God’s Wisdom — Man’s Foolishness

Isaiah 29: 11-19

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.  Our text for this mornings meditation is recorded in the book of Isaiah, chapter 29, verses 11-19, particularly these words, “And the Lord said: ‘Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men, therefore, behold, I will again do wonderful things with this people, with wonder upon wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hidden.”  This is our text.

In the name of our blessed Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, dear Christian friends.  In our gospel reading for today, Jesus is confronted with by scribes and Pharisees who are appalled that his disciples are eating their lunch without first properly washing their hands in the way that is prescribed by the rituals handed down in Jewish law.  The accusation is made, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?”  And Jesus answers the question by quoting today’s Old Testament reading and our text for today, “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.’”  So Jesus, in our Gospel reading answers the very Lutheran question concerning our text for today – he answers for us, “What does this mean?”

Throughout history, there has always been a sharp contrast between the knowledge and wisdom of God – and the knowledge and wisdom of man.  There are times when man even tries to use his own wisdom to explain to others just what God intended to say, or meant to say.  It started in the Garden of Eden when the Devil was talking with Eve.  “Can you eat of any of the trees of the Garden?”  She answered, “We can eat of all the trees of the Garden except the one in the middle.  If we eat of that one, we will die.”  And what was his answer?  “You will not die!”  That’s not what God meant to say.  God loves you, he won’t let you die.  It won’t hurt you.  Instead it will be good for you.  It will make you just like God!”  And so the Father of all lies gets Eve to question and to doubt God’s Word and God’s Wisdom.

Down through the ages, God gave guidelines to his people – not in how they would become his people because they were already his chosen people, but what they should be because they were his people.  Sometimes, there were questions about how God’s will should be carried out.  God gave to the Children of Israel certain dietary and sanitary guidelines that they would need while out in the desert traveling from Egypt to the promised land.  When they got to the promised land, they felt the need to continue to practice the dietary and sanitary guidelines, but now they were in homes, and towns, and cities – not in tents in the wilderness – so their leaders reinterpreted these laws to fit their new circumstances.  And these now became their new laws – their new tradition – to honor and keep God’s law.  I’m sure they meant well.  They were just trying to help the people better serve and worship their God.  This was a good thing.  But over the years – the man made rules and traditions began to take the place of God’s Word and service to God.  In Jesus’ day, absolute obedience to the rules, took the place of listening to and following God’s Word.  And so Jesus calls the Scribes and the Pharisees Hypocrites – who shallowly honored God with their lips and actions – but their hearts were far from him – as they left the commandment of God and held to the tradition of men.”

You know, there is a very fine line that is very hard to walk sometimes between a right use of tradition and a wrong use of tradition.  For example in worship:  The Bible does not lay down for us an order of worship that all need to follow.  And so some, in their enthusiasm have thrown out all traditional forms and symbols of worship so that they can appeal to modern man – and in so doing have lost the depth and richness of the Church’s worship throughout the ages.  But then there is another group who go too far the other way – so that the form and content and the symbolism and the icons have to be so strictly regulated and placed, that worship becomes rigid and  there is no room for any variations what so ever.  The pendulum of time seems to swing too far to contemporary at times and too far to man made traditions at other times – and it becomes hard to find a middle ground where we are able to receive the gifts of God through Word and Sacrament with the appropriate awe and wonder we owe to our God.

So what is the conventional wisdom of man that we need to watch out for?  Some of you old codgers like me will remember a song from back in the 60’s that said, “Signs, signs, everywhere a sign.  Do this!  Don’t do that!  Everywhere a sign.”  The conventional wisdom of man gives us a list of do’s and don’ts.  We like rules.  It helps us put toys together at Christmas.  It gives us guidelines on how to raise our children.  It tells us how we can be good members of  a social club.  But the rules become a problem when we carry that wisdom over into our Spiritual life.  We hear it on  church T.V. and we read it in the religion section of our papers all the time.  God wants to bless you, but “YOU GOTTA” get rid of you negative thinking.  God wants to forgive you, but “YOU GOTTA” do penance first.  God wants to be in your life, but “YOU GOTTA” invite him into your heart.  “You GOTTA” make a decision for Christ.  It’s always about what we have got to do – rather than what Christ has done for us!

But on the Cross, Jesus did not say – “I’ll die for you IF you do this or that!”  What he said was, “It is finished.”  It is done.  The wages of sin – death – is paid, in full.  And Luther explained it beautifully in his explanation to the 3rd article of the Apostle’s Creed, “I believe that I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in my Lord Jesus Christ or come to him.  But the Holy Spirit has called me by the Gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, sanctified and kept me in the one true faith.”  Our salvation, our justification, our sanctification is ALL God’s work – by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, as revealed to us in the Scriptures alone!

Our Old Testament text warned us, “The wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hidden.”  The wisdom of man will fail!  The wisdom of man will not save us or bring us to God.

So what will bring us to God?  What will save us for eternal life? Our text said, “In that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book, and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see.  The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the Lord, and the poor among mankind shall exult in the Holy One of Israel.”  The deaf shall hear!  The blind shall see!  That makes no sense what so ever to man’s wisdom because the deaf do not hear and the blind do not see!  But with God, it makes perfect sense.  “For by grace are we saved through faith, and this is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.”  We who are deafened by our sinful nature, by grace hear the marvelous works of God.  We who are blinded by our sinful nature see Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior by grace through faith.  Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.

And may the peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting.  Amen.