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Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. Brothers and sisters in Christ, the text comes from the Old Testament reading, the prophet Isaiah. You may be seated. Quite a conversation that John the Baptist got into with those Pharisees. He clarified it again to them that he is not Elijah and he is not the prophet, but he is the one… Who is unworthy to untie the sandals of the one whom you should believe in. That’s what he said to them. And that’s what John the Baptist kept doing. Pointing to the one upon whom you should fix your hearts and minds. The one whose place has a dwelling in your heart. Now it’s interesting because John, when he did baptize Jesus, he didn’t willingly baptize Jesus, did he? John had to be asked. Jesus came and was presenting himself to be baptized by John, and John said, oh no, Lord, you need to baptize me. And what did Jesus say? But no, John, do this to fulfill all righteousness. Because in Jesus’ baptism at the River Jordan… I’ll let you get that. Better hope it’s not God. It’s happened to me too. Don’t feel bad. John had to be told by Jesus, you need to baptize me to fulfill all righteousness because if you remember at the Old Testament reading, the Spirit of the Lord God is upon me. And the me whom that refers to is Jesus himself. So when Jesus was baptized by John and the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jesus, that fulfilled that passage from the Old Testament in this morning’s Old Testament reading from Isaiah. The second thing is, the Lord has anointed me. That’s the second part of this same text that was fulfilled when Jesus was baptized. Because the Holy Spirit came upon him, And anointed him is the same way of saying he was Christed or he was Messiahed. Same thing, to be anointed. In that baptism, Jesus was shown to be the one who the Spirit of the Lord is upon and the one whom God anointed to do certain things. And the certain things that he was chosen to do. The first, preach good news to the poor. But the poor aren’t those who look at their bank account and think, Not enough month at the end of the money. These are the ones who are poor or humble because of their own sins. And He comes to bring good news to those who are troubled by their own sins. He has been anointed to bind up the brokenhearted. And the brokenhearted aren’t the ones whose girlfriend or boyfriend broke up with them. The brokenhearted are the ones who’s brokenhearted over their sins. The Spirit of the Lord God has come upon Him to proclaim liberty to the captives, and those aren’t the ones in the county jail or the state pen or federal pen. Those are the ones who are struggling with their captivity to their own sinfulness. He came to open the prison to those who are bound. It’s the same thing. So we who are humbled because of our sin or brokenhearted because of our sins or feel captive or bound because of our sin, He comes to take that sorrow and sadness and turns it upside down upon its head, takes away the ashes that we have placed upon ourselves and our dirty garments and clothes us with joy. His robe of righteousness. Joy, His adoption by grace. Joy, the complete counter to what our sins bring us. And though you may feel at times as if you’re not an oak of righteousness, but rather a bruised reed, He calls you an oak of righteousness because He makes you strong. You don’t make yourself strong. And he calls you a planting of the Lord because you didn’t plant yourself. He planted you. He watered you. He prunes you. And he takes your fruit to give to others. Now all of us, because we are humbled by our sin and brokenhearted by our sin and bound and captive because of our sin, can claim that we have been victimized by our sin. But if we’ve been victimized by our sin, then we’ve also done some victimizing to others. Yes, to them as well. Just as Adam and Eve, when God came looking for them, they had already covered up their nakedness with their fig leaves, didn’t they? And did the fig leaves of blame fix their nakedness before their God? No. Because they still hid from Him in shame of over their sin. And though they had victimized one another because He blamed her, and though their own sin victimized them, which is why they hid themselves, it was God who came and clothed them with His own source. He had to slay something. Kill an animal. Never had there been death in the garden, and now they’re wearing death as what covers themselves and their nakedness before their God. And if God covers their nakedness, then their nakedness is truly covered. They no longer have to run and hide, and neither do you. That’s joy. And in giving you His covering, He establishes a covenant of marriage with you. You are His bride. Holy, righteous, as the text talked about. Jeweled full of glory. But consider this. What did Adam and Eve have to do? They had to receive the animal skin that God gave them to cover them. They didn’t get to choose what they covered themselves with. They had to receive the skins that God gave them to be covered with. So it is the same with you and me. We can’t use any blame game of someone else who made us a problem. That’s called being a victim. No, you can’t do that. Adam and Eve had to wear the victim slain for them, did he not? You must wear the victim slain for you. Because you’re not the victim. And though you have been victimizing other people, they’re not the victim either. Because all of us have been clothed and covered with the only victim that matters. The victim slain for us. Only He shall be your victim. No matter what you’ve done to yourself with your own sin. Because we all have to bear the consequences of our actions in our flesh. And no matter what you’ve done to someone else, the consequences of that also have to be borne. Regardless of those things, you have been covered by the victim and you don’t have to hide. That’s release to the captive. That’s opening the prison to those who are bound. That’s binding up the brokenhearted. That’s proclaiming good news to the humbled by their sin. That He covers you with Himself. That’s the truth. Now we can greatly rejoice because he’s covered us with his robe of righteousness. Now we can rejoice exceedingly because his righteousness is our joy. But because we’ve been covered, we have it to give. And there are lots of different people to whom you can give this robe of forgiveness and righteousness. I have been privileged because today is the day That for the last 34 years from today, I’ve been privileged to give the gift of the robe of righteousness to my bride. But I have also had to receive that same robe of righteousness and forgiveness from her lips as well. We have it to give not just to our brides and our husbands, but to our children. And we have to receive it from our children’s lips as well. We have it to give to our grandchildren and our grandparents, and they have to receive it as well. The people that God brings in your life, that He wishes you to give this robe of righteousness, which is forgiveness of sins and life and salvation, He brings so that you may cover them. Do you know how many people are hurting in this world? And do you know how many people in this church are hurting? But by golly, we will never show you because we are so good at putting on the facade of it’s all good on the outside when on the inside we’re grieving or we’re hurting and we’re in need of such robe of righteousness to bring comfort and peace. And that’s what he’s brought to you, the victim for all of us who claim to be victims. The victim for all of us who know what we’ve done to victimize someone else. The victim who brings joy, not sorrow and sadness. In the name of Jesus, our robe of righteousness. Amen. The peace of God, which passes all understanding. Keep your hearts and minds on Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.
