ISAIAH 63:16b-17; 64:1-8
COME DOWN AND FIX THIS.
In the name + of Jesus.
The prophet Isaiah preached some of the most beautiful messages of hope in the Old Testament. Sadly, much of his original audience did not listen. They were more concerned about the surrounding nations who were posing a threat. Border nations pestered them. Syria, which was farther away, had ravaged them. And the kingdom of Assyria, who was the world power at the time, had taken the northern tribes into captivity. They had demanded the surrender of Jerusalem as well, but Jerusalem was spared—for the time being. In the midst of this unrest, Isaiah called Judah and Jerusalem to repent. But whenever the people were granted relief, they returned to their self-centered pursuits. They did not listen to God's word or live by God's Commandments.
The message of God's prophets was consistent: If you will not repent, the Lord will sweep away the southern tribes of Israel as he did the north. But long before God fulfilled that threat by calling on the Babylonians to take the kingdom of Judah captive, he already had Isaiah promising the return of a remnant to Jerusalem. Of course, people who did not take seriously the threat of captivity would also not care about messages of a return. So, despite the comfort Isaiah was giving, it was ignored.
Toward the end of his prophecy, it seems as if Isaiah has had it. He cries out, “Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence—as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil—to make your name known to your adversaries, and that the nations might tremble at your presence!” (Isaiah 64:1-2) Isaiah's plea was this: Lord, come down and fix this!
Isaiah yearned for the Lord to take away the threats of the nations. They had no fear for the Lord, no faith in God's promises, and no respect for God's people. It was not the first time that Israel had faced that. And in former days, the Lord had stepped in to deliver his people. Isaiah had hoped to see it again. Come down and fix this! “When you did awesome things that we did not look for, you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.” (Isaiah 64:3)
Lord, come down and fix this, like when you divided the Red Sea so that Israel could cross to safety on dry ground, and so that those same waters would come back to drown the enemies of God's people. Lord, come down and fix this, like when you destroyed Jericho, the strongest city in the Promised Land. The walls collapsed and, Lord, you gave Israel the victory over their enemies. Lord, you had acted in marvelous, miraculous ways before. Why not now? The nations threaten your people; Lord, come down and fix this!
Sadly, Isaiah knew that the problem was not really with the nations around Israel. It was with the people in Israel. Those who were supposed to be God's people were living under great presumptions. They assumed they had a divine right to peace and prosperity. They assumed that being God's chosen people gave them license to live as they pleased. They had stopped listening to God's word. As a result, they were neither seeking God's will nor walking in God's ways. Isaiah acknowledged that Israel had no right to expect anything good from God anymore. Isaiah declared, “Behold, you were angry, and we sinned; in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved? We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. There is no one who calls upon your name, who rouses himself to take hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us, and have made us melt in the hand of our iniquities.” (Isaiah 64:5-7)
The prayer of Isaiah remained the same: “Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down.” (Isaiah 64:1) Come down and fix this. And it remains the prayer of many Christians today. We wring our hands over a world which ignores God's word and lives in rebellion against it. Our society has shifted dramatically over what is considered moral and decent. Morality is considered being true to your desires, no matter how perverse they are. Being decent is to applaud when people do whatever they want, or at least to shut up if you think it is wrong. If you do not pray for your children and your families and guide them so that God would preserve them from adopting this spirit, then you underestimate how much this spirit influences us all. God's word is being shouted down by people who are trying to establish a different truth. And whoever will not confess our society's truth is in danger of being excommunicated from society. For many, being rejected by the world is just too great a price to pay to remain one of God's people.
“Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down.” (Isaiah 64:1) Lord, come down and fix this! Of course, we deceive ourselves if we think the problems are limited to unbelievers. Isaiah recognized that God's people had been lulled into apathy concerning God's truth. They were convinced that they were fine, but did not mean they were. The same problems remain with us. Isaiah confesses what all God's people should: “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.” (Isaiah 64:6) If our righteous deeds are polluted, that means the best we have to give is soiled before God.
We are not God's people because we have cleaned ourselves up and gotten our heads right. None of us has overcome our sins. Whose heart is free from jealousy, worry, or anger? Who eyes haven't gone willfully blind to the sins of loved ones because we fear losing them more than denying God's word? Even our best acts are corrupted. Who hasn't assumed a heavenly reward is deserved for doing no more than God commands? Shall we be saved when we think of ourselves more highly than we ought? And shall we be saved when we sneer at others who are deceived by lies? And shall we be saved when we return to our pet sins? When we cry out, “Lord, come down and fix this!” are we begging God to fix someone else and not us? Repent; for you and I cannot fix ourselves, let alone anything else.
“Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down.” (Isaiah 64:1) Lord, come down and fix this! Our appeal is not because we are worthy or even good. We appeal because he is our Father, because he is merciful, because he is good, and because we are the works of his hands. Isaiah makes a similar appeal. “You, O Lord, are our Father, our Redeemer from of old is your name.” (Isaiah 63:16) “From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides you, who acts for those who wait for him.” (Isaiah 64:4) If God is our Father, then he will naturally have a love for his children. And he does. In love for sinners, our Father has sought to redeem us. He sends down his Son, and it is the Son who fixes all things.
God the Son, however, does not rend the heavens and make the nations shutter in fear. Granted, ruling over people constant threats can produce a better behaved world. One example is from what is now Romania. In the mid-1400's, the prince of Wallachia was able to boast of the obedience of his people. In the middle of town, he had supplied a cup of gold for drawing water from the well. No one ever stole the cup. Such restraint suggests a people who lived in great peace and contentment. The reality is that the punishment for breaking any of the nation's laws resulted in painful and gruesome death. The ruler is known to us as Vlad the Impaler because impaling people was his preferred method of punishing wrong-doers. Now, you could argue that Vlad the Impaler fixed the problems of crime in Wallachia, but is that how you want to live?
When the Son of God came down to fix all things, he came quietly, humbly, and meekly. His goal is not to scare you into submission. That may fix your behavior, but not your heart. Therefore, he takes away all sin and the curse that is deserved because of it. Jesus has made your sins, in fact the sins of the world, his own. “He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world” (1 John 2:2) The propitiation means that God's wrath has been diverted from you to Jesus. Jesus Christ has delivered you from the curse of sin so that you are not condemned. He assumed your curse, your death, and your hell. He has fixed your status so that you are a forgiven child of God. Therefore, he has also fixed your eternal judgment. You are destined for eternal peace and glory.
“Come down and fix this,” we cry. And he still does. Once again, he does not rend the heavens apart and terrify you. He comes to you in a word which is preached by a fallible man who knows what it is to be a sinner and what it means to be forgiven. He comes to you in the waters of Holy Baptism which washes away sin and which works in you a new nature which is no longer ruled by sin. He comes to you in bread and wine by which he gives you the body and blood which has atoned for all sin and which has overcome death and the grave. In feasting on this holy food, he grants forgiveness of sins, a new life of joyful obedience, and everlasting salvation. In this way, he fixes you. He restores your relationship with God the Father, and he renews your spirit so that you delight in what is good and crave what is holy.
If you crave what is holy, then you crave Jesus, and you desire to be with him. For, Jesus opens heaven to you. And there with Jesus, all things are fixed and forever perfect. For now, we cling to Jesus and await his return from there. On the Last Day, Jesus will come down, and the heavens will be rent asunder. The earth will not only quake, it will be refined by fire. All things will be fixed—restored to the perfection they were first created with. All enemies against God and his word will be cast away. All of God's word will be vindicated and upheld. All impurities will be purged out. And our cries will no longer be for relief, but for joy.
In the name of the Father and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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