There is a hiddenness to the splendor of the Messianic reign and rule of God for now that will only be seen fully on the final day.
After the cosmic judgement of chapter 34 in Isaiah, we see salvation has come gloriously in chapter 35. Here, salvation is pictured as the peak of beauty, blooming like a rose (35:1). The idea here in Isaiah is that of a flower suddenly springing up in the desert after a rainfall. The messianic age of salvation is compared to the desert floor turning into a carpet of lush flowers. This messianic age is a time when God’s people are commanded to “fear not.” Isaiah uses this command seven other times (8:12; 41:10, 13; 43:1; 51:7; 54:4). In the age of the Messiah there is nothing to fear, it is all good news, and everything appears to be great and glorious.
That is until we meet up with John the Baptist in our Gospel lesson for today (Matthew 11: 2-15). He sends His disciples with a question for Jesus: Are You the one or should we expect another? That question is pretty bleak. And who was asking? John or John’s disciples? Either way the question betrays a certain amount of struggle and fear people have with seeing the Kingdom of God around them in dark times. There is a hiddenness to the splendor of the Messianic reign and rule of God for now that will only be seen fully on the final day.
So, John and his followers, who are aware of both Isaiah’s vision and who Jesus is, are asking for a little clarification. They do so because it gets hard to see the beauty of the splendor of God in a world so twisted by sin and full of complex unresolved tension. It can all be more than a little frightening in this world. To quote Andrew Lang, “The bloom is definitely off the rose,” for John the Baptist and his disciples.
Perhaps, we know what that is like as well. By the time of Advent 3, Christmas is almost here. Though we know we should be happy, for some of us, maybe all of us there is a lot of dissonance and disconnection from the joy we are obligated to feel on the Sunday we light the rose-colored candle and read the good news of Isaiah 35. Joy seems elusive and we are caught in a moment asking a question with John and his followers of Jesus: Is this really it? Or should we be expecting something else?
Andrew Lang wrote his book, The Puzzle of Dicken’s Last Plot, as a literary analysis of the unfinished story of Charles Dickens’ final novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Lang was trying to untangle all the elaborate plot devices, character relationships, and themes Dickens was using in his unfinished work. Dickens partial novel has always intrigued people since they discovered it. Hence, his iconic phrase: The bloom is definitely off the rose.
This is a bit of how our Isaiah reading connects to the assigned Gospel lesson for this Sunday. For John and his followers, the story feels unfinished. They are trying to untangle all the prophecies, people, and ideas of what the Messianic age would be like. Before John’s story comes to an end, he wants a little deep analysis here, because the bloom has fallen off the rose of Isaiah 35 for them. People are always intrigued by this interaction between John the Baptist’s disciples and Jesus.
This is a bit of how our Isaiah reading connects to the assigned Gospel lesson for this Sunday. For John and his followers, the story feels unfinished.
Unironically, Jesus Himself gives us the connection to our Gospel lesson for today by quoting a paraphrased version of verses 5 and 6 of our text in Matthew 11:5. So John, who sees the eschatological Kingdom, sends His disciples to get the answer, and what an answer Jesus supplied:
“Go and tell John what you hear and see: The blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by Me” (Matthew 11:4-6).
Hidden in these verses is not just an illusion to our text but a pointing forward to the hope for John the Baptist who will certainly die in the days to come unless Christ springs him from his cell. But there is also a great hope for John’s disciples and for the rest of us as well. All of us wait in hope for joy in hopelessly dark times. When the bloom is off the rose, you keep your eye on Christ. Jesus is our focus because He not only does miracles of healing, and cleansing, and good news, but most important of all, THE DEAD ARE RAISED. That is the miracle which makes the difference. Jesus is saying to John, “If you die, I can raise you.” Jesus is saying to the disciples, “If you die, I can raise you.” Jesus is pointing to His own salvation providing resurrection from the dead. He is also pointing to His own ability to raise you from the dead as well (1 Corinthians 15). You are blessed in the hope of Isaiah’s glorious vision through Christ who inaugurates, enacts, and establishes the reign and rule of God which is both now (in hiddenness) and not yet (in full display at the end of all things).
These type of connects fit nicely with an Analogy Structure for preaching:
“This structure introduces hearers to a theological topic by moving from the known to the unknown. The sermon is based upon an act of comparison as the preacher compares a topic that is familiar to the hearers but of secondary importance (in other words, the analogy or secondary topic) to the topic of primary importance that might be unfamiliar to the hearers (which would be the main topic of the sermon). By doing this, the preacher moves from the familiar to the unfamiliar and allows the analogy to shed light upon the theological topic.
For example, a preacher may compare the way the anticipated birth of a child shapes the life of a couple (this would be the topic of secondary importance that is familiar to the hearers) to the way God’s eschatological promises shape our daily living (which is the topic of primary importance that is unfamiliar to the hearers). Through a listing of the points of comparison, the hearers move from the known to the unknown. Analogical preaching sometimes includes objects and often is occasional, drawing the analogy from a recent and immediate experience in the lives of the hearers.
In this structure, the secondary topic needs to (1) be familiar to the hearers so the preacher is not forced to explain two topics at once and the secondary topic might serve as a mnemonic device, (2) be of a different nature than the main topic so it incites interest for the hearers in the comparison, and (3) have a positive effect so the hearers are not offended by the comparison. Also, the preacher needs to be aware that all analogies break down and, thereby, prevent his hearers from falling into that confusion, either by clarifying for them the limits of the analogy or avoiding development which would lead toward that error.”[1]
Incorporating the hymn, Lo, How a Rose E’re Blooming (Lutheran Service Book #359), may provide a nice way of processing the significant analogy from our Isaiah text and its connection through our gospel reading:
Lo, how a rose e’er blooming
From tender stem hath sprung!
Of Jesse’s lineage coming
As prophets long have sung,
It came, a flow’ret bright,
Amid the cold of winter,
When half-spent was the night.
Isaiah ‘twas foretold it,
The rose I have in mind;
With Mary we behold it,
The virgin mother kind.
To show God’s love aright,
She bore to us a Savior,
When half-spent was the night.
This flow’r, whose fragrance tender
With sweetness fills the air,
Dispels with glorious splendor
The darkness ev’rywhere.
True man, yet very God,
From sin and death He saves us
And lightens ev’ry load.
O Savior, child of Mary,
Who felt our human woe;
O Savior, King of glory,
Who dost our weakness know:
Bring us at length we pray
To the bright courts of Heaven,
And to the endless day.[2]
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Additional Resources:
Craft of Preaching-Check out out 1517’s resources on Isaiah 35:1-10.
Concordia Theology-Various helps from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, MO to assist you in preaching Isaiah 35:1-10.
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/analogy/
