Christians in crisis: The Lord announces comfort

Isaiah 40:1-2 Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. ²Speak to the heart of Jerusalem and call out to her. Her warfare really is over. Her guilt is fully paid for. Yes, she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.

Lift up your voice with strength. Lift it up! Do not be afraid! Say, “Here is your God!” (Isaiah 40:9) Amen.

Many of you know that I’m colorblind. My sisters think that I just never learned my colors.

When people learn I’m colorblind, the first reaction is to usually ask me, “What color is this? What color is that?”

Every once in a while, because I know they’re both intrigued and teasing, I’ll challenge them, “Do you ask a blind person, ‘What does this look like?’ or a deaf person, ‘What does this sound like?’”

I understand where they’re coming from. It’s hard for someone who sees colors to imagine what it’s like not being able to distinguish blue from purple or not see shades of yellow and green or have no clue what color periwinkle is.

It’s probably similar with someone who doesn’t feel depressed or anxious. If you don’t have feelings of depression or anxiety, it’s hard to imagine how such strong feelings can be debilitating.

The Mayo Clinic defines depression this way:

Depression is a mood disorder that causes a persistent feeling of sadness and loss of interest. Also called major depressive disorder or clinical depression, it affects how you feel, think and behave and can lead to a variety of emotional and physical problems. You may have trouble doing normal day-to-day activities, and sometimes you may feel as if life isn’t worth living.

More than just a bout of the blues, depression isn’t a weakness and you can’t simply “snap out” of it.

You may be unwilling to open up to tell others that you feel depressed, anxious, listless or perpetually sad. If someone has never experienced depression, they may have the best intentions when talking with you. But their advice isn’t helpful. Now when they say things like, “Snap out of it.” Or “If you would just get busy and do something everything would be OK.” Or “You just need to trust Jesus more.”

They don’t mean anything bad. They just aren’t helpful.

Would that person give similar advice to someone with a broken hip or with a house that’s on fire? I hope not. “Get up off that sofa and stretch your legs. Everything will be better.” “Just trust Jesus and your house won’t be on fire anymore.” You do trust Jesus, but you still call the fire department. You will get up and get moving, but only after the doctor clears you for physical activity.

Sin has broken our world and our bodies in so many ways. That brokenness may show itself in colorblind eyes or broken hips or houses on fire. It can also show up in a broken mind and broken emotions.

No matter what someone many say to you, that brokenness is real. It doesn’t matter if someone says, “This is fuchsia,” I can’t see it. It doesn’t matter if someone tells you to “Snap out of it” or “Stop worrying.” You just can’t do it.

Our brokenness cannot be healed by wishful thinking. The only way to deal with brokenness is with real healing. $100 glasses for colorblind correction. Medication and counseling for depression and anxiety. The Great Physician of the body blesses us with physicians and counselors to help us when our bodies and minds are broken beyond our ability to fix ourselves.

The Great Physician of the soul also blesses us with his holy Word for healing our hearts, minds, and souls.

That’s what Isaiah is doing in these verses. “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak to the heart of Jerusalem and call out to her. Her warfare really is over. Her guilt is fully paid for. Yes, she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.”

Though there were no physicians or counselors to diagnose clinical depression in Isaiah’s time around 700 B.C., I think we can correctly assume that the children of Israel we’re depressed and anxious. They were in captivity in Babylon. They were in despair living in exile from Jerusalem. They were anxious, wondering if they would ever return home.

The worst part was that this was all their own fault. Their continued disobedience to God’s laws, their constant worshiping of false gods, coupled with their consistent refusal to listen to God’s message of repentance – this led God to discipline his chosen people with 70 years of Babylonian captivity.

God sends Isaiah to preach to his people, and for 39 chapters, God’s prophet hammers God’s people with the Law for their lawlessness. The Holy Spirit led Isaiah to begin in chapter 1 with God’s bitter lament: “How terrible it will be for that sinful nation, or a people loaded with guilt, offspring who act wickedly, children who are corrupt! They have forsaken the Lord. They have despised the Holy One of Israel. They have deserted him and turned back” (Isaiah 1:4).

The message of guilt is followed by a message of comfort. God is binding the wounds of his people. He is healing their broken minds. He is calming their anxious hearts. God trusts that this captivity and stern rebuke will bring repentance.

“Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.” Not just one comfort, but two comforts. Despite all their unfaithfulness, rebellion and brokenness, God still calls us “my people.” He still refers to himself as “your God.” I remind my 8^th graders all the time that they’re old enough to notice the finer details of specific phrases the Holy Spirit uses through his inspired writers. Little phrases like “my people” and “your God.”

This comfort comes to God’s people through God’s prophets, apostles, pastors, … and you – God’s people. This comfort comes through human speech. “Speak to the heart of Jerusalem and call out to her.” “Speak” – use your voice. “Call out” – let yourself be heard.

What is the message you need to hear and apply to yourself? What is the message you need to tell others and then apply it to them? “Her warfare really is over. Her guilt is fully paid for. Yes, she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.”

Notice how all these sentences use past and passive tense verbs. Israel didn’t do these actions. Passive tense. They were done by someone else.

All of these verbs announce these actions have already taken place. It’s done. … Even though – for them – all these actions are done in the future.

You need comfort. You rush around all day going from one activity to another. You learned from your dad to do your very best. But you don’t have time any more for your best. Good enough will have to do.

You scramble through your work projects. You rush through family time. You even hurry your relationships with God.

The result of all this rushing and cutting corners is guilt. You know you’re not the employee your boss pays you to be. You’re not the parent or spouse or child your family needs you to be. You’re not the Christian child your heavenly Father expects you to be.

The result is a guilty conscience. Anxiety. Stress. Despair. Piling more things on your busy schedule. More rushing around and corners being cut.

You try to comfort yourself with affirmations, “They’ll understand” or “I did the best I could.” Or you comfort yourself by opening up Amazon to buy stuff to make it up to your kids. Or you comfort yourself by munching on a bunch of Christmas cookies. Or you comfort yourself by lying in bed.

Like the Old Testament children of Israel, we deserve to be punished. Instead of the punishment you deserve, though, God promises comfort.

Like the Old Testament Israelites, you disobey God’s laws for your life and do your own thing. You put other activities ahead of your worship of God. You refuse to come to God in repentance. In all this, you wage war against the almighty God.

But God says your warfare is over.

Jesus was born in Bethlehem as your stand-in. He took God’s wrath for your disobedience. He endured hellish punishment for your rebellion. He suffered unspeakable agony for your refusal to speak praises to your God.

Through all this, God’s anger is quenched. He has set down his weapons of war. His wrath has been satiated. The war between you and God is over because of your Mediator, Jesus.

You often place false guilt on yourself for things you did or didn’t do. But you ignore the real guilt you should feel for what you have done and not done for God.

Through Jesus, God holds nothing against you. God doesn’t offer you a cookie or a soft pillow or extra credit on Amazon to make you feel better. He gives you real comfort in announcing that your guilt is paid for. You may like Christmas cookies as comfort food, but there isn’t a crumb of your sin left. You may feel like you can’t get out of bed, but Jesus got on the cross. You may try to buy love with your gifts, but Jesus bought your forgiveness with his divine death.

For all of your guilt, sin and rebellion, you deserve to be punished. But through Jesus, God gives you a double measure of his grace.

“Yes, she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.” This doesn’t mean two times the blessing. Rather, ample, abundant blessings; beyond all expectations of blessing.

Jesus took the scourge, the crown, and the cross. He received the abundance of God’s wrath so you would receive the abundance of blessings from God’s hand.

If you suffer from depression or anxiety, others may not know the right words to comfort you. They may not grasp how your depression threatens to pry your fingers from Christ’s cross. They may not see how anxiety casts a shadow over your heart, making it difficult to see the light of Jesus.

But Jesus knows what you’re going through. He is the Divine Physician of both body and soul. He even knows the right words to say. Words to remind you that what you deserve is trumped by God’s undeserving grace. The Lord comes not as Judge, but as Savior. Not as Tyrant, but as Shepherd. Not as Accuser, but as Forgiver. Not to crush you deeper into your depression with more guilt so that you never get out of bed. But to announce double comfort with his love to pull you closer to him.

This double comfort comes when the Lord breaks into history as God in the manger. He comes with comfort because you are his people and he is your God. Amen.

Like a shepherd he will care for his flock. With his arm he will gather the lambs. He will lift them up on his lap. He will gently lead the nursing mothers. (Isaiah 40:11) Amen.