Advent
Midweek II: “Advent with the Prophet Isaiah: The Root and Shoot of Jesse”
December
11, 2019
Text: Isaiah 11:1-10
Jesus
is the King. That is the glorious good
news the Prophet Isaiah preaches to us tonight.
Our text this evening is packed full of the goodness of our
theology. We get the two natures in
Christ: He is the Shoot that grows out of the stump of Jesse. He is the Son of David who sits on David’s
throne forever, the Promised Messiah.
This is His human nature. But He
is also the Root of Jesse, the Source, the LORD who makes the Promise and
brings it about. This is His divine
nature.
We
have the Holy Trinity appearing: “The Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him”
(Is. 11:2; ESV), Spirit, Father, Son.
We
have the teaching of the Spirit Himself and His resting upon Jesus with the
fulness of His sevenfold gifts, the Spirit of the Father, who proceeds from the
Father and the Son, the Spirit of God who is God and whom the Father
pours out upon us in Christ.
We
have justification and judgment and the Great Reversal: The poor and meek are
declared righteous by the Righteous Judge, who does not practice partiality, as
the kings of the earth do, but who gives His own righteousness to those who
have none of their own, and condemns those who bring their own so-called
righteousness to the table as though it should impress Him.
We
have the efficacy of the Word: He strikes the earth with the rod of His
mouth. His Word does what it says. Sinners are brought to repentance and
faith. Our enemies, sin, death, the
devil, the world, and our own sinful nature, are brought to nothing.
We
get a sneak peek of creation restored. Out
with the old and in with the new. Former
prey dwelling with former predators in peace.
No fear. No violence. No death.
Only safety. Security. Joy.
Because this Promised King has come and restored all things.
And
we have evangelism. The Word goes out. The nations come to the Holy Mountain we
heard about last week, Zion, the dwelling place of God with men, Christ and His
Church. They are called and gathered by
the Spirit in the Gospel. The earth is
filled with the knowledge of the LORD.
And it is that Root of Jesse, who is the Shoot of Jesse, who stands as a
signal for the people, the Crucified who is risen from the dead. To Him the nations come. And “his resting place shall be glorious”
(v. 10), which Dr. Luther reminds us, means that by His rest in death, He won
us for His Kingdom. And now He is
glorious, which is to say, Jesus Christ is risen from the dead.[1]
Jesse
had been cut off. He’s a stump, and a
rotting one at that. Jesse, remember, is
the father of King David, the great King of Israel, the man after God’s own
heart, to whom God promised that one of the sons of his body would sit on his
throne (Ps. 132:11), that David would never lack a man to sit on the throne of
Israel (Jer. 33:17). But now Assyria has
come and taken away the northern tribes, and Isaiah is prophesying the exile of
Judah to Babylon and the end of the Davidic Kingship in Jerusalem. And so it happens in 586 B.C. Judah goes into captivity. Jerusalem is sacked. The Temple is destroyed. It is the end of the line of kings. It is punishment for their rejection of the
LORD. And even at the end of 70 years,
when they are released by Cyrus the Persian to rebuild Jerusalem and the
Temple, there is no son of David to sit on the throne. That will have to wait for Messiah. The priests ruled in the time of the
Maccabees. Then the Romans set up Herod
as King. The stem of Jesse had shriveled
up and died.[2] You see, this is how our God works. There can only be resurrection after there
has been death. At the very moment when
there is absolutely no hope of the Promise being fulfilled, when all appears to
be lost and all human recourse has come to an end, then God acts. He acts purposely and decisively for our
salvation. Luther says, “God does not
help except in the greatest trouble and in the utmost need.” He does this “so that it may be evident that
the matter is managed by the hand of God, not by the plans of men.”[3]
So
where is the fulfillment of the Promise to David, to all Israel, and to the
nations? He is wrapped in swaddling
cloths and lying in a manger. The Son of
God advents, He comes, in the flesh, the Son of David, the King. A Shoot springs from the stump of Jesse. Known only to shepherds and a poor virgin
girl with her fiancé, Hope is born in Bethlehem. As the sages from afar come to know in the
appearance of the star, this is He who has been born King of the Jews.
By
the way, why “stump of Jesse,” and not “stump of David”? After all, Messiah is known as the Son of
David, and all are expecting a descendent of the great king to restore the
kingdom to Israel. But here God
indicates Jesse to show that Jesus is not just David’s Son. He is David’s Lord. He is not just a descendent of David, He is
the new and greater David. “Great
David’s greater Son!” as we sing in the Epiphany hymn (LSB 398:1). In other words, Jesus is the true King of
Israel of whom David was but a type.
David, and Saul before him, were anointed with the Holy Spirit when God
chose them to rule over Israel, but Jesus was anointed with the Spirit in all
His fulness at His Baptism in the Jordan River, when the Spirit came to rest
upon Him as a dove and the Father declared from heaven, “This is my beloved
Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Matt. 3:17). This anointing is the fulfillment of
tonight’s prophecy, and it is why Jesus is called Christ, Messiah, Anointed
One.
As
God, of course, the Son has the Spirit from all eternity. But now in His Baptism, as a man, Jesus
receives the Holy Spirit. And not as
other saints receive Him, or as we receive Him.
Jesus receives the Spirit from the Father in the same way He has the
Spirit from all eternity in His divine nature.
Fully. Completely. So that the Spirit who proceeds from the
Father likewise proceeds from and through the Son in the flesh of Jesus Christ. It is an exaltation of our Lord’s humanity. It is Jesus who possesses the Spirit. It is Jesus who pours Him out upon us in our
own personal Pentecost at the baptismal font, and as often as we return to our
Baptism in the Word and in the Supper.
Now
this Kingdom of Jesus is different from all earthly kingdoms. In other kingdoms, a nation “of people is
provided with a king. In this case, the
King is born first, and then He gathers a people for Himself.”[4] From all nations. That is, by the Spirit whom He pours out in
Baptism and preaching, He calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies a people
for His own possession, a people whom He won for Himself by His suffering,
blood, and death.
And
this, our King is different than all earthly kings. He is not the sort of King who judges his
subjects based on their own worthiness.
Nor does He judge on the basis of what His subjects can do for Him. He judges without partiality, not by
appearances (what His eyes see and His ears hear), but in righteousness and
with equity. What a contrast to the
unrighteous kings of Israel and Judah who lost the kingdom and the nation into
exile. What a contrast to our politicians. Jesus judges in this way: To the poor
and the meek, those who have no resources of their own, no righteousness to
present to Him, nothing to bring to the table before God but their own misery,
sin, and death, this King gives His own righteousness. Justification, we call it. Freely.
By His rich grace. We are the
poor in Spirit to whom belongs the Kingdom of heaven, the meek who shall
inherit the earth (Matt. 5:3, 5). Those
who bring their own righteousness to the table are struck down by the rod of
His mouth. They are condemned by His
Word. Some are killed. Others are brought to repentance and faith. They are the wolves, the leopards, and the
lions who are brought into the Kingdom to dwell with the lambs and the goats
and the little children, the Christians.
We can’t see it now, this glorious reality. But we will, on that Day.
On
that Day, all will know that Jesus is King.
Every tongue will confess and every knee will bow (Phil. 2:10-11). Then the earth will be full of the knowledge
of the LORD (Is. 11:9). Then we will see
all the nations gathered before Him, the Signal, the Crucified who stands,
the Lamb who was slain but is risen from the dead. We will be gathered with them on His holy
Mountain, His Zion, and we will worship Him before His throne. And we will rest in Him, in His glory. The Root has become the Shoot. Life comes from death. What was dead now lives. Jesus bore the sin of the world on the cross…
bore it unto death. And He is risen from
the dead. And so the Kingdom of David is
fulfilled. Jesus reigns. And He rules all things for you. He defeats your enemies and brings you into
His Kingdom. He forgives your sins and
judges you righteous, giving you His righteousness as a gift. He pours out His Spirit upon you with His
sevenfold gifts. And so you are
His. By His doing. And He is yours. By faith which He Himself gives you by His Spirit. It is good to belong to the Lord. It is good that Jesus is our King. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son
(+), and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
[1] Martin Luther, Lectures on
Isaiah Chapters in Luther’s Works, American Edition (55 vols.; ed.
Jaroslav Pelikan and Helmut T. Lehmann; Philadelphia: Muehlenberg and Fortress,
and St. Louis: Concordia, 1955-86), 16:124, hereafter LW.
[2] LW 16:118.
[3] Ibid.
[4] LW 16:117.
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