Radiant Beauty Text: Isaiah 62:1–5
Other Lessons: Psalm 128; 1 Corinthians 12:1–11; John 2:1–11
Sermon Theme: With the righteousness, salvation, and glory of Jesus, God transforms us into his radiantly beautiful Bride.
Sermon Goal: That your’ lives shine with the radiance of the beauty of the Bridegroom, Jesus, now and fully in eternity. Based on a sermon outline by Rev. Dr. Adam Filipek in Concordia Pulpit Resources.
Sermon: The imagery in our Old Testament Reading for this morning is spectacular. It couldn’t be more joyful, filled with adoration, beauty, and steadfast love. The scene is anticipatory of a wedding, of a groom doting over his bride as he is captivated by her radiant beauty. You can almost see it, can’t you? The bride adorned in her dazzling white dress. The peoples’ breath taken away as they watched her elegantly process down the aisle. The groom’s smile beaming from ear to ear, with tears beginning to run down his face as he beholds his beloved bride coming ever closer to him. That glorious moment when the new husband and wife embrace each other for the first time and their new name rings out loudly and proudly in the air. You can hear it, can’t you? “It gives me great privilege and honor to introduce to you Mr. and Mrs. . . .” But as our Old Testament Reading for today reveals, this is no ordinary wedding. This is God’s wedding. God’s wedding to the inhabitants of Zion, to his people Israel. This is God doting over his bride with joy, adoration, and steadfast love, as he is captivated by her radiant beauty. And that, quite frankly, is shocking. Because if you know anything about God’s bride throughout the book of Isaiah, and throughout the history of the world for that matter, you know she is anything but beautiful. In fact, such a beautiful wedding—for Israel or for us—is possible only because With the Righteousness, Salvation, and Glory of Jesus, God Transforms Us into His Radiantly Beautiful Bride. In the book of Isaiah, the prophet graphically describes Israel as ugly. She has pridefully put on and arrogantly strolled around in the filthy rags of idolatry. She has brazenly burned some of her children alive on the altars of Molech and Chemosh, believing it would secure financial prosperity (Jer 32:35). The Israelites have unabashedly engaged in sexual intercourse with cult prostitutes at the designated high places of worship for Baal and Asherah, believing it would result in fertile rain for the people’s crops (Judg 8:33; Is 57:3–9). You name it, Israel chased after it, believing she would become more prosperous and bountiful, more beautiful. But the reality is that she is repulsive. Instead of perfume, she will smell rottenness. Instead of a belt, she will use a rope. Instead of well-set hair, there will be baldness. Instead of an illustrious wedding garment, she will wear a skirt of sackcloth (3:24). And in the millennia since, God’s Bride hasn’t prettied herself a bit. We, like those before us, wear the filthy rags of idolatry. We brazenly chase after money and material possessions, thinking they will bring security and contentment. We unabashedly neglect to come to church weekly and study God’s Word daily because we are too busy chasing after everything we believe will make us happy. You name it, we chase after it—anything and everything we believe will make our life more beautiful. Past and present, God’s bride looks ugly in her sin. Anything but beautiful! The only thing beautiful about Israel’s past and our present is the commitment her husband has made to us. Despite her unfaithfulness, God has always remained faithful to his unfaithful bride (vv 2, 4–5). He fought for his people and led them through the Red Sea on dry ground (Exodus 14). He protected them in the wilderness for forty years, led them into the Promised Land, and granted them victory in thirteen battles so that they could enter that Promised Land. Even in exile, God sustained them and promised to free them from exile through the Persian King Cyrus II. God is so committed to his bride that he will not keep silent until he has removed her ugliness of sin (v 1). As we heard last week, there in the waters of the Jordan River, Jesus laid aside his own righteousness, salvation, and glory and clothed himself in our filthy rags of idolatry (Mt 3:13–15). He who knew no sin became sin for us so that in him we would become the righteousness of God (2 Cor 5:21). Jesus, your Bridegroom, was faithful unto death upon the cross. He loved you with an everlasting love, giving himself up for you, in order to sanctify and cleanse you from your sin (Eph 5:25–26). In Jesus our sins are removed as far as the east is from the west (Ps 103:12). Risen from the dead, Jesus comes to bestow his beauty on his Bride (v 3). In the waters of Baptism, Jesus clothes us with a dazzling white robe of his own righteousness that covers all our sins (Rev 7:14). In the sweet words of absolution, “I forgive you all your sins,” our sins, which were like scarlet, are washed clean; they are now whiter than snow (Is 1:18). Today, in Christ, you are without spot, blemish, wrinkle, or stain (Eph 5:27). You are a beautiful Bride prepared and adorned for her wedding day (Rev 21:2). Conclusion: O people of Zion, O Jerusalem, O Bride of Christ, what a day that will be! The day of our wedding, the day of resurrection, when we are raised up in glory and so thoroughly transformed by Jesus’ righteousness, salvation, and glory that our sin is forever removed, and we shine with the radiance of our Bridegroom. The day when our husband takes us by the hand and says, “Arise. Shine. My beautiful one. My love. Come with me. No more sin, sorrow, pain, or death. Behold, I make all things new.” On that day, you will be inseparably joined to Jesus. You will be fully bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh. And you will forever and only be called by your real name, Christian, for you were taken out of Christ. This is God’s promise to you. He has spoken. And he will not be silent until you are fully and completely his radiantly beautiful Bride, and eternally “he will rejoice over you with gladness; [and] he will quiet you by his love” (Zeph 3:17). In Jesus’ name. Amen.