Lenten Midweek 3: "Jesse's Tree"

+ Lenten Midweek 3 – March 18^th, 2020 +

Isaiah 6:1-13, 10:33-11:16; Luke 1:68-79

Beautiful Savior Lutheran

Milton, WA

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

So far in our Lenten series on living trees in the Bible, we’ve traveled from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in Eden to Abraham and the Oaks at Mamre. And from Abraham on to the time of the judges with Gideon and the Oak at Ophrah. Every step of the way, every tree we’ve looked at in Scripture, has pointed us to the great tree of Jesus’ cross for us.

Today we jump forward again, from the time of the judges to the time of the kings and prophets of Israel. To the time when the Lord called Isaiah the prophet to speak his word of warning and promise to his people. 

Around 723-722 B.C., while Isaiah was proclaiming God’s Word to Judah and Jerusalem in the southern Kingdom of Israel, the Assyrian army was wreaking havoc in the Northing Kingdom of Israel. Invasion. Destruction. Suffering. Fear. Death. Exile. A preview of what was to come later in 587 B.C. when the Babylonians would invade Judah and destroy the temple in Jerusalem.  

The Lord sent Isaiah with an unbelievably difficult message to declare. To warn Judah of their sin, and that the promised land they lived in would be burned and reduced to a stump. I think we can empathize with Isaiah’s question in vs. 11. “How long, O Lord?” How long will God’s people suffer? How long will the land be under siege? How long? 

“Until the cities lie ruined    and without inhabitant,
until the houses are left deserted    and the fields ruined and ravaged,¹² until the Lord has sent everyone far away    and the land is utterly forsaken.¹³ And though a tenth remains in the land,    it will again be laid waste.
But as the terebinth and oak    leave stumps when they are cut down,    so the holy seed will be the stump in the land.”

The last several trees of the bible we’ve visited were actual trees where the Lord attached his word or appeared to his people. But here in Isaiah, the tree is Judah. The tree is God’s people. And the tree appears to be dead. Nothing more than a stump.

It’s no accident that Isaiah depicts Israel as a stump. Jesse’s stump was Isaiah’s reminder of Israel’s sin against YHWH. For even though YHWH was their perfect king and Israel was to live under his perfect rule and receive his perfect peace and rest in his perfect promises, Israel is anything but perfect. Israel rebels and rejects the Lord, followed other gods, and forgot about the Lord. Isaiah doesn’t pull any punches. David’s family tree, indeed the whole house of Israel is a stump. 

Though we’re a long way off in history from Isaiah and Judah, Isaiah has a lot to say to us today as we live in times of fear and danger. Maybe not from enemies like ancient Assyria, but we face deadly disease, uncertainty of the future, worries, doubts, fears. Like Isaiah we cry out, how long? And with Isaiah, we also confess, “Woe is me. For I am a man of unclean lips.” 

And yet, the Lord has good news for Judah, and for you. For buried in that stump of Jesse’s tree is a holy seed. Even though Jesse’s stump might appear to be dead, there is life by God’s Word and promise.

A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse;    from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.² The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him—    the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,    the Spirit of counsel and of might,    the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord—³ and he will delight in the fear of the Lord.

This tree, this shoot of Jesse, or Root of David, is also a person. The shoot that came from the dead stump of Jesse is David’s son and David’s Lord, Jesus. He is true man, able to know our fears and carry our sorrows and our diseases; and yet true God, able to save us from sin and death by his death on the tree of the cross.

Isaiah’s message to Judah is also good news for us. Hope is not lost. The Lord has not and will not abandon you. You are not individual, isolated trees growing aimlessly in the wilderness. No, you are branches connected to the true Vine of Christ our Lord. You are grafted into Jesus’ family tree by being rooted in water and Word, and having the holy seed of faith planted in your ears, hearts, and minds. You are fruitful branches, reaching out to your neighbor in this time of need because you are joined to him who loves you and hung on the tree for you. You are, as Zechariah sings in Luke 1, saved, visited, redeemed, delivered, and holy in Jesus, the shoot of Jesse’s tree.

“Blessed is the Lord God of Israel,
For He has visited and redeemed His people,⁶⁹ And has raised up a horn of salvation for us
In the house of His servant David,⁷⁰ As He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets,
Who have been since the world began,⁷¹ That we should be saved from our enemies
And from the hand of all who hate us,⁷² To perform the mercy promised to our fathers
And to remember His holy covenant,⁷³ The oath which He swore to our father Abraham:⁷⁴ To grant us that we,
Being delivered from the hand of our enemies,
Might serve Him without fear,⁷⁵ In holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our life.

The peace of God which surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting. Amen.