The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God, and the Fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
Isaiah 29:11 The entire vision will be to you like the words of a sealed book, which, when they give it to the one who is literate, saying, “Please read this,” he will say, “I cannot, because it is sealed.” 12 Then the book will be given to the one who is illiterate, saying, “Please read this.” And he will say, “I cannot read.” 13 Then the Lord said, “Because this people approaches Me with their words And honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far away from Me, And their reverence for Me consists of the commandment of men that is taught; 14 Therefore behold, I will once again deal marvelously with this people, wondrously marvelous; And the wisdom of their wise men will perish, And the understanding of their men who have understanding will be concealed.” 15 Woe to those who deeply hide their plans from the Lord, And whose deeds are done in a dark place, And they say, “Who sees us?” or “Who knows us?” 16 You turn things around! Shall the potter be considered as equal with the clay, That what is made would say to its maker, “He did not make me”; Or what is formed say to him who formed it, “He has no understanding”? 17 Is it not yet just a little while Before Lebanon will be turned into a fertile field, And the fertile field will be considered as a forest? 18 On that day those who are deaf will hear words of a book, And out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of those who are blind will see. 19 The afflicted also will increase their joy in the Lord, And the needy of mankind will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. (NASB)
29:11 “The entire vision will be to you like the words of a sealed book, which, when they give it to the one who Is literate, saying, “Please read this,” he will say, “I cannot, because it is sealed.”
The warning of our Old Testament lesson is quite simple, frightening, and timely. The Scriptures remain a closed book to those who seek a religion that is based on self-righteousness and the human imagination. That’s what Isaiah 29:11 means. Even though many claim to read or know the written Word of God, they do not understand what it really means. They think they know what individual Bible verses or passages mean, but they don’t. Though they are literate, they do not understand and cannot understand.
The Word of God is often invoked to defend all sorts of false doctrines and sins. The people of Isaiah’s time had the written and spoken Word of God. Now many of the Old Testament prophets and their prophetic books had yet to been born and written, but the people did have the Torah, the books of Moses. They had the other historical books like Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1st and 2nd Samuel, and others. They also had books of wisdom and the Psalms.
On the one hand they had rejected Word as given to them. They no longer understood was written. On the other hand, they still had the rituals, traditions, and the temple that had come out of their status as God’s chosen people and the caretakers of the Word of God. But these things had been cut off/separated from their true meaning and placed into the context of works righteousness and pluralism. The Hebrews had the temple, they had priests, and they had rituals; but all these things were now used for idol worship.
They became so foolish in their thinking they actually thought that their actions and idol worship were pleasing to the Lord God. They offered up as evidence that God was pleased with them the temple itself. After all, they still had the temple; and as long as they were doing these things at God’s house, the Lord God must be pleased with them. When prophets like Isaiah called them to repentance, it was easy for them to reason that the prophets were the ungodly trouble-makers.
13 “Then the Lord said, ‘Because this people approaches Me with their words And honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far away from Me, And their reverence for Me consists of the commandment of men that is taught.’”
Jesus quotes this verse as it was translated in the Septuagint in the Gospel lesson– Mark 7:6-7. The Septuagint is the Greek translation of the Old Testament Hebrew. There Jesus said, 6 “Rightly did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far away from Me. 7 And in vain do they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.”
Jesus uses the word matēn, “in vain,” “to no purpose.” Dr. Martin Luther wrote of this: “With this single word [matēn] He embraces this whole chapter and every attempt of the ungodly, who have zealously crucified themselves with their labors, who exercise themselves with vigils, ‘who draw near to Me in order to obtain Me,’ and yet they are blinded. Why? Because they are hypocrites and self-righteous” (AE 16:244).
Through Isaiah the Lord God tells the Hebrews that they have everything backwards and upside down. He said that they were like clay trying to mold the Potter. Doesn’t that sound familiar? People telling God what He ought to be like. What He ought to approve and disapprove of. That which is depraved, evil, and broken they call good and they think God agrees with them. After all, they’re righteous people, so they think. There are a lot of people out there woke and otherwise that believe they are righteous people because of who they are, what they think they know, and what they do on occasion.
In Isaia’s day the Hebrews had adopted all sorts of doctrines and practices that were contrary to God’s Word all the way down to the First Commandment. “Thou shall have no other gods before Me.” Thus He declared, “This people draw near with their mouth and honor Me with their lips, while their hearts are far from Me.”
Even in the face of this turning away and unfaithfulness, the Lord God repeated His promise of the Messiah. He said “I will once again deal marvelously with this people, wondrously marvelous; And the wisdom of their wise men will perish.”
The Lord God fulfilled His promise. He sent the Marvelous One, His Only Begotten Son. In Mark 7, we find Jesus in the midst of His earthly ministry. He is
making the blind see and the deaf hear. He was teaching what the Word of God actually means.
The religious elite were unhappy with this Messiah, again. Their present complaint? Jesus’s disciples do not wash their hands before they eat. This is a serious matter of uncleanness to them. Though the requirement is not in the Old Testament, religious leaders had made it a law. You have to wash your hands before you eat. They made it a religious tradition to wash one’s hands before eating and taught that it’s a sin not to wash your hands before you eat.
It is no surprise that Jesus quoted our Old Testament lesson against them: “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me; in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’” (Mark 7:6-7). This is exactly what they had done. They rewrote God’s plan for salvation, and now they expect the Son of God to put His stamp on their revision.
The Master Potter refuses to be molded by the clay. He is God, and all else is His creation. He sets the terms of a relationship with Him. Jesus rebukes them for their unbelief and gives them an example of their hypocrisy.
“You are experts at setting aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition. 10 For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘The one who speaks evil of father or mother, is certainly to be put to death’; 11 but you say, ‘If a person says to his father or his mother, whatever I have that would help you is Corban (that is, given to God),’ 12 you no longer allow him to do anything for his father or his mother; 13 thereby invalidating the word of God by your tradition which you have handed down; and you do many things such as that.”
Let’s begin with the word “corban.” It’s Hebrew word adopted into the Greek of the New Testament without translation. It occurs only once (Mark 7:11). It means “a gift or offering consecrated to God.” Anything over which this word was once pronounced was irrevocably dedicated for religious purposes.
Jesus condemns the contemporary use of the word and the gift given. The contemporary use of corban had destroyed the fourth commandment which requires children to honor their fathers and mothers. Think of it this way. An adult son takes the family car, donates it to the church, says the word “corban” over the gift thus consecrating it to the Lord God and His church. He then uses the car for himself leaving his parents in need and carless. Further more the Pharisees then barred the man from doing anything to help his mother or father.
The Pharisees had created a loophole that allowed in their theology a son to neglect the care of his parents, while enriching himself and his colleagues, as Jesus said, 13 “thereby invalidating the word of God by your tradition which you have handed down; and you do many things such as that.”
Traditions and teachings that make known the Word of God, that do not contradict or negate any teaching of Jesus and the Bible are God-pleasing. For example the use of good liturgy is a tradition. It is a tradition based on the Bible itself and containing the words and teachings of the Bible–the teachings of Law and Gospel.
It is not traditions that are being condemned here. It is traditions and teachings that “invalidate the Word of God.” St. Paul wrote in 2 Thessalonians 2:15, “Brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter.”
By way of the Babylonians the Lord God would raze the temple to the ground and take the Hebrews into captivity and slavery. He would do that same thing in the New Testament period. Verse 17 in the Old Testament lesson. 17 “Is it not yet just a little while Before Lebanon will be turned into a fertile field.” The temple was made of stone and of cedars of Lebanon.
God was telling the Hebrews that the temple would be torn down so that one stone would not be left on another. Jesus said that exact thing in Matthew 24:2, God did a spectacularly spectacular thing. He destroyed His own dwelling place on the earth. The Lord God raised up a new Temple, His Word in Flesh and His doctrine, life, death, resurrection, and ascension and He established a new tradition that is a new testament in Christ and in the Word and Sacrament ministry of the church.
We do not speak of empty traditions. We have been saved from the captivity of empty and deceitful traditions. For if we confess with our months and believe with our hearts that Jesus Christ is Lord and we are saved. “9 If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; 10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. ” (Romans 10:9-10)
Isaiah wrote that the literate cannot hear, or understand, or believe the Word of God. But the blind will see and the deaf will hear. 18 “On that day those who are deaf will hear words of a book, And out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of those who are blind will see. 19 The afflicted also will increase their joy in the Lord, And the needy of mankind will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.”
Christ Jesus is the Holy One of Israel. He is the One who never substituted the traditions of sinful man for the commands, the Law and Gospel of Christ for He is the Word Incarnate. He is the true Temple made without hands and razed to the ground in His crucifixion, and resurrected on the third day (Mark 14:58; 15:29; John 2:19–22). He is the one who will give sight to the blind, heal the lame, restoring hearing to the deaf and joy to those who mourn, and life to those who once died. God the Father did something wondrously marvelous– He gave His only begotten Son to die so that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. These are the things that sinful human traditions and works cannot give.
“In short,” our Confessions say, “the worship of the New Testament is spiritual. It is the righteousness of faith in the heart and the fruit of faith. New Testament worship sets aside Levitical services [In the New Testament no offering avails…on account of the work, without a good thought in the heart.] …It teaches that people should worship in spirit, that is, with the inclinations of the heart and by faith” (Ap XXIV 27).
Amen
May the peace that surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.