“See I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?” Dear website blog reader these are words from the Old Testament Reading from Isaiah chapter 43 we heard in worship for the 5th Sunday of Lent. In recent months (perhaps because of it being winter) I have often felt like there are not many truly new things around these days. From technology to movies, to music, to literature everything seems to be a revamping or modification of what is already around. What is actually new?
If you haven’t heard these words from Ecclesiastes chapter one in a while, they certainly provide a sobering perspective of our limits as creatures.
1:8-9 All things are full of weariness; a man cannot utter it; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing. 9 What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun. 10 Is there a thing of which it is said, “See this is new”? It has been already in the ages before us….
I have seen everything that is done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind!”
I have come to appreciate this sense of self limitation as an individual especially in the last few years in my profession as a counselor. There are some people I feel I have helped a good deal, and others I question how much I help. I see the same problems and the same struggles from one person to another. For some it is wounds from childhood, for others wounds from peers or school. The solutions may provide relief or growth in wellness, but it is only a limited relief. There is no new way to live life where there is no longer stress, no way to live life where it is only happiness and vacation time. Again, there is nothing new under the sun.
We try and imagine there is something new to be found. We eagerly look around the corner toward the next three day weekend or highlight event in life. But as much as we might look forward to and enjoy a three day weekend, a vacation, a day at the beach or an enjoyable social occasion- they all come and go without anything truly new occurring.
They pass only to be replaced with the same routines of labor and toil. From the point of view of sinful man, there is no denying it, there is nothing new under the sun.
“Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs up; do you not perceive it?”
Through faith we perceive that there is a wonderful exception to the rule. By the power of God’s Word you can forget everything you know about how things used to be or how things ought to work. Jesus brings us something new in a way that nobody else in today’s world or all of history could do.
Listen to the words from the parable of the wicked tenants in our gospel reading for further evidence of how new of a thing it is in this world that God sent his only son into this world to die for us. “Then the owner of the vineyard said , What shall I do, I will send my beloved son, perhaps they will respect him. But when the tenants saw him, they said to themselves, let us kill him, so that the inheritance may be ours.’
How unbelievable that the master would send his own son into the vineyard, considering how they had treated all those who came thus far. There was nothing new about their reaction, ‘let us kill him so that the inheritance may be ours!’ What was new was God’s unprecedented design of love for us. “The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.”
Never in all of history has it ever been the case that God himself would come down to earth and suffer on the cross for our salvation. Never in all of human wisdom and reason has it ever been thought that salvation would all be a gift of the Lord.
There is no mistaking that this is a gift. The tenants of the vineyard deserved only death for their actions. But instead through the love of Christ, through the love that existed from before the foundation of the world- what we meant for evil God turned to good, turned into the cornerstone of the church.
It was not new in terms of God’s planning for us. Already from the beginning, since Adam and Eve’s fall- God knew all along of this plan of salvation, and God told Adam and Eve of this promise of a Savior. But for us, it was a new thing to experience, our salvation through Jesus, the God man.
“Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the dessert. The wild beasts will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches, for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, the people whom I formed for myself that they might declare my praise.”
The gift of our salvation is entirely new and unexpected, like nothing we could expect or even hope for, like a well defined path in the wilderness, like rivers springing forth in the desert. This new thing, this salvation through Jesus is so clear that even wild beasts can see it.
And we as the church have been joined to this new thing. Through Holy Baptism you have been made a new creation. “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold the new has come.”
Jesus brings to us this new creation. We don’t just look back at what the Lord has done for us, but also see God as our present provider of all help. John 4:14 “But whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty forever. The water I give in him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” Jesus gives us life giving water throughout our lives. He brings to us in His Word and Sacrament all that we need.
Apart from faith, we do not see anything so special in Jesus that we would say, ‘here is truly a new and worthwhile thing.’ Some other religions see Jesus as merely one of many great prophets throughout history. The historical scholar who is blinded by unbelief might convince himself that Jesus was one of many ‘miracle workers’ throughout history.
In our own identity as Christians we may not question whether there is anything new about Jesus’ incarnation or his crucifixion and resurrection. We take this for granted that Jesus is the pivot point in all of history and the one in whom we want to put all of our trust.
It is harder for us to see how Jesus makes all things new in our life. We often struggle to see how because Jesus has saved us, everything, absolutely everything in our lives is new.
As time goes by in our lives we tend to recognize what are the limits set before us. We become all too familiar with how things tend to go for us in family relationships and friendships. We know which people push our buttons or which people we feel we disappoint. Life becomes marked by predictable routines whereby we may feel a certain degree more isolated, alone and unfulfilled than we would have hoped for in life.
Yet through our life in Christ, how things tend to go is the old, and the new is what Jesus leads us toward in our lives. Through faith that Jesus makes all things new, we can approach stagnant routines with newfound purpose, courage, and hopefulness.
When we feel paths have been closed to us in life through hurts and disappointments we find in Jesus’ unconditional love and forgiveness the strength to ourselves forgive those who have let us down. Though the complete freedom of forgiveness in Christ we find a new thing in our life.
And as you are reading this sermon in faith there is by the power of God’s Word a new thing in your life. Jesus makes you a new creation: perfectly forgiven, not stuck looking toward the past, but instead living by His provision day by day. You can look in hope for the next way in which Jesus will do a new thing in your life. Like streams flowing forth in the desert, you can see that life in Christ is a marvelous thing. Amen. Pastor Fuller