Jesu Juva

“Once He Came in Blessing: All Our Sins Redressing”

Text: Isaiah 61:10-11; Luke 4:16-21

In the Name of the Father and of the (+) Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

There is only one reason why Jesus advented, or came. It wasn’t, as many would say today, to show us how to live. It wasn’t to show us our potential. It wasn’t to teach us what we should be doing. It was to save us. And to save us by fulfilling God’s Word.

That’s what Luke recorded for us from the mouth of Jesus. Jesus went home and went to Church. He read from the prophet Isaiah. All eyes were focused on Him. The anticipation was electric. What would He say? And while He undoubtedly said more than what Luke recorded here, Luke recorded the most important thing, and really, the only thing that needed to be said: Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing. The promised servant of the Lord had come, and was sitting before them in their synagogue. And that fact was more important than anything He would say. His very presence proclaiming that God was now fulfilling His Word, all our sins redressing, as we sang in our hymn. The sins that have kept us in physical and spiritual bondage.

We don’t use the word redress a lot anymore. Now, mostly in legal settings, I think. That in the law, we have the right of redress. To right a wrong. To provide relief. To receive compensation. And Jesus has certainly come to right the wrong of our sins.

But maybe we can think of that word a little more simply, that Jesus has come to re-dress us. That is, to clothe or dress us in something new. Because what we’re wearing now is filthy and disgusting. The filth of our sins has soiled us. Which we’re good at hiding from one another, but we cannot hide from the eyes of an all-knowing, all-seeing God. Evil thoughts, shameful desires, deeds done in secret, words spoken - or typed! - that should never have been. But as we heard from the prophet Isaiah tonight, He clothes us - with the garments of salvation. He covers us - with the robe of righteousness. And no mere garments are these, but wedding garments. The best of the best. Decked out for a royal wedding. Jesus has come to re-dress us.

But to do so, He must also redress our sins. He must put right the wrong of our sins. And to do that, He came in likeness lowly.

That word likeness is important there. It recalls the story of creation, when we were made in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:26). Mortals made in the image and likeness of God. So to restore that image and likeness, cratered by sin, the most holy God now is made in the likeness of mortal man. True man, born of the virgin Mary, but at the same time the most holy God. Two natures, one person. To fulfill God’s Word and redress our sins.

So two things Jesus did. He fulfilled the Word of God in two ways. First, with His active obedience. That is, He fulfilled the Word of God’s Law for us perfectly. For the Son of God did not come to abolish the Law, but to fulfill it (Matthew 5:17). Every jot, every tittle. Everything that needed to be done, He did. He led the perfect life that we could not. And then He offered up that perfect life as the Lamb of God in His passive obedience. He opened not His mouth to object, to proclaim his innocence. He was the Lamb led to the slaughter, that by His blood shed on the cross, all our sins by redressed; all our sins by atoned for; all our sins borne by Him on the altar of the cross.

When He died, Matthew reports that the curtain of the Temple was torn in two from top to bottom (Matthew 27:51). The curtain that hid the most holy place in the Temple. For now there was a new most holy place, where the blood of the most holy Lamb of God was poured out on a new Day of Atonement. And so were the sins of the world redressed, made right, once and for all. Tetelestai. It is finished. The debt of sin paid in full. Signed and sealed in Jesus’ blood.

And with that, hope and freedom gave us.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer once famously compared the bondage of sin to a prison cell. An apt metaphor, but one made even more appropriate when, as he said, you consider that a prison cell can only be opened from the outside. The person in the cell is completely dependent on someone coming and unlocking that door. There is no other way out. That prisoner can do a lot of things in that cell, but cannot set Himself free.

So Jesus did. Unlocking the door of our prison house of sin and death, with his cross-shaped key. That was the hope of the patriarchs and prophets, fulfilled by Jesus and His freeing forgiveness.

Once He came on blessing, All our sins redressing;

Came in likeness lowly, Son of God most holy;

Bore the cross to save us; Hope and freedom gave us (LSB #333 v. 1).

Johann Horn packed a lot of theology into a few words with this verse of our hymn. And it is what Advent is all about. Our Saviour who comes to bless us. And what greater blessing could there be but the forgiveness of our sins?

Maybe we don’t always think that way about forgiveness, though, and take it for granted. The season of Advent is to correct that. So it is a penitential season, calling us to take our sins seriously, and calling us to repentance. But not a fearful repentance, but a joyous repentance. A repentance borne of the words and promises of God, that our Lord will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). That a broken and contrite heart will not be despised by God (Psalm 51:17). Because our Saviour has come and already redressed our sins. So there is for us now the joy of His salvation.

Joy, for your prison cell of sin and death has been unlocked and you have been set free. So what now? Return to your cell of sin? Or live this new life you have been given? It doesn’t seem like much of a choice, yet how often do we mess it up? How often do we make the wrong choices? How often . . .

This season of Advent says stop! And, look to the manger, at the Son of God most holy who came in likeness lowly - in your lowliness, to exalt you; to treat you like royalty! Because in His eyes you are. A beautiful royal Bride. And when Jesus advents again, He’s coming not to redress our sins, He already did that. Now, it is to take home His Bride. To which the Church prays this Advent season: Come, Lord Jesus! Come and take us from this valley of sorrow to yourself in heaven. Or as we sang in our hymn . . .

Come, then, O Lord Jesus, From our sins release us,

Keep our hearts believing, That we grace receiving,

Ever may confess You Till in heaven we bless You (LSB #333 v. 4).

In the Name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.