A reading of the holy gospel according to Luke. Jesus rejoiced in the holy spirit and said, I thank thee, father, lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hidden these things from the wise and understanding and reveal them to babes. Yea, father, for such was thy gracious will. All things have been delivered to me by my father, and no one knows who the son is except the father or who the father is except the son and anyone to whom the son chooses to reveal him. And then turning to the disciples, Jesus said privately, blessed are the eyes which see what you see.
For I tell you that many prophets and kings desire to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it. And this is the gospel of the lord. Praise the lord. In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit, amen. Once again, this text has been chosen for obvious obvious reasons.
It ties in with yesterday's text. And once again, we have an affirmation here of our lord's divinity of his being, the son of god, to confirm, to reaffirm, to reassure our faith. It is a matter of faith, you know, when all is said and done, and that can be a very tenuous thing. Now in connection with this gospel we've read today, you must go back to Isaiah. Obviously, the church is saying here's the prophecy and here's the fulfillment.
Now you all heard what was read this morning from Isaiah. What do you make of it? Take what Isaiah says there and compare it with what Jesus Christ was, what he did, what he promised, what he said, and above all, what he suffered. This beautiful picture that Isaiah draws of the lion lying down with the with the calf, the cow and the bear feeding together, the suckling child shall play even over the hole of a snake, an ass, and all of that. Where does that where does that take place in the life of Jesus Christ?
The answer is it didn't. It did not. Then why does the church give us this text? Because remember this, I would urge you during this holy season of Advent, it's holy only if it helps us to be holy. That's our little contribution.
To go back and read Isaiah. Now when you read, remember you're reading the same prophet. And here you will have the such texts as we have today. These are called the messianic text because some people think they apply to the Messiah. But then you will read others which are contradictory of this, of the suffering Messiah, of him who will be spurned and spit upon and eventually put to death.
Now how do you put these two together? When you read this text and you say this is the Messiah and you compare this with with with Christ, the actuality of Jesus, you'll say, those two things don't compare at all. So either you will throw out Isaiah and accept Christ or you will accept Isaiah and not accept Christ if you go along exclusively on this category of texts. Notice I said category because this is not all of them. You see, in the same prophet, you have these two big categories of prophecies, messianic prophecies, which may or may not refer to the depending on who's reading what.
But on the one hand, you have a a category of texts which give you a picture of a triumphant glorious reign, a restoration of peace, peace beyond our imagining, tranquility, where all conflict will be over, where all will be joy and gladness and brightness. That's the one picture. And then in the same book by the same prophet, you have an utterly contrary picture. Utterly. And we call that the mess are they messianic?
They indeed they are. Plenty of good men say they are, and yet it gives you a totally different picture from the picture you have from Isaiah this morning. Now how do you put the two together? Well, it's not difficult. First of all, they both come from the same author.
Are they be are they to be taken as in some way prefiguring the Messiah? Yes. There may be considerable differences of opinion about which are messianic and which are not. But as I've said many times, when you have eliminated those which are doubtful, you come up with a residue which is pretty certain. And there you have in the last analysis this great dichotomy between the triumphant glorious messiah and the messiah, the outcast of men.
As I said, how do you put the two together? Our lord came once and never forget it. That is history. That's not going to happen again in the actuality of Jesus coming. In the actuality of my accepting him, oh, that's something in my life.
That is not history. That may be part history, part present tense, and part future. How I accept the the messiah, how I accept Jesus Christ coming. But then we have very definitely this whole concept of our lord's second coming when he indeed will come as the triumphant messiah, not as the suffering messiah, not as the abandoned outcast of human beings, his creatures. Oh, no.
Then the then the whole panorama changes. There you do have the triumphant messiah. And so we have to keep these things together and not to be misled. The historical Christ is the suffering messiah. He is our brother, and his lot is ours.
The triumphant messiah has not yet come. That day has not yet arrived. That is for the future. But we had this first one. And then when you tie this prophecy now in with what our what Saint Luke says here this morning and and which the church presents for our consideration, then we too must beg God for understanding.
For understanding. So many of us have this concept of being a follower of Christ, of be of trying to live a good life. It isn't that we're going to succeed a thousand percent or a 100% or 50%, it's that we are trying to follow Christ. And back of our heads, we have a picture that Isaiah draws in. That if I do what's right, if I follow Christ, if I try to do what he wants to be his disciple, if I try to take up my cross, then then I'll have this beautiful picture that Isaiah draws.
That righteousness shall be the girdle of his waist and faithfulness the girdle of his loins. We see that almost contradicted every day. The good get carbored and the wicked prosper. The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the kid, and the camp and the lion and the fatling will all eat together, and a little child will lead these beasts. What a lovely picture.
The only thing wrong with it is it ain't so in our lives. Where was that present in our Lord's life? And that's the messiah who is our brother, the suffering messiah. In the name of the father, the son, holy spirit. Amen.