hand.
\n11\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see\u00a0and be satisfied;
\nby his knowledge shall\u00a0the righteous one, my servant,
\nmake many to be accounted righteous,
\nand he shall bear their iniquities.
\n12\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,
\nand he shall divide the spoil with the strong,
\nbecause he poured out his soul to death
\nand was numbered with the transgressors;
\nyet he bore the sin of many,
\nand makes intercession for the transgressors.<\/p>\n

[I found Professor Paul Rabbe\u2019s presentation very helpful at http:\/\/concordiatheology.org\/lalp\/<\/a>]<\/p>\n

WHAT CHRIST HAS DONE!<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 On Monday, it was exactly nine months until Christmas. Have you started shopping? (I couldn\u2019t resist.) Were it not Holy Week, we might have celebrated the Annunciation of our Lord. On that day, nine months before Christmas, we might have remembered the angel Gabriel\u2019s visit to the Virgin Mary. Greeting her with, \u201cHail Mary, full of grace,\u201d He announced God had chosen her to be the mother of His Son. First, she asked how that could be since she was a virgin (probably 12 or 13 years old, certainly no more than 14). When the angel told her that the Holy Spirit would create new life by the power of God\u2019s Word, she responded: \u201cLet it be to me according to your Word.\u201d Martin Luther called her the model disciple, the bearer of God\u2019s Word.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The joy of Christmas is inextricably bound to the quiet joy of Good Friday. The birth of our Savior, God in human flesh, is inextricably bound to the death of our Savior. We confess this in the Nicene Creed: \u201cFor us and our salvation, He came down from heaven; by the power of the Holy Spirit he became incarnate from the virgin Mary, and was made man. For our sake He was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried.\u201d These familiar words roll glibly off the tongue for most of us with the exception of those old enough to have learned the creed at a time when we confessed: \u201cWho for us men and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary, and was made man….\u201d Some of us, including this pastor, stumble from time to time because we learned the old words first.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 People the world over, including many non-Christians, know today is the day Jesus was crucified by Roman soldiers. Jesus has many admirers among the non-Christian ranks. His death strikes a chord with many: they call him a good man, a gentle man, a godly man killed by the powerful. For many, his innocent suffering and death represent a kind of solidarity with all those who have been victimized by the high and mighty. For others, his willingness to forgive his executioners and those who demanded his death offers a powerful example to people in similar straits. Jewish poet Leonard Cohen wrote: \u201cAnd Jesus was a sailor when he walked upon the water. And he spent a long time watching from his lonely wooden tower. And when he knew for certain only drowning men could see him, he said, \u2018all men shall be sailors then until the sea shall free them.\u2019 But he himself was broken long before the sky would open, forsaken almost human, he sank beneath your wisdom like a stone. And you want to travel with him. And you want to travel blind. You think maybe you\u2019ll trust him, for he touched your perfect body with his mind\u201d (\u201cSuzanne\u201d). Many non-Christians love Jesus, but which Jesus do they love? A Jesus of their own making? A Jesus who is smaller, more manageable, less threatening, far from divine?<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 What we call the Old Testament was the only Bible the first Christians knew. When the Risen Jesus opened the Scriptures to Cleopas and friend on the road to Emmaus that first Easter night (Luke 24), there was no New Testament. When the first Christians preached the Scriptures empowered by the Holy Spirit, they preached what we call the Old Testament. Unlike how Isaiah is taught in most seminaries today, the first Christian preachers witnessed to the Holy Trinity\u2019s presence in the first testament. When they read the suffering servant psalms in the midsection of Isaiah, they knew exactly Who was being described. They read Isaiah and remembered what Christ had done. And they dared to proclaim that Jesus is the Suffering Servant whose death is a substitutionary atonement for sinners like you, me, and the whole world!<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 What Christ has done! As the Suffering Servant was lifted high, so Christ was lifted high, grotesquely nailed to a cross to draw all people to Himself (John 12:32).\u00a0 As a high priest on the day of atonement sprinkled blood on the mercy seat for his own sins and those of the nation, so Christ, the Mercy Seat, sprinkled His precious blood over the sins of the whole world. Looking on Isaiah\u2019s suffering servant, kings are astonished, and so it is that the crucified King of kings and Lord of lords continues to stop the mouths of the mighty who contemplate His holy cross.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 As the suffering servant seemed so insignificant and was despised and acquainted with pain, so Christ was mocked as a pretender to David\u2019s throne. Christ Jesus did <\/u>carry the sins of the world on the cross. He was<\/u> stricken, smitten, and afflicted by God for our sins. He was <\/u>pierced for our rebellion. He was<\/u> crushed for our iniquities. His wounds meant death for Him but they meant healing and eternal life for us, His wandering sheep. Why did He do this? Because God\u2019s justice demanded blood be shed as an offering for the world\u2019s sins. Christ became the Passover Lamb without blemish for us wandering sheep who deserve nothing but death.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 When Christ Jesus opened His mouth on the cross, it was to offer prayers for those who were killing Him and to offer praises to His Father whose love for sinners was greater than His love for His own life. He took our place and the punishment we rightly deserved. He was buried in our graves. He was cut off from the land of the living, killed as the worst sort of criminal and with other notorious criminals. He was buried in a rich man\u2019s new tomb. All of this He did that He could take our sin and death to His cross and give us His eternal life and righteousness as a free gift through our Baptism into His death and resurrection. Luther called this the happy exchange (\u201cfroehliche Wechsel\u201d). This is what Christ has done, and this is what Christ wants to do for all who are unbaptized, all who are still lost and condemned in their sins, and all who are without hope because they are still in need of a Savior.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Dear listeners and readers, do not think you are all alone. Do not think you are beyond help or redemption. Do not think you are just fine the way you are. God had to send His Son Jesus to be born of the Virgin Mary, to live the perfectly obedient life you and I cannot live, and to die the perfectly innocent death you and I cannot die, because every human being is born in bondage to sin, death, and evil and cannot free her- or himself. If anyone dies without Christ as her or his Savior, that person dies a lost and condemned sinner. It doesn\u2019t have to be so. God doesn\u2019t want it to be so. God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world might be saved (Jn 3:17). Indeed, God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself (2 Corinthians 5:19), and He wants you to be reconciled to Him by being baptized into Jesus\u2019 death and resurrection. Whoever believes and is baptized, (and you can reverse that in Greek) whoever is baptized and believes, will be saved (Mark 16:16). Salvation is God\u2019s gift. Faith is God\u2019s gift. Baptism is God\u2019s gift. Don\u2019t miss out on God\u2019s grace and mercy because of your stubbornness having been raised almost to the deadliest of art forms.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Today is not the saddest day for Christians (that would be Ash Wednesday). It is a day of quiet joy, for Christ has<\/u>conquered sin, death, and the old evil one on the cross. The Crucified One is<\/u> alive forever, and He continues to intercede for transgressors. If you are not baptized, or, if your child is not baptized, then it\u2019s time to ask for the gift God dearly wants to give you. Christ Jesus is praying for you and me today. So… confess that you ar<\/u>e a great sinner, yes. But confess with joy that you have a Greater Savior, God\u2019s Son Jesus, who has suffered and died, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, so that you and I may be His own forever! Come to the water, dear ones. Be born again by water and the Holy Spirit (Jn 3:5).<\/p>\n

In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

\u00a9Samuel D. Zumwalt, STS<\/p>\n

szumwalt@bellsouth.net<\/a><\/p>\n

www.societyholytrinity.org<\/a><\/p>\n

St. Matthew\u2019s Evangelical Lutheran Church<\/p>\n

Wilmington, North Carolina<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Good Friday | 29 March 2024 | A Sermon on Isaiah 52:13-53:12 | Samuel Zumwalt | Isaiah 52:13-53:12 \u00a9\u00a02001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers] 13\u00a0Behold,\u00a0my servant shall act wisely; he shall be high and lifted up, and shall be exalted. 14\u00a0As many were astonished at you\u2014 his appearance was so marred, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19575,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,2,157,853,108,110,640,702,349,109,160],"tags":[],"beitragende":[],"predigtform":[],"predigtreihe":[],"bibelstelle":[],"class_list":["post-19665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-jesaja","category-at","category-beitragende","category-bibel","category-current","category-engl","category-kapitel-52-chapter-52","category-karfreitag","category-kasus","category-predigten","category-samuel-david-zumwalt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19665"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19665\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19666,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19665\/revisions\/19666"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19665"},{"taxonomy":"beitragende","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/beitragende?post=19665"},{"taxonomy":"predigtform","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtform?post=19665"},{"taxonomy":"predigtreihe","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtreihe?post=19665"},{"taxonomy":"bibelstelle","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bibelstelle?post=19665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}