There is a hiddenness to this revelation of God’s reign and rule. It appears first like a shoot and ends with the reign of this Davidic messiah over a peaceable kingdom of opposites.
In Isaiah 11, the prophet holds forth hope of the Davidic Messiah for God’s people. It is hope that comes out in a strange, paradoxical way. It appears, at first, as a “shoot from the stump of Jesse” (11:1). This shoot will become a “branch” from Royal David’s family tree (11:2). You may ask, “What good can come from a stump?” Job has an answer: “There is hope for a tree if it is cut down, it will sprout again, and its new shoots will not fail” (Job 14:7). This Davidic Messiah will resurrect peace that will never fail and through Him the remnant of Israel will be gathered back like a new Exodus (11:16) through water.
A major point of development for a sermon on this text would be to unpack the eschatological tension of the now and not yet. In a paradoxical way, God brings forth this Davidic Messiah, but in a strange, present, and not yet fully realized sense until the end of all things. There is a hiddenness to this revelation of God’s reign and rule. It appears first like a shoot and ends with the reign of this Davidic messiah over a peaceable kingdom of opposites. It is a kingdom that transforms creation, where predators and prey live at peace and geniality with one another, as children play in dangerous places without fear of harm. We realize as we hear this that Isaiah is given a vision of a future Kingdom in Heaven. So, we are invited into a vision of Heaven that would, by all rights, look opposite to what we would expect. It will start off strange (like a shoot from a stump) but eventually lead you to judge everything in the world around you by a new and different standard of justice and righteousness. Instead of judging in favor of the deserving, it is a kingdom of those who realize their helplessness and cling to Him for righteousness by faith. This is the experience of all the Israelites during the Exodus. By taking our reading to verse 16, it supplies us with an illustration and connection that will speak to our hearer’s situation and life. It makes the words of our prophecy not just a text for the future but a word for the here and now as well.
The comfort God’s people received at the Red Sea was nothing short of salvation. This strange mass of freed slaves would have looked like a remarkable sight. Bright eyed, fresh from the split sea, their former identity as slaves was left on the opposite bank, and nothing but new life and deliverance from none other than God Himself. That is the vision Isaiah has, just as strange, just as liberating, a new Exodus, but this time led by the Davidic Messiah Himself. Connect that to the appointed Gospel lesson for today from Matthew 3:1-12 and you get the inauguration of that Messianic vision through the preaching and pointing of the last Old Testament prophet, John the Baptist, to the Messiah Jesus Himself, and get this, it is all happening at the water in baptism.
John invites the whole nation out to the water to re-enter the land in a new kind of exodus. He invites them to leave their old history behind and walk into the Messianic age as a people prepared. He sings a familiar tune about justice and righteousness (11:8-12) but the kingdom he sees will come with the Christ of God who takes away the former way of things and ushers in a new peaceable kingdom which has no end. But you cannot get there without the Messiah leading the way. So, just as Paul points to the connection between Moses and Baptism (1 Corinthians 10:1-2), we also need to be led through the waters by our prophet who is greater than Isaiah, John the Baptist, and, indeed, greater than Moses himself (Deuteronomy 18:15-18; Hebrews 3:1-6), even Jesus Christ. But passing through the baptismal waters with Jesus is more than a comfort, it is free and full salvation because it connects us to His death and resurrection (Romans 6:3-11). You must pass through the waters of the new exodus to become a member of His eternal, peaceable Kingdom. There is a hiddenness to that Kingdom here and now in the world. It looks strange and opposite of everything the world is but there is a future day when His Kingdom is revealed in its full splendor. On that day there will be such a peace, because of the prince of peace who rules and reigns over the Kingdom of Heaven forever.
You must pass through the waters of the new exodus to become a member of His eternal, peaceable Kingdom.
Since we are dealing with paradox in this reading, that would be the best structure to facilitate a hearing on this text.
“This structure identifies a paradox within the framework of Christian teaching or Christian living (for example, in evangelism, we speak the law in love) and then sequentially examines each side of the paradox for the hearers (for example, we speak the law of God that calls others to repent; we speak out of love desiring the salvation of others) so the hearers are encouraged to live within this paradoxical but faithful tension.
In using this structure, be certain you have a paradox (like, God’s wisdom is foolishness) and not a simple contrast (like, wisdom vs. foolishness). Also, note how this paradox asks people to hold together two truths that are in tension with one another. For example, God calls us to speak His Law (a word of judgment to the sinful) in love (as a merciful act). Since this tension is uncomfortable, people can resolve the tension by denying one or the other side of the paradox. Often the denial of one side of the paradox can arise from an overemphasis on the other side. So, for example, with the paradox that we are sent forth to speak God’s Law in love to others, people can deny speaking God’s Law (first truth of the paradox) because they want to emphasize God’s love (second truth of the paradox) or they can deny that God is acting in love (second truth of the paradox) because they are intent upon speaking His Law (first truth of the paradox). When the paradox is not maintained, the hearers often end up in some form of heresy: Consider the paradox, “Good works are an unnecessary necessity,” and the errors that happen when one denies good works are necessary or denies that they are unnecessary. The preacher, therefore, desires to maintain the faithful paradoxical tension for the hearers rather than resolve it.
To help hearers maintain the paradoxical tension, the sermon may open and close by examples of the paradox in action. In the opening, the tension of the paradox is something that would lead a hearer to believe something is wrong with his or her faith. In the closing, however, the hearer is led to name that tension and confess it as the authentic paradoxical experience of faith.
In between the opening and the closing, the preacher walks the hearers sequentially through each side of the paradox, helping them maintain the tension. In developing each side of the paradox, the preacher moves from the problem of how we deny the paradoxical tension to the solution of how God keeps us within that tension in faithful living. For example, in the first major section of the sermon, the preacher would begin by stating the paradox for the hearers (for example, we speak God’s Law in love), continue by noting how we deny one side of that paradox (for example, we speak God’s Law but out of hate rather than love), and then call his hearers to repentance for that error and proclaim the text and the Gospel in such a way that his hearers are brought back to the tension of the paradox (which is, we speak God’s Law in love). The second major section of the sermon then develops the other side of the paradox in a similar way. The preacher would begin by stating the paradox for the hearers (in our example, we speak God’s Law in love), then continue by noting how we deny one side of that paradox (again, we speak in love for our neighbor but do not speak the words of God’s Law that call for repentance), and then call his hearers to repentance for that error and proclaim the text and the Gospel in such a way that his hearers are brought back to the tension of the paradox (we speak God’s Law in love). A clear break between the two sections in the middle of the sermon is standard and the sermon usually offers an equal amount of development for both sides unless the hearers are already familiar with one side of the paradox.”[1]
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Additional Resources:
Craft of Preaching-Check out out 1517’s resources on Isaiah 11:1-10
Concordia Theology-Various helps from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, MO to assist you in preaching Isaiah 11:1-10.
Lectionary Kick-Start-Check out this fantastic podcast from Craft of Preaching authors Peter Nafzger and David Schmitt as they dig into the texts for this Sunday!
The Pastor’s Workshop-Check out all the great preaching resources from our friends at the Pastor’s Workshop!
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[1] https://concordiatheology.org/sermon-structs/thematic/paradox-maintained/
