Sermon for January 11, 2026, The Baptism of Our Lord

Isaiah 42:1-9 (The Baptism of Our Lord—Series A)

“The Servant Brings the Verdict”

Lutheran Church of Our Redeemer, Enfield, CT

January 11, 2026

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Our text is the Old Testament reading from Isaiah 42:

¹Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold, My Chosen One in whom I delight. I have put My Spirit upon Him. He will bring forth the verdict to the nations. ²He will not cry out and He will not raise His voice, and He will not make His voice heard in the street. ³A bruised reed He will not break and a smoldering wick He will not extinguish. He will faithfully bring forth the verdict. ⁴He will not grow dim and He will not be crushed until He establishes the verdict on earth, and the coastlands will wait for His instruction. ⁵Thus says the God Yahweh, Who created the heavens and Who stretched them out, Who hammered out the earth and what comes forth from it, Who gives breath to the people upon it and spirit to those walking upon it. ⁶I am Yahweh; I have called You in righteousness and I will seize Your hand and I will keep watch over You, and I will appoint You to be a covenant for the people, to be a light to the nations, ⁷to open blind eyes, to bring forth prisoners from the dungeon, from the house of imprisonment the ones dwelling in darkness. ⁸I am Yahweh; that is My Name, and My glory I will not give to another nor My praise to idols. ⁹Behold, the former things have happened and new things I am declaring. Before they spring forth, I am telling you.

Bruised reeds and smoldering wicks. Those are two images that we might not be very familiar with. Reeds grow in the marsh and along the riverbank. They are not particularly strong to begin with, and those that are “bruised” are broken, perhaps by the wind, tops snapped, barely hanging on. And then a candle wick that’s down to its last quarter-inch, barely lit, a red glow, beginning to smoke as it nears its end.

These are images of things that are fragile, that are actually on the verge of destruction. There’s simply not much left. Bruised reeds and smoldering wicks actually refer to us broken people whose hope is nearly extinguished because of outward oppression and because of perhaps inward disillusionment with the life of this world. We see this similarly in the Beatitudes from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount when our Lord calls people “the poor in spirit,” “those who mourn,” and “those who hunger and thirst for righteousness” (Matthew 5).

The images of smoldering wicks and broken reeds intensify later in our text as humanity is described as having blind eyes, imprisoned in a dungeon, and dwelling in darkness. This is a spiritual blindness and imprisonment that is the result of sin. Isaiah writes in chapter 59, “We grope for the wall like the blind; we grope like those who have no eyes; we stumble at noon as in the twilight, among those in full vigor we are like dead men” (Is. 59:10 ESV). This is what St. Paul also writes in 1 Corinthians 2:14, “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” The “natural person” is someone without God’s Spirit, still unconverted to the Christian faith, still in their “natural,” sinful condition. This is the spiritual blindness in which we all enter this world at birth, without the ability to fear and love God, with an endless desire to sin because we are enslaved in a lifelong sinful condition from which we cannot free ourselves—imprisoned in the darkness of sin and death.

As sinful people, we were blind and so couldn’t see reality as it is. We thought that everything was fine. We believed everything to be as it should. We thought that we were free when we were actually in the house of sin’s imprisonment, living in darkness and blindness. We were unable to see, to see ourselves and others as the bruised reeds and smoldering wicks that we are.

You and I were in need of light. We needed to see, to truly know, our lost and condemned condition before God who “created the heavens, who stretchedm the out, who hammered out the earth and what comes from it.” But to know our sinful condition also means to know the result and punishment of that condition. All sinners deserve God’s temporal and eternal death sentence. “For the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23 ESV).

And yet we are told, “A bruised reed He will not break and a smoldering wick He will not extinguish. He will faithfully bring forth the verdict.” This is the mission of Yahweh’s Servant. Isaiah 42:1-4 is the first for four Servant Songs in the Book of Isaiah. The Servant of Yahweh’s identity becomes clearer through these songs so that we see Him as the Messiah, God the Son Himself, Jesus Christ. And so, Isaiah sang the Lord’s word, “Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold, My Chosen One in whom I delight. I have put My Spirit upon Him. He will bring forth the verdict to the nations.”

Yahweh speaks about His Servant whom He would send with His judgment, the verdict to the nations. Yahweh Himself chose His Servant, the very One in whom He delights and upon Whom He has put His Spirit. And so, we read in Matthew 3 the fulfillment of God’s promise, “Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. John would have prevented him, saying, ‘I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?’ But Jesus answered him, ‘Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.’ Then he consented. And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased’” (Matt. 3:13-17 ESV).

Jesus, the Son of God, the Lord’s Servant, came in human flesh. We have just celebrated the Season of Christmas, rejoicing in Jesus’ incarnation among us. He is the One chosen and equipped by the Father to bring God’s verdict to sinners. But it’s not the verdict of condemnation and death that we deserve. Remember, “A bruised reed He will not break and a smoldering wick He will not extinguish.” This Servant comes to bring blessing and not punishment and destruction to sinners. “Once He came in blessing, All our sins redressing, Came in likeness lowly, Son of God most holy; Bore the cross to save us; Hope and freedom gave us” (LSB 333:1).

The Father called His Son in righteousness to bring His own righteousness to us, “to open blind eyes, to bring forth prisoners from the dungeon, from the house of imprisonment the ones dwelling in darkness.” In order to do so, Jesus, the Servant, took sinful humanity’s place. He was born of woman, fully human, yet without sin. He was born under God’s Law, taking upon Himself our obligation to keep the Lord’s Commandments. Because we are sinful, Jesus had to assume the position of sinners. To fulfill all righteousness for us, to stand in the place of sinners, Jesus stood in the Jordan River and was baptized by John, assuming our sinfulness upon Himself as if it were His own.

Then, Isaiah tells us this about the Lord’s Servant, “He will not grow dim and He will not be crushed until He establishes the verdict on earth.” In the fourth Servant Song, the prophet writes, “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed” (Is. 53:4-5 ESV). Having kept God’s Law for us, Jesus bore our sins to the cross. There He was crushed with the verdict of death for us so that we might have His righteousness and the forgiveness of our sins and victory over death.

Because of Jesus, the Lord’s verdict has gone forth, the Good News of the Gospel—You are declared not guilty of your sins. You are forgiven by the perfect life, sacrificial death, and glorious resurrection of the Father’s Servant and Son, Jesus Christ. He has given you the Light of His Word by putting His Spirit on you in Baptism. By faith, through the Spirit, your eyes now see your sin for what it is and your Savior Jesus who rescues and redeems you from your sin.

In Jesus, the Servant of Yahweh, your Savior, God has declared to you a “new thing.” He has set you free from the prison house of sin and death and redeemed you from the house of bondage. Jesus is your Light of salvation. He is also a covenant for you because He has instituted a new covenant, a new testament, in His truly present Body and Blood with the bread and wine, given and shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins. Through His Word and Sacraments of Baptism and Supper, Jesus brings the Father’s verdict of “not guilty” to each of you personally by the Holy Spirit. For you who are in Christ, what was spoken to Jesus can also now be said to you, “I have called you in righteousness and I will seize your hand and I will keep watch over you.” We read in 1 Peter, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” (1 Pet. 2:9 ESV). You live in the Light of the Lord Jesus Christ. Your sins are forgiven and eternal life is yours because Jesus has opened your eyes through the Gospel to faith in Him alone as your Savior and Redeemer. He has freed you from imprisonment to sin and death and given you new life. And in this new life, He is with you always, to the end of the age.

The verdict from the cross echoes, “It is finished!” Jesus took on human flesh and stood in the Jordan in the place of sinners. He suffered and died on the cross in your place and mine, shedding His holy precious blood, to save us from our sins and death. Now, through His Word, Baptism, and Supper, the Risen Savior proclaims the verdict of His Father to you, “Go in peace. You are free!” Amen.