Isaiah 61:2 “(He has sent me) to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God…”

            “The Year of the Lord’s Favor” is a reference to the Old Testament “Year of Jubilee.” Once every seven years the nation of Israel didn’t plant crops. That was called a Sabbath year. They gave their fields a rest, and lived off of their flocks and orchards and vineyards, and whatever plants happened to come up in their fields.

Once every 50 years was the “Year of Jubilee.” For a second year in a row God told the people to take a year off their regular farming and trust him to provide. All land was returned to its original owners. All slaves were set free. The poor were offered special care from their countrymen.

In order for such an arrangement to work, the people had to trust the Lord to take care of them. More than that, in order for this to work, God himself had to intervene to make the harvest of the 48^th year feed the people for almost three years until the next harvest. That was his promise. In doing so, he was teaching his people that he is the God on whom they could depend for everything–the God who fed them, and gave them rest, and set them free.

We don’t know if one of these “Years of Jubilee,” these years when the people lived under God’s special favor and care, took place during the thirty-three years of Jesus’ life with us. But through the prophet the Lord is telling us that Jesus’ ministry was the real “Year of Jubilee.” Now God intervened in the life his people to care for their needs, give them rest, and set them free.

In his miracle-working ministry of mercy Jesus fed and healed Israel. By his sacrifice at the cross he gave us all rest from the burden of the law. We no longer have to labor under its demands for perfection if we want to be loved and accepted by God. By his resurrection from the dead he set us free from our slavery to the power of sin to control us, and the power of death to destroy us, and the power of the devil to own us as his own.

Jesus’ ministry was and is the “year of the Lord’s favor.” It is a time of divine intervention in our world and in our future. That is truly good news.

Isaiah 61:1  “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners.”

These words are recorded deep within our Old Testaments, but in Luke Jesus claims them as a description of himself and his ministry. He is the one on whom the Spirit of the Lord has come. He is the one anointed to preach good news. That all happened at his baptism. That verifies and validates his words.

Understand that the prophet speaks in metaphors. “The poor” aren’t limited to people living below the threshold of poverty, though it certainly does not exclude them. If he meant financially poor, then we would have to assume these words are not meant for us. You may have heard the statistics that reveal Americans living in our social safety net of welfare and social security still enjoy a standard of living better than 95 percent of the rest of the world.

No, the “poor” are the spiritually poor, the “poor in spirit” he blesses in his Sermon on the Mount, and that includes every sincere believer. It says something about how we regard ourselves and our condition. We are broke and bankrupt, spiritually speaking. We don’t claim good things for ourselves. We know that our sin (“my own sin, my own grievous sin,” as we confess in one of the evening services) has ruined everything. Any dollar bills we try to pull out of our pockets are counterfeit. Any diamonds we want to show off are actually glass.

The other terms for the people to whom he is sent all describe the same people. The “brokenhearted” aren’t people with atherosclerosis, angina, or a leaky valve. This isn’t Dr. Jesus Christ, M.D. They aren’t people with failed romances. Jesus isn’t Dr. Phil, or eHarmony’s Dr. Neil Warren. Their hearts break because they are genuinely appalled by their own sins, and it grieves them.

The “captives” and the “prisoners” aren’t limited to the wards of the justice system. Following Jesus Christ may be just as likely to land a person in prison as it is to break him out of it. Jesus never began a campaign to empty the jails, but plenty of his disciples ended up there. No, the captives and prisoners can’t escape their own taste for violence, perversion, greed, fear, worry, or hypocrisy, and so they lack the ability to escape God’s just judgment on the paths they have chosen to follow. They are trapped in a cage that is locked from the inside.

In the Forward to his book The Ragamuffin Gospel evangelist Brennan Manning once gave this colorful description of the kind of people the prophet has in mind. They are “the wobbly and weak-kneed who know they don’t have it altogether…unsteady disciples whose cheese is falling off their cracker…poor, weak, sinful men and women with hereditary faults and limited talents…earthen vessels who shuffle along on feet of clay…the bent and bruised who feel their lives are a grave disappointment to God…smart people who know they are stupid and honest disciples who admit they are scalawags” (p.14).

It is for people like this that Jesus comes along with his saving solutions: bandaging, freedom, and release. So that my heart will not despair of God’s love, he comes along with the good news that God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life. As much as we live in a world in which it seems every statement is laced with profanity, Jesus spoke with a gentleness and love in which it seemed every word was laced with grace. A paralyzed man is set in front of Jesus by his friends. “Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.” Those words didn’t cure the man’s paralysis, but I know that they bandaged his heart. A woman “caught-in-the-act” is dragged before Jesus to be stoned. Jesus exposes the hypocrisy of her accusers and shames them into leaving. “Neither do I condemn you,” he says to her. Jesus didn’t approve the behavior of the woman caught in adultery. His very next words told her, “Leave your life of sin.” But they certainly set her free from a lifetime of self-loathing and fearing the judgment of God.

 It’s all good news, soul-saving solutions for people who know they have run out of options, and all they have left is God’s grace.

John 2:11 “This, the first of his miraculous signs, Jesus performed in Cana of Galilee. He thus revealed his glory, and his disciples put their faith in him.” 

Turning water into wine was more than a miracle. It was a sign. It spoke a message to those who knew who did it. Perhaps Jesus didn’t do this miracle with the dramatic flair which would have made everyone at the wedding feast stop and stare at him. But for those who knew he did it, the miracle was intended to attract their attention. 

This simple act of love and power helped his disciples see more than Jesus the man. It gave them a glimpse of his divinity. “He thus revealed his glory,” we are told. What are we looking at when the Prophet from Nazareth transforms H2O into high-quality fermented grape juice full of sugars, red pigments, and alcohol? This miracle worker is more than a clever magician, even more than a caring friend. He is the Son of God, who came to live with men, share their lives, and be their Savior. 

“And his disciples put their faith in him.” That was important for these men. On this day, perhaps, Jesus was providing only a simple earthly need with his quiet power. On another day, this same man would love them so much that he would lay his power aside, lay down his own life for their sins, and so provide forgiveness, freedom, and life that never ends.

On another day this same Jesus would rise from the dead in glorious power, proclaiming to them and us that sin and death are defeated and have no power to condemn us, no power to control us, ever again. His disciples put their faith in him, and so do we. That is his saving purpose.

Why would anyone want to follow our Jesus? Maybe people need someone to help them see his power working through generosity and love, so that they can see that Jesus is the source of every blessing.

John 2:6-10 “Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants, ‘Fill the jars with water;’ so they filled them to the brim. Then he told them, ‘Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.’ They did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside and said, ‘Everyone brings out the choice wine first, and then brings out the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.” 

We see Jesus’ love in the quiet manner in which he performed his miracle. He didn’t put on a big show.  In love for the bride and groom he did his miracle discreetly. On this big day in their lives, he didn’t steal the attention, deserving of that attention as Jesus may have been. Information about the true source of this wine was on a “need to know” basis. 

To focus on the miracle would be to focus on the wrong thing, anyway. When Jesus turned the water into wine, he didn’t want everyone to start clapping and yelling, “Encore! Encore!” as he took a big bow. He didn’t come to provide the entertainment for the wedding. He wasn’t substituting for the band. The miracle was meant to turn the attention of those who knew somewhere else. The power he used to bring this blessing worked behind the scenes.

God’s power often works that way. It does its work in a quiet, gentle way. Many of Jesus’ other miracles were done without many more words or gestures than this one. The power God uses to sustain our lives each day is something we hardly notice. The power and miracle of God’s word taking hold of a person’s heart often operates with subtlety.

Sometimes we human beings want the spectacular instead. Not patient enough for God’s love to change people and hearts, we want something that will “wow” the masses. “Come on, Jesus, do us a trick!”

But God’s power works for us in love. That means that it usually works in quiet and subtle ways. 

Even if Jesus’ power works quietly, that doesn’t make it less real or less miraculous. Look at how richly he blesses this couple! His gift to bride and groom measured about one hundred and twenty gallons of wine (certainly more than he intended the guests to consume at the wedding feast). This gift would last the newlyweds into the coming weeks and months. 

Look at the quality of his blessing as well. According to the master of the banquet, Jesus’ provided the best wine, the choice wine, for this occasion. His blessing was perfect in every way. 

That our Savior blesses us just as richly is a truth easily lost on us in our day-to-day experience. More blessings surround us than we can count. Many of the spiritual blessings are not even possible for us to perceive as he gives them. Yet, how many troubles does it take to hide all these blessings from us?  Isn’t it true that a single problem can make us feel as if we have no blessings at all?  We can be living in a treasure trove of God’s goodness, but one or two problems take up all our attention.

No matter the crisis of the moment, our Savior’s quiet power is still providing all we truly need.

John 2:1-5 “On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, ‘They have no more wine.’  ‘Dear woman, why do you involve me?’ Jesus replied, ‘My time has not yet come.’ His mother said to the servants, ‘Do whatever he tells you.” 

Jesus was attending a wedding, and this little bit of background information is worth taking a minute to consider. What do we see about Jesus here? We see that he takes an interest in our everyday lives. The same Jesus who had recently been baptized by John the Baptist, anointed as God’s own Messiah and the rightful Ruler and Savior over Israel; the same Jesus who had done battle with the devil himself in the wilderness and defeated every tempting attack the devil made; this same Jesus now took time to help a couple of ordinary people celebrate the start of their married lives together. Jesus came to be a part of the everyday, normal lives the people around him lived. He knew that he was serving his heavenly Father just as well when he was doing very ordinary things as he was when he was off battling the devil or preaching sermons. 

Do we try too hard to divide our lives into secular activities and spiritual activities? We don’t have to be teaching a Bible class, making a mission call, or attending a worship service to be doing God’s work. (Though I certainly don’t want to discourage any of that). Doing God’s work may mean pushing a pencil or the keys on a computer. Doing God’s work may mean raising our children if we have them. Doing the Lord’s work might involve a little recreation now and then.  If we aren’t serving the Lord with these very “earthy” activities, whom does that leave?  Ourselves?  The Devil?  Anything that doesn’t serve God is sin.

Jesus understood. He knew he was serving the Father even when he was enjoying himself at a wedding. This wedding gave him a chance to do more than take an interest in our everyday lives. He also takes an interest in our everyday problems.  “When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, ‘They have no more wine.’  ‘Dear woman, why do you involve me?’ Jesus replied, ‘My time has not yet come.’ His mother said to the servants, ‘Do whatever he tells you.'”  Mary turned to the right place for help. Jesus is the source of every blessing. Even in this simple, earthy need, Jesus was the one to ask. 

As we often have to wait for an answer to our prayers, Mary had to wait for Jesus to answer her request.  His reply to Mary wasn’t intended to be impolite. He was firmly reminding her that he was not her little boy anymore. He wasn’t telling Mary he wouldn’t help.  He simply said, “Not yet.”  He was waiting for the time that was just right, when his miracle would accomplish everything he wanted it to do.

Jesus’s words to Mary comfort us in a couple of ways. First, they assure us when our prayers seem to go unanswered. The Lord may not do everything we ask immediately. That doesn’t mean he is never going to do it. He knows what we need better than we know it ourselves. He knows the best time to step in and help. Because he loves us, he only does what is most helpful. When we wait for answers, God’s love is at work for us. We have even more reason to pray to him boldly and confidently, knowing that he won’t let our requests or our impatience get in the way of our true need.

Second, we can be sure that no situation is too “earthly” or too “secular” to ask Jesus to help. It is not hard to imagine the sinking feeling the bride and groom felt when running out of wine ruined their perfect day.  All that planning and preparation to have THIS happen.  And yet, it wasn’t a problem that would have made much difference in the great cosmic scheme of things. The fate of the nation did not in the balance. No lives were at stake.

Still, we see that Jesus is the source of every blessing even in our simple needs. Jesus love for us extends to every part of our lives.

Isaiah 42:1-3 “Here is my servant, whom I uphold…He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice.”

Jesus lived and died as a servant. There are religious leaders, even founders of world religions, who live, lead, and teach as though everything revolves around their own happiness. Did you know that almost 85 percent of Americans and almost 70 percent of Christians believe that the highest goal of life is to enjoy it as much as possible? No wonder we fall so easily for religion that promises more for me.

Jesus is a servant. He lived and died as one. He served his Father, and he did so by serving us. That doesn’t mean he didn’t enjoy life, too, but that was not his priority. That’s not how he lived, led, and taught.

If serving us meant sacrificing himself, he did so without complaint. He tolerated the constant criticism and persecution from the establishment of his day. He suffered with dull disciples who came from sketchy backgrounds. He welcomed the miserable masses and their never ending demand for help and healing even if he had to skip meals and miss sleep and cut a vacation short to do so. He loved them, he loved them all, and so he served. He served until they were done with him, and they crucified him, and in death he offered the ultimate service to us all by dying for our crimes and paying the penalty our sins deserved. Here is God’s Servant. Here is your Servant.

His service accomplishes great things for us. “I will put my Spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations. He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice…”

There is a word that repeats here. Do you see it? “He will bring justice…He will bring forth justice.” In all our experience, justice is something that comes with force, even violence. Someone commits a violent crime. Law enforcement hunts him down and brings him to justice. Four college students are murdered in Idaho. Police and the FBI track him down in Pennsylvania and bring him back to Idaho to stand trial. If convicted, he faces life in prison, or even death.

Outside of law enforcement there are people who agitate for “social justice.” Some minority or another suffers unequal treatment, and private citizens or organizations advocate to change this. This rarely happens quietly. They are loud and angry. It is not uncommon for the whole process to involve riots and destruction of property.

That wasn’t Jesus’ style. “He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets.” Jesus didn’t hunt down and arrest the sinners and the criminals. He called them to repentance. He invited them to a new and restored relationship in God’s family. Jesus didn’t attack the abusers of power like the Pharisees and priests and lead a popular rebellion. He taught them, or at least he tried. He accepted their invitations and attended their dinners. His successes with them were few, but he stuck to his quiet methods.

Jesus came to bring a different kind of justice, a whole new twist on the idea. “A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice.” Jesus didn’t bring people to justice by making them pay. He didn’t bring people to justice by forcing them to change. He brings justice by making people forgiven.  He brings them to justice by wooing them to faith.

The forgiven man or woman has no charges for which to answer anymore. That has all disappeared. They are “just.” The believing man or woman may not be good, wholesome, and fair in all they say or do. Like the reed that is bent and bruised, it may not be possible to make them completely whole, at least not in this life.

But Jesus doesn’t break them off as the enemy. He already counts them as his friends and family. By faith in him they are just. And then he goes to work healing and mending their spiritual wounds. More and more his love makes them look, act, and love like he does. That’s how justice works when Jesus is serving it.

Isaiah 42:1 “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight. I will put my Spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations.”

Before I let someone work on my house, my car, or my body, I like to get some good references first. I don’t let just anyone mess with the most valuable things I have. Before you can get a job somewhere, they may ask to see a list of references. Even the most menial tasks can have a profound effect on the business. Do you want a person with questionable integrity running the cash register? Would you want someone with a habit of making offensive comments interacting with your customers? That sounds like a recipe for disaster.

Should we let just anyone be responsible for the care and maintenance of our eternal souls? I know that the politically correct position today is to put all religions and all their takes on God on more or less the same footing. Actor Morgan Freeman hosted a six-week series for National Geographic Channel called The Story of God. It explored the answers that major world religions and several different Christian denominations give to searching spiritual questions. The take away seems to be, according to Freeman, that “all religions and beliefs share remarkable similarities.” “We should celebrate them rather than let them cause rifts between us.”

I think we can agree with Mr. Freeman that there are large areas of similar beliefs about morals within the various religions. If only the followers of those religions, including our own, would take putting them into practice more seriously. We can also agree that people of every faith, or no faith at all, should be treated with dignity and kindness. Different beliefs do not justify violence. Jesus went so far as to tell us, “Love your enemies.”

But we would be sadly mistaken to conclude that we can thus pick out a faith with our eyes blindfolded, and it won’t make any meaningful difference–they are all essentially the same. The pediatricians my wife and I fired and the one we kept may have been 90 percent, 95 percent, 98 percent the same in their training, medical knowledge, and skills. But we didn’t think for a moment that anything less than the good health, even the life, of our children hung in the balance in seeking to make the right choice. Infinitely more is at stake with the care of our souls.

Here is a good reference. You may want to pay close attention. “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations.” Does the first line sound vaguely familiar? Remember these words from Jesus’ baptism? “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” The first set of words, the ones from Isaiah, were spoken by God the Father about 700 B.C. The second set, from the book of Matthew, were spoken by God the Father 730 years later at Jesus’ baptism.

It is an outstanding reference from the highest and most trustworthy source. In each case the Lord and God of heaven is claiming this person as his very own, “my servant,” “my chosen one,” “my Son.” Anyone can recommend a guy. I’m less interested in the person someone heard about, “I hear that so-and-so is pretty good.” I am more interested in the person you know and use yourself. Jesus is the Servant, the Chosen One, the Son of God the Father claims as his very own.            

He gives him a five star rating: “My chosen one in whom I delight.” “My Son whom I love, with him I am well pleased.” The reviews from heaven are in. Jesus satisfies his Father’s demands in every way. He is his Father’s delight. That’s the Leader whose faith I want to follow. That’s the Savior I want to take care of my soul.

Philippians 1:21-23 “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. If I am going to go on living in the body, this will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet what shall I choose? I do not know! I am torn between the two. I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far.”

To die is gain. More and more people seem to agree with that statement. Terrorists routinely kill themselves along with their victims. Every few months some angry father or mother in a custody battle murders the children and then takes their own life. Death doesn’t seem to hold people in the fear it once did.

So long as they aren’t suffering intensely, life is going well, or there is the potential for it to get better, most people still prefer life. But for those coping with pain that can’t be relieved, or facing a future they fear, death seems to offer escape or relief.

A Christian has been given a unique take on life and death. Escape and relief are not what Paul means by “to die is gain.” Death doesn’t lead to nothing. It leads to something. It doesn’t just end something terrible. It begins something wonderful.

That may seem strange in light of the fact that God originally imposed death as part of the ultimate punishment for our sin. Its original purpose was not to give us something. It was to put us out of God’s presence forever.

Jesus changed all of that by dying instead of us. As our Savior, he was dying for us, in our place, when he gave up his life on the cross. His death served out the death penalty for our sins. It satisfied God’s justice and wiped our record completely clean–not only the felonies, but the misdemeanors and petty sins as well. As a result, God has nothing for which to be angry at us anymore, not even mildly irritated, and we have been reconciled.

Since death has been emptied of its original purpose, Jesus has invested it with a new one–it is the doorway to eternal life. His own resurrection from the dead assures us that death is not the end of life. It is the beginning of a new life. To die is gain. Death is not a bad choice when Jesus chooses it for me.

Author and motivational speaker Stephen Covey says that one of the secrets to success is to think “win-win.” It appears Paul thought of this long before. “To live is Christ, to die is gain.”

Deuteronomy 33:27 “The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.”

Our God’s unique reliability is found in those terms “eternal” and “everlasting.” Two different words are used in the Hebrew, each with its own emphasis. The first one looks deep into the past. The eternal God is the God who existed before all things. He goes back before sin entered the world, before there even was a world, before there was even such a thing as time. He has always existed. And the steady march of time since the beginning has not weakened or changed him. He has been constant, dependable, faithful, tried and true.

It is this eternal God whom Moses says is our “refuge.” We have his protection in the fights we face. Now, when you hear the word “refuge,” do you think of something temporary? When I hear “refuge” I tend to think of a place to which to run when there is trouble. I picture thick, gray, cold stone walls. It is unusually strong, well-fortified, maybe hard to access, and since the emphasis is on protection rather than comfort it is somewhat austere. It’s not the kind of place one would live on a full time basis.

That’s not the kind of refuge Moses is holding before us here. This is a place to call home. It offers all of the security and protection mentioned above, but it also has the warmth and permanency of the place you call home. This is the kind of refuge that the eternal God is for you and me. For thousands of years he has been this rock solid yet comfortable place in which his people could live all their days.

The other word which highlights our God’s reliability, “everlasting,” doesn’t look back but ahead. He is literally ever-lasting, he lasts forever, he goes on and on into eternity. His power, his love, his faithfulness, his very being, will never end.

The picture of God that Moses associates with “everlasting” are his everlasting arms beneath us. Do you know what that promises us? It doesn’t say that we will never have troubles. God will allow a certain number of things to test your faith. He will permit you to struggle with other people, perhaps struggle to make a living, or struggle with temptation.

But you will never be alone in those struggles and challenges. If you stumble, falter, or fall, he is not going to let you fall to your doom. His everlasting arms will always be under you.

I remember following my children around when they were just taking their first steps. There my wife or I were with hands and arms right underneath their bottom sides, ready to catch them when they took their first misstep. God’s own everlasting arms are always present underneath his wobbly-kneed, unsteady children, ready to catch them and hold them if ever they slip or fall along the way. He never fails. You can count on it.

Doesn’t that offer us courage for the challenges we face? Our souls are safe when we make our home with him. A look back at God’s perfect track record assures us that victory is always on his side. He will not let us be pushed down and trampled to death in the battles and fights that lie ahead. His arms will always be beneath us to catch us and prevent us from splattering ourselves on life’s jagged rocks. His reliability never fails.