Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
The text this morning is from the Book of the prophet Isaiah, the 45th chapter:
Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, to subdue nations before him and to loose the belts of kings, to open doors before him that gates may not be closed: “I will go before you and level the exalted places, I will break in pieces the doors of bronze and cut through the bars of iron, I will give you the treasures of darkness and the hoards in secret places, that you may know that it is I, the Lord, the God of Israel, who call you by your name. For the sake of my servant Jacob, and Israel my chosen, I call you by your name, I name you, though you do not know me. I am the Lord, and there is no other, besides me there is no God; I equip you, though you do not know me, that people may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides me; I am the Lord, and there is no other. I form light and create darkness, I make well-being and create calamity, I am the Lord, who does all these things.
Thus far the text.
Dear friends in Christ,
Cyrus was the big bad wolf. Almost literally, anyway. The king of the Persian empire, he could huff, and he could puff, and he would blow your whole kingdom down, although sometimes it didn’t even take that much. Sometimes, it was just his wholesale slaughter of a neighboring area to make kings and governors defect to his side, selling out and betraying their own land. That’s how Cyrus conquered Babylon after all.
So, Cyrus was a big baddie. And Cyrus also had a god that he worshipped called Marduk. Marduk was a powerful god, the bull-calf of the son god. In the pantheon of the Asian gods, there weren’t many stronger, and so Cyrus often looked to the helpful, destructive nature of Marduk to let him win battles. He had statues formed of Marduk, and they would process with these statues before the battle, much as we process in with the cross into the sanctuary.
Cyrus was not a good guy. He was dangerous. He was vengeful. He was murderous. And he was the Lord’s messiah. No joke. That’s what the word ‘anointed’ here means, meshiach, messiah, the Lord’s anointed. It does not mean that Cyrus is the one in whom we find eternal life. That’s Jesus. But, as the only non-Jew in the entire Scriptures to be referred to as the Lord’s anointed, despite his dangerousness, we actually, this morning, must see Cyrus also is a type of Christ for us.
But, how can this be? Why would our Lord use such an awful man to show us Jesus? Why would He use a man who made use of violence and exile and slaughter and theft to show us Jesus? Because our Lord God is in charge of all things, and all peoples, and all governments. Our Lord uses Cyrus today, just as He used Caesar, to demonstrate God’s power and authority.
Now, certainly, God could merely speak a word and all things would be done. The exile that the Lord has promised the Jews in payment for their disobedience and idolatry is coming, but the Lord could have just blown upon them and pushed them into foreign lands as He did at the Tower of Babel. The Lord didn’t need to use a man to accomplish His purposes; yet that’s exactly what He used.
He used Cyrus as an instrument, a tool. And a tool for what? In Isaiah 44, we find the answer. Our Lord desires His people to repent. God reminds His people that He has blotted out their transgressions as a cloud does the sky. The people of Israel and Judah are for the Lord His servants, and He desires to keep them close. But they keep refusing to return. They keep refusing to repent. They whore after false gods. They go after the Baals and the Bels, the Marduks and the Molechs.
And God has had enough. He desires them to repent, and to get them to do so, He is going to use Cyrus. Why Cyrus? Because he’s the man with a plan. Specifically, a plan from God. God confused Cyrus’ diviners and wise men in such a way that they would tell Cyrus to take Jerusalem and all its people into exile. God used these pagans to actually confirm the word of Isaiah and show God’s people that God means business. And God is going to give to Cyrus the largest empire the world had seen up to that point in order to show His people that He means business.
Our God is going to use Cyrus to destroy the city of Jerusalem, people will die, people will starve, and people will never see their homes again. And why does God do that? Does He hate His people? Does He not care? Does God have a case of divine schadenfreude, where we laugh at others’ suffering?
Of course not. God uses this evil man, and his evil actions, to move His people to repentance. And ultimately, they do repent, and Cyrus even will help the Jews return to their land, rebuild the city, and rebuild the Temple so that the people of God can worship their God. Cyrus is only a tool; and that tool is in God’s hands.
And so it is still today. God uses men, good and evil according to our eyes, to do His work in the world. Again, we call this vocation. God serves people through vocation. And we pray for good things. We pray that all people would do God’s work of love and service to the neighbor through our hands and the hands of all men.
But, things don’t always go as planned, do they? For that reason, so many people think Obama is an awful president, and that he’s messed everything up, and perhaps they’re right. And for that reason, so many people think Bush was an awful president, and that he messed everything up, and perhaps they’re right. But either way, and it doesn’t really matter, these men are the representatives of God in the way that they serve God’s purposes. God has put these men, and thousands of others, just in the government alone, to serve you and protect you. And so we pray for them. We pray that they would do the right thing, say the right thing, enact the right thing. And they often don’t.
Just like us. We need to love and serve our neighbor in our vocations. We need to be good fathers, good mothers, good sons, good daughters, good wives, good husbands, good teachers, good doctors, good farmers, good pastors, good citizens, good servants, good employees, good bosses. We need to do these things and we mess up more often than anyone can count. And when that happens, sometimes we are chastised. Sometimes, we are punished.
But, for the most part, that punishment is not because the person doing it hates us. It’s to discipline us, to teach us, to make us better at our vocation because we learn not to do it again and serve better into the future.
And that’s all well and good. But we still mess up. And we still need to have those sins of omission, the ones we forget to do, and those sins of commission, those we actively engage in, those sins in thought, word, and deed, we still need to have them all covered. And just as our Lord uses Cyrus as a messiah, one who teaches, one who is used by the Lord, AND one who ultimately will enable the worship of the Lord again, our Lord also sent the true Messiah, Jesus Christ.
Cyrus took God’s people into exile to discipline God’s people. So Jesus disciplines us by teaching us all things through the Holy Spirit. Cyrus destroyed the city of Jerusalem and its Temple. Jesus prophesied the new destruction of Jerusalem and its Temple, and even cleared the Temple of all those who would do God’s people wrong. Cyrus would rebuild the Temple. Jesus said that when the temple of His body was torn down, He would raise up, rebuild, His body, after three days. Our Jesus is a better Cyrus. He is a better Lord, a better Messiah, and He is used up for us, He was crucified, died, and was buried for us, so that we might worship God in Spirit and in Truth all of our days.
Our Jesus gives us much, and He gives us the strength to even endure under the hardship the world places upon us. I don’t care if that hardship comes from the government, your friends, your family. God is going to give you the strength to endure. And He does that in His three-fold way: He gives you strength through His Word, He gives you strength through His Baptism, and He gives you strength through His Supper. How should we be disciplined, taught? By Word and Sacrament.
In these ways, our Lord restores us to Himself. Just as Cyrus was used to take the people into exile to get them to repent, Jesus uses His Word and Sacrament to continually repent us, to bring us closer to Himself, to forgive us our sins, and to keep us unto everlasting life. This is what our Lord does. He brings you His cross through Word and Sacrament. The Anointed Messiah, crucified for you for the forgiveness of all your sins, went to that cross so that you would repent, so that you would be disciplined, so that you would see your Lord face-to-face in the Resurrection.
Cyrus is a type of Jesus, he’s showing us Jesus well before Jesus came on the scene in the flesh. But Jesus is a better Cyrus. Jesus is the loving God. Jesus is the God who disciplines us, makes us better, repents us, through His Word, through His Sacrament. And Jesus will always be with us, not taking us into exile, but leading us as a Shepherd, beside the still waters, in green pastures. He will be our leader, and we will need fear no other. Learn your Savior-Shepherd’s voice here today, at the altar, with your brothers and sisters. He calls to you by your name, just as He does all men, just as He did to Cyrus, just as He did to you in your baptism. He is the Lord. And there is no other. In Jesus’ name, amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord! Amen.
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