1st Lenten Midweek Sermon: Isaac and Jesus

+ 1st Lenten Midweek Sermon - February 21st, 2018 +

Genesis 22:1-18

Redeemer Lutheran, HB

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

Gregory of Nyssa, one of the great church fathers from the 4th century, wrote that, “The whole mystery of faith can be seen in the story of Isaac.

As profound of a statement as this is, it is not an original thought. Gregory is helping us understand what Jesus said in John 8 as he declared to the Jews who had believed in him:

Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.

Today we join Abraham in rejoicing that the day he and all creation longed for - the day of Christ's death for our redemption - has come. And today we join Gregory in rejoicing in and beholding the mystery of Christ’s death and resurrection foretold and foreshadowed in the Old Testament.

After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.”

“After these things” is our cue to remember all that had happened to Abraham up to this point. God called him to leave the land of Ur and journey to a new land. God made a covenant with Abraham that through from his offspring would come one who would bless all nations and all people. God promised that Abraham and Sarah would have a son, and heir of their own, despite their old age and barrenness. God rescued Lot and his family from Sodom. Isaac, the son promised by God, was born. And now another test.

“Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.

Ask any parent who reads this story and I think you’ll find a common reply. I don’t know if I could do that if I were in his place. How did Abraham do any of this?

Hebrews gives us the only answer that makes sense:

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise.

How did Abraham do it? By faith. Not the kind of faith you work up in yourself - as if we could. Not the kind of faith that rests on emotions or our reason. Faith that is a gift. Faith that clings to YHWH’s promise like a hiker clings to a flashlight in a dark cave. Faith that, like Abraham’s, is credited to us as righteousness in Christ.

And so, by faith, Abraham set out, and “On the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes and saw the place from afar. Then Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you.”

Did you catch what Abraham said? It’s easy to miss it in all the action and suspense of the story. I am the boy will go over there and worship...and come again to you.

As remarkable as Abraham’s faith is in listening to God’s call to sacrifice Isaac, it’s even more remarkable to hear his confession of faith in YHWH’s promise. Abraham knows that Isaac his son, his only son whom he loves, is the promised heir through whom God would continue to keep his promises. And even if he is sacrificed, God will raise him from the dead to make good on his promise to bless all nations of the earth through Abraham’s offspring.

This is how the book of Hebrews teaches us to read Genesis 22 as well:

By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.

Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. So they went both of them together. And Isaac said to his father Abraham, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” He said, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Abraham said, “God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.”

In Isaac’s question and Abraham’s faithful reply, we see a picture of Good Friday. If Isaac is obedient to his father Abraham, how much more is Jesus obedient to the heavenly Father. If Abraham offers up his son, his only son whom he loves, how much more the love of our Heavenly Father is revealed as he offers up his Son, his only-begotten Son for you, whom he loves. Isaac is both the priest who carries the wood and the sacrifice, how much more is Jesus both the priest and the sacrifice for us on the cross. Abraham was right. God will provide for himself the lamb or the burnt offering. Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

So they went both of them together. When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built the altar there and laid the wood in order and bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son. But the angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” And he said, “Here I am.” He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.” And Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called the name of that place, “The Lord will provide”;[b] as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided.

After the fall into sin, the Lord provided his promise to Adam and Eve: a child to crush the ancient foe. To Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob the Lord provided his promise. In the tabernacle and temple, the holy Lord provided sacrifice, atonement, and cleansing to his unholy people, to give them his holiness and life. So it is for us today as well. For He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? In Jesus, the Lord’s promise to Abraham remains forever. The Lord will provide. And he does. The Lord sends us his Son, his only Son for you.

In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son, his only Son whom he loves, to be the atoning sacrifice for you. Jesus is the greater Isaac who walks up the mountain of Calvary bearing the wood of the cross to die in our place. On the mountain of the Lord it shall be provided.

And not only on the mountain, but here in his Word – the Lord provides us with his, promise, comfort and peace. In Holy Baptism, he cleanses us from all sin and calls us his own dear child, his sons and daughters whom he loves. In the Lord’s Supper he provides us a new covenant, a new testament in his body and blood for the forgiveness of all our sin.

By faith we too behold the mystery and rejoice with Abraham to see the day of Christ’s death and resurrection for us.

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