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Intro: Holy, and born again
Isaiah’s vision of the Lord, “high and lifted up” was the polar opposite of what we see when we see our Lord “high and lifted up” on a cross. Isaiah saw the Lord in His “separateness”. He saw Him in His glory...a Holiness that sets Him apart from anything else we know. Where the world wallows in random violence (like what we just saw in Indiana and Oklahoma) and every form of sin, Isaiah’s vision sees the Holy Trinity in His undivided unity, separate from all these wicked things; pure and innocent. We all naturally think of God in this way. When we think of something “holy”, we think of something “pure” or “unstained”. If something is “holy” to you...it’s special. It’s sacred. It hasn’t been spoiled or used for some profane or common purpose - and God certainly is holy in this way.
But if we only think about God is this way, we miss out on the meat of the gospel. The good news of the Gospel is that this pure and Holy God, who’s so loving and merciful and just, that He who never suffered anything or deserved to suffer anything and who was never stained by anything, CHOSE to suffer and be stained EVERYTHING. He CHOSE to suffer and be stained by coming down from His “high and separate place”. That’s what it means to be “lifted up like the serpent in the wilderness”. He chooses the polar opposite of what He is and how He rightly deserves to be regarded that He might make you...in His place, Holy...that He might set you apart...and that you might believe and be saved. That’s what Jesus means when He tells us that God chose to send His Son.
GOD SENT HIS SON TO BE HIGH AND LIFTED UP, TAKING ON THE SINS AND STAINS OF THE WORLD, THAT WE MIGHT SEE THE EXTENT OF HIS GREAT LOVE AND MERCY, AND HAVING LOOKED UPON HIM IN HIS SUFFERING, BELIEVE IN HIM AND BE SAVED.
I. The Holy Son of God allowed Himself to be lifted up as the vilest of the unholy.
As the scriptures say, “He was numbered with the transgressors”. Christ allowed Himself to be “high and lifted up”...not in the glory seen by Isaiah, but as that serpent...as the “cursed one”. He allowed Himself to not only be numbered, but to be condemned with the transgressors...that seeing this image of Him lifted up in that way, the world might see and know the heart and will of the true God. That the world, having once been cut off from this Truth of God’s true heart and will on account of sin, might once again be filled with the knowledge of Him and be saved.
II. We should all be rather incredulous at these words and with what we see
With the words, “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness” there comes every condemnation of the law against everything vile and unclean. So, when we see the Son of God on the cross, we see Him allowing Himself to not only be put under the law, but to be likened to the serpent himself...to be blasphemed and maligned in the most insulting way, and to suffer all the accusations and the penalties of the law for you. That’s pretty incredible.
If, as a parent, you’ve ever had the unfortunate experience of having one of your kids come under the condemnation of the law, this would be like you volunteering to show up in an orange suit to fulfill THEIR time or their public service. At the same time, it’s a lot more than that. There would be some similarity in you bearing the shame of what one of your kids had done. There’d be some similarity in you going out there in public...in an orange suit...to pay the penalty as if you had done the crime, but that only scratches the surface when it comes to the amount of suffering that God went through to take on the sins of the WORLD. It’s pretty incredible, when you think of what it means that God sent His Son.
III. Seeing Him high and lifted up in this way is what it took for us to see and know our God
You see Him high and lifted up and you know that your sins atoned for. You see Him high and lifted up and you know that justice has been satisfied. But on top of all of that, the thing that really endears your God to you is the fact that He’d actually put on an orange jumpsuit...in the form of our flesh, and He’d not only have to despise the shame of the vilest of criminals...He’d have to endure the cross. You see Him high and lifted up in this way, and you know how far He was willing to condescend and deny Himself for you. You know that He did this because He is loving and merciful to a degree that we can hardly imagine. Seeing Him in this way is how you know your God. You believe, and are saved.
IV. So, consider why God would do such a thing.
A. First, to make you holy and to reclaim and set you apart from the world for Himself
As the catechism says, “that you might live under Him and be His own”. It goes back to love and mercy on one hand, but it also comes down to God defending His Name (who He is and what His will is) so that the world might no longer be deceived. The Lord spoke through Isaiah saying, “For my own name’s sake I do this”. The Devil can lie and deny all throughout the world, but when you see Him high and lifted up...the truth shines through the darkness. Through this knowledge of God, you recognize the One who sent His Holy Son into the muck and mire of a sin-saturated world to be “high and lifted up” on a cross...you recognize Him as an incredibly loving and merciful God. You believe in Him and are saved. You can take comfort in the knowledge that this Holy God came to you in the muck and mire of your life, and you rejoice that through the waters of baptism....in a similar way to how that coal touched Isaiah’s lips, this baptismal water has now touched your head and you’ve been made clean. Your sin’s been atoned for and you are saved. This is why God would do such a thing.
B. Secondly, God did this thing that He might expose everything unholy
When you see the Son of God “high and lifted up”, sent by God for such a purpose, you can’t help but feel like Isaiah when he said, “Woe is me! I am undone!”. When you’re confronted with such Holiness, you really start to recognize and identify the true nature of sin. The Lord sent His Son, but your ambition, vanity and pride refused to receive Him. It was that attitude of “Hey, don’t get so involved in my life” or “Who do you think you are, the Lord?” that put Him there. And everyone that has eyes to see just why He’s really there understands these things. You’ve been “undone”. You’ve been made to realize just how desperately you need those cleansing waters of baptism. You’ve been led to see just what He had to go through on account of anger, ambition and pride. And you’ve been undone as the whole world that refuses to believe will be undone on the last day. But unlike the world that perishes, this knowledge of the Triune God has come to you now, that you might be saved!
Conclusion: The Holy Trinity continues to work night and day to bring the world back to this knowledge through this vision of the Son, “high and lifted up”. It’s in this knowledge that you rejoice in your baptism. It’s in this knowledge that every day you desire foremost of all to return to those cleansing waters. In this knowledge, that you patiently suffer with Him, even as you eagerly anticipate the day when every form of uncleanness will be undone.
Each day, as you go out into the world, you are sent as a people that know and believe why it is that a Holy God would ever send His Son to be lifted up in such a way. You can testify that it was out of His steadfast love and mercy. You can believe that God would send His Son to undo everything that has ever undone you. You know His will that has longed for you to live under Him in His Kingdom, in perfect righteousness, innocence and blessedness and you know the heart of Him who would welcome you back into a communion in His body in which you are born again. By His grace, you will see the Kingdom of God and by grace you can rejoice. He will take you to be with Him where you too will be High and lifted up forever. IJN+