Advent 4
Dear friends in Christ. The long wait is almost over! Our anticipation of Christmas—which the merchants have done their best to heighten in us since at least October— and its celebration is almost here! The schools are finally closed. The homes are decorated. The presents are, for the most part, wrapped; and the stockings hung with care. Travel plans are made. The big feasts are planned and perhaps even some preparations already under way. Although so many stress themselves out at Christmas with unrealistic expectations and just doing too much, most people still have a special joy—that Christmas cheer. And, yes, that even applies to the unbelieving world around us with its holiday trees and non-descript early winter holiday.
But for the Christian—although we may very well delight in these outward things/ trappings—our true joy is in the announcement of the angel: [Luke 2.11] There is born for you this day…a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. Our true joy is grounded on the fact of what Christmas is about—God becoming man to be our Savior. Really what Christmas’ joy is founded in is the message of victory—although Jesus is newly born, He is born the God-man; He came to fight the battle for us against sin, death, devil and hell; and precisely because He is the God-man, as soon as He comes, His victory for us over our spiritual enemies is certain. This is foundation of our Christmas joy: For us fights the Valiant One.
The image Isaiah uses in our text is of the runner, coming from the battle to tell the city/ country that their forces won the battle against the enemy. They are victorious; they are safe. The runner comes bearing good news and how the people welcome the sight of his arrival: How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news. As we examine our text this morning we will see that Jesus’ coming brings us joy.
1. As we read what the Holy Spirit had Isaiah write in our text we notice: How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news. Notice of him is singular; it’s one Person. That one Person is Christ; He came on that first Christmas as the Baby born in Bethlehem. The true God came physically—became true man taking on human flesh and blood in the womb of the blessed Virgin.
When we hear How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, let us first think of Christ Jesus, and His coming to earth; His physical coming to this earth. And what did He do? He brought good news. The word that Isaiah uses “bring good news” means to preach God’s grace, to proclaim the New Testament.
It means that Jesus came to preach/ announce the good news of God’s grace and forgiveness. What a glorious foundation for our Christmas celebrations—as St. John [John 3.17] writes: God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. Jesus could very easily have come to bring us the just reward for our sins—God’s wrath, punishment, condemnation—but He didn’t. Instead, How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news. What is the first thing that the holy Evangelist St. Mark [Mark 1.14] writes of Jesus after He began His public ministry? Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God. In other words, How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news. That Jesus, the coming Savior, would bring good news is fulfillment of prophecy; that is, the Savior would be recognized precisely by the preaching of the good news. That’s what Isaiah would record a few chapters later as he records the words of the Savior [Isaiah 61.1]: The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor. In last Sunday’s gospel we heard Jesus telling us that He fulfilled this prophecy: Go and tell John the things which you hear and see…the poor have the Gospel preached to them. Our Christmas joy is grounded on the fact of Jesus, the Savior’s, physical coming in the flesh. He came to announce to us the Good News.
How beautiful upon the mountains Are the feet of him who brings good news, Who proclaims peace, Who brings glad tidings of good things, Who proclaims salvation, Who says to Zion, "Your God reigns!" But, not only did Jesus come to announce the good news, He actually brought about that Good News, that peace, that good, that salvation. Unless Jesus would reconcile us sinners to the holy God; unless Jesus would take our sins on Himself and suffer all of God’s wrath and punishment for us; unless Jesus would place Himself under God’s holy law to keep it for us as our Substitute; unless by His holy, perfect, innocent, suffering and death Jesus would appease the wrath of the holy God, He would be unable to bring good news.
But Isaiah later writes in our text: The LORD has made bare His arm of holiness In the eyes of all the nations; And all the ends of the earth shall see The salvation of our God. Jesus is that arm of God’s holiness—because Jesus is true God holiness dwells in Him, shines through Him and He acts in holiness. The LORD has made bare His arm of holiness that means so He can fight without hindrance. Christ came and in His holy life and death made known His divine power over our hellish enemies—and won. Because Jesus did all this for us and brought about for us the forgiveness of sins, new spiritual life and eternal salvation in heaven, He can and does bring good news!
When He was born, the angels could praise God for the peace, the reconciliation Jesus would bring about; during His earthly ministry Jesus could proclaim the forgiveness of sins that He in the course of time would bring about because with His coming on the scene, Christmas, His victory for us was certain!
Not only did Jesus come that one time, physically, and announce our peace, bring glad tidings of good, cause people to hear “salvation.” He continues to come to us today and announce and give us these blessings. He comes today to us through the word He had His holy apostles and evangelists write. How beautiful upon the mountains Are the feet of him who brings good news, Who proclaims peace, Who brings glad tidings of good things, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion, "Your God reigns!"
The apostles and their successors, all faithful preachers of the word of God—how joyful we are as we hear them proclaim to us the Good News about Jesus! How we delight when we hear proclaimed from the Scripture that Jesus is our Savior from sin, wrath and damnation! How beautiful are the feet, that is, how we sinners who recognize our sin and long for a Savior from sin rejoice when we hear the Gospel preached in a sermon and hear pronounced upon us the absolution/ forgiveness of sins; when we receive it with Jesus’ Body and Blood in the Holy Supper. That message of peace and forgiveness is what we longed to hear. And how we treasure that message and praise the Lord that He sent that messenger to us with the announcement/ proclamation and gift of forgiveness.
So not only is Jesus the One who brings the good news, as He did during His earthly ministry, but so also are the ones He sends—first and foremost His apostles, and so are all who faithfully proclaim Him—even you as you tell others the good news about Jesus. The proclamation of Christ that you share is powerful because not only are you announcing Jesus and His work but the Holy Spirit is mightily at work in that word you share; and as you proclaim Jesus you are also giving the gifts that Jesus brought us—forgiveness, life, and salvation. Just as the apostles of our Lord went into the entire world, so too does their voice still resound each time we share that proclamation of Christ. He still comes and brings the repentant sinner comfort and joy. That’s true Christmas joy—joy that the Savior Christ Jesus has come and He has come even to me!
Now notice something else interesting in Isaiah’s imagery: How beautiful upon the mountains Are the feet of him who brings good news, Who proclaims peace, Who brings glad tidings of good things, Who proclaims salvation, Who says to Zion, "Your God reigns!" Your watchmen shall lift up their voices, With their voices they shall sing together; For they shall see eye to eye When the LORD brings back Zion. Here comes the messenger from the battle to announce the good news and who is there scanning the horizon looking for His coming? The watchmen standing on the walls of the city! If we understand that Jesus is the One bringing the good news, proclaiming peace, who would be the ones watching for His coming? The OT faithful! And in particular the Prophets! They, like Isaiah, were the ones scanning the horizon looking for the coming Savior; they searched the prophecies as St. Peter [1 Peter 1.10] writes: searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow.
The point here is simply this—Jesus and His coming and work are the center of all of Holy Scripture, both Old and New Testament. The watchmen—the prophets and all the OT faithful look forward to Jesus and His work; Jesus brought it about and announced it and now His apostles and all faithful Christians look back on it, receive it and rejoice in the accomplished work.
2. Jesus’ coming—both His first coming and now in His holy word and sacrament— brings us joy. It is the reason why Christmas is truly a season of joy for the penitent sinner. Break forth into joy, sing together, You waste places of Jerusalem! For the LORD has comforted His people, He has redeemed Jerusalem. We were the waste places/ ruins of Jerusalem, spiritually devastated and destroyed by the devil. But now we take up the glad tidings because in Christ God redeemed us from the devil’s kingdom of sin and death and from that hellish slavery. In Christ we are forgiven our sin, have new spiritual life and look forward to a glorious heavenly eternity. As the ruins of Jerusalem, we recognize our sin and what it earns and brings us; we feel our conscience accusing us of sin; as ruins, we have nothing we can offer God. But then upon the mountains are the beautiful feet of Christ as He comes to us in His word and announces to us and gives us the forgiveness of sin and life He brought about for us on the cross. He gives us that righteousness and holiness we lack. For the LORD has comforted His people, He has redeemed Jerusalem. In Christ, the promise of comfort has become fact! Not only does the Lord give us consoling words, but He gives us, dear Christian, true consolation—the forgiveness of sins, joy and happiness and His Holy Spirit.
This isn’t just “theory”/ “pie in the sky” sort of peace and comfort. Instead, each time we read/ hear Holy Scripture offering/promising us the forgiveness of sins, God is actually giving it to us. Each time we hear the absolution—“I forgive you your sins”—God is not toying/ trifling with us, but He is actually giving us the forgiveness of sins. When we hear, “This is My body and blood given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins,” Jesus is actually giving us with His body and blood in the sacrament also the forgiveness of sins. Not only do we hear it with our ears but we actually receive in our mouths Jesus’ actual body and blood that brought it all about! What a glorious way that Jesus comes to us and gives us joy—the joy of our salvation, the joy of the forgiveness of sins!
Our Christmas joy is that Christ Jesus has come to be our Savior born of Mary; our Christmas joy is that Jesus has come and still comes to us giving us the fruits and blessings of His saving work! Our Christmas joy is a true joy with a solid foundation—Jesus and His work for us. INJ Amen!