Preparing for Worship - January 15, 2023

The first two readings for this Sunday, the 2nd Sunday after the Epiphany, predict the epiphany, the “appearance” with His “light shining forth,” of Jesus, the Messiah. In Psalm 40, David tells of how he waited patiently for the Lord, and the Lord rescued him from “the pit of destruction” and set him on a secure rock, from which he can sing praises to God and boldly tell “the glad news of God’s deliverance” and “salvation.” David predicts that many more people “will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord,” because the Lord will send the Messiah, Jesus, who will have “an open ear” and “delight to do God’s will,” and make a sacrifice of His body “once for all” that will do away with need for all the Old Testament sacrifices. (See Psalm 40, verses 6-8 quoted in Hebrews 10:4-10, with more explanation of all this.)

The Old Testament lesson, Isaiah 49:1-7, is another of the “Servant Songs” of that coming Messiah, along with what we heard last week in Isaiah 42:1-9. That Servant will be named Jesus, from the womb of His mother, and will come from Israel, but also be the One who “will bring back the preserved,” the remnant of Israel, to the Lord, and will be “a light for all nations, that the news of His salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.” This saving work will not be easy, though, and this servant Jesus will be “deeply despised“ and “abhorred” (disgusted with and hated) by many of His own people. Yet, “God will be His strength” and He will be “honored in the eyes of the Lord.”

In the Gospel lesson, John 1:29-42, John the Baptist had been preparing the way for the coming of Jesus and now called Him “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin on the world,” referring to His coming sacrifice on the cross. John even said that Jesus existed before him, although Jesus was born after him. John was referring to the fact that Jesus was the Son of God, God the Son, who had always existed, along with the Father and the Holy Spirit, from all eternity. John knew this, because he had baptized Jesus and heard the voice of God the Father identifying Jesus as His Son and saw God the Holy Spirit coming upon Jesus in the form of a dove. Two disciples of John then stayed with Jesus and started learning from Him. One, named Andrew, talked with his brother Cephas (Peter), and told him, “We have found the Messiah, which means Christ.” In this way, even though Jesus was just beginning His public ministry, the Good News about Him as the coming promised Savior, was beginning to spread, as predicted in the first lessons, at which we have already looked. (The word “Messiah” is the Hebrew word for “the One Anointed by God” to do His saving work, and the word Christ is the Greek form of the same word.) Jesus is the One!

The Epistle lesson is from 1 Corinthians 1:1-9. The Good News of Jesus was spreading and had now reached the country of Greece and the city of Corinth, where God had established a church through the ministry of Paul and one of his converts, Sosthenes. See Acts 18, and especially v.17. A little later, Paul wrote a letter, supported by Sosthenes, to the church members at Corinth. He called the baptized believers there “saints” because that is what they were, by the grace and peace of God at work in them, through Christ Jesus. This grace was given to them by God as a gift, including the gift of faith in Jesus as their Savior. “God is faithful,” Paul wrote, and would “sustain” them in this faith to the end, as they stayed close to Jesus and His Word. They would be counted “guiltless” also, by faith in Jesus and all He did for them. So will we, as we abide in faith in our Savior! All our sins are forgiven, too.