“New Life in the New Day”

Scripture: Isaiah 35:1-10

A man goes to a fortuneteller who looks into a crystal ball and tells him, “You will be poor and unhappy until you are 48 years old.”
“Then what will happen?” asks the man.
The fortune teller replies: “Then you'll get used to it.”
- Homiletics Online

A rather dire prediction, wouldn’t you say? No hope of improvement for your life, only the realization that this is as good as it gets, and the expectation that you will, eventually, learn that this is what life is really all about! But for the Christian, God has promised a totally different opportunity – one that leads to a way that gets better and better all the time. Oh, our financial outlook may not improve, the condition of our health may not improve, even our most prized relationships may still come and go, but we also will come to know that the truest form and purpose of life is ours in Christ, and that it can never be held back by the trials of this world.

Read Isaiah 35:1-2

Have you ever felt as though you were spiritually and emotionally “parched”? Thirsting for some relief from your struggles? Fully aware that unless you find a source of refreshment very soon, that you will be beyond hope? Praying that a rescuer will come along to give you that drink?
This passage is about the relief that you are praying for. It is about rescue – about renewal – about new life – about redemption. The analogy of the wasteland being renewed is one that those who live in or near arid areas are familiar with. After the desert receives one of its rare and generally skimpy rainfalls, life springs up almost immediately. The grasses blossom, the cacti flower, wildlife emerges from their burrows, and a radical transformation occurs in the land. And as long as the moisture lasts, so does the new life. But for the Christian, the “moisture” is always present, always renewing, always refreshing. It is known as The Living Water, and it will never fail. With that Water, life returns, joy returns, glory returns to the parched life, and renewal can begin to grow and bless once more. Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote:

In the child of Bethlehem, the life of the world that is to come, has come into the life of the world that is.
--Dietrich Bonhoeffer

That new life is the glory of God in Christ Jesus.

Read Isaiah 35:3-7

It is about not only a new life, but rather a whole new way of life. Consider some of these new “strengths” that the prophet describes.
Fragile hands will be made stronger, and shaky knees will become steady again. Some commentaries imply that these references refer to our ignorance and lack of understanding, and not just physical limitations. If that is so, this could be just about the worst thing that a “spiritual wilderness” experience can bring into our lives. Could anything be as debilitating as “weakness and infirmity” in faith? There is no power, no growth, no trust, no hope! But when our life is placed in the promise of Christ, ignorance flees and understanding blossoms, our lives are empowered, we become spirit filled and awakened to the glory of God.
And fearful hearts are just as bad as shaky knees. If we are to be in service with our Lord, we can’t be hobbled by fear. But if our heart is turned, we doubt and hesitate and fail at every turn in the road, and our walk with Christ becomes a crawl at best, and in all probability, will be condemned to stagnate. Isaiah tells us that we need a strong heart if we are to be Christ’s, and that with his “divine retribution”, we will be saved from failure.
But retribution? Against whom? Against us because of our weak hearts?
No! His vengeance will be targeted against that which has sapped our strength, against that which has caused us to be afflicted with fear, against all that has devastated our spirit. And he will save and refresh and renew our lives.

The prophet also speaks about blind eyes and deaf ears, about lameness and mute tongues, and how each one will be healed. The analogies are quite obvious, so we really shouldn’t have to spend much time on them. But just to make the point, blindness and deafness keep us from discovering the glory of God, and lameness and the inability to speak keep us from celebrating the Lord’s goodness with the people of earth. And these maladies will also be refreshed and renewed in the glory of the Lord, and the redeemed will once again be freed to serve, and to be served, in faith.

Read Isaiah 35:8-10

What is there about a highway, especially one that is Holy? Remember the days when “highways” were few and far between? When it was narrow 2 lane roads that took you wherever you needed to go? They were slow, they took you through the stop signs and traffic lights of both small towns and large cities, and you needed to plan your trip carefully to avoid excessive delays.
But now, 4 and 6 lane highways are nearly everywhere – or at least within a fairly short drive of any place you may live. They speed up our trip, make travel somewhat safer (believe it or not!), and get us to our destination with less frustration and exhaustion.
And the Holy Way is even better - it is direct and true and safe, and takes us away from the ways that we have to map out on our own, which, incidentally, will NEVER take us to glory! But this Way is unique, in that it has a special limited accessibility – only those who are in the Lord can journey on it.
The “unclean” and “wicked” will be barred from it – they will never be allowed on the Holy Way. If they want to try to make their own way, more power to them, but their way will always fail. Those things that cause spiritual death and destruction will also be denied entrance, because the Holy Way is all about Life, and death can have no place on it.
Only the “redeemed” and the “ransomed” may walk this way – only those who have been bought back from slavery, those who have been freed from a burdening and devastating debt that can never be repaid, those who have had their sentence repealed through the sacrifice of another – this is a divine freedom, and those who have been freed will find their way to the Holy Highway. But those who are still held in the grasp of sin, those who still have an unresolved debt to God, those who are still imprisoned have no place on the Holy Way.
The Way of Holiness will be covered with the singing of a new song and with basking in a new glory. The prophet tells us that “Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.” Does this sound like a whole new day to you? You had better believe it is!

As we have been walking through this season of Advent, we have seen promise after promise, sign after sign, and all have pointed toward this new day. But this newness is nothing that we can create and nothing that we can even adequately describe, except to say that it is the gift of God’s grace and mercy, and is designed exclusively for those who will put their whole trust in him. And when God makes a new day, it means that all things have been made new! Our old perceptions, our former understanding, our previous ways
cannot exist in this new day, and if we think that they can, then we are sadly mistaken. In our way, redemption and ransom will never be ours; death will continue to haunt us; our song will be a forlorn funeral lament; and the parched wilderness that we call life will never blossom.

This New Day is the hope that is found in Jesus Christ, and without him, there is no new day. He is the beauty of life, he is the promise of eternity, he is the destruction of death, he is the author of hope. Christmas is the day when we celebrate his setting glory aside for 33 years so that he could offer that same marvelous glory to each of us; it is the day when he began his journey toward the one and only sacrifice that could satisfy our debt; it is the day when he began his Passion that was necessary if we were ever to be redeemed and justified as worthy.

Christmas can never be just another day to celebrate. Remember the words of the angels? “I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people! Today … a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. … Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace” (Luke 2:10-14)
Jesus is the Good News;
Jesus is the Holy Way;
Jesus is redemption;
Jesus is glory –
and he is all these things just for us. And this isn’t even the half of it - there is so more to come. Praise God.