What Do You Want for Nothing?

11th Sunday after Pentecost, 8/20/17
Isaiah 55:1-5


What Do You Want for Nothing?
I. Satisfying food for your soul
II. The faithful love of God for all


Pardon the clichés, but you didn’t just fall off the turnip truck. You’ve been around the block a time or two. Even if you haven’t lived two decades on this planet yet, you know a thing or two about life.

And one of life’s truisms is that you don’t get something for nothing. Everything has a price. Even when the person tells you something is completely free of charge, you wonder what it’s going to cost you. That’s because nothing in life is free. What they have cost them something and, when they offer it to you free of charge, you wonder when the cost will hit you. If it’s not immediate, it surely will occur down the road somewhere, sometime. In fact, it will likely occur when you least expect it.

So, even when someone presents you with a gift, you feel an obligation. Now you’re obligated to “gift” them back, because nothing in life is free.

With that being the case, when the words of this morning’s text from Isaiah 55 were read a few minutes ago, were you a little skeptical? They speak repeatedly about something for nothing. In fact, the words seem to present a blatant contradiction. The speaker invites you to come and buy without money and without cost. That doesn’t follow. It’s not logical. How can you buy something without money? How can you buy something that doesn’t cost anything? That doesn’t make sense.

Precisely! Because this morning’s sermon text isn’t speaking about anything earthly which you might routinely purchase. It’s speaking about something heavenly. It’s speaking about the spiritual gifts our God offers to us through his word. It’s speaking to us about God’s grace towards sinners and grace doesn’t make sense. God’s grace gives us what we don’t deserve. It doesn’t require us to earn or buy anything. It’s grace! And grace by definition is free. So what is God offering to you and me in these words? Let’s flip that around. Let’s assume that what God is offering is something we desperately want and need. The only catch is, you can’t buy it. So, what do you want for nothing? Even though our life experience would tell us that isn’t possible, with our God it is. In fact, your eternity depends on it. What do you want for nothing? Let’s answer that question this morning.

Part I.

If I told you that Americans rank among the highest consumers in the world, would you be surprised? Probably not. The people of other nations look on us in disgust and disbelief at how much we Americans consume. Without question we have more and we spend more than the people of any other nation on earth. That’s a nice way of saying we’re insatiable. It seems we never have enough.

I wonder if that thought occurred to Jesus on the day in his life described in today’s Gospel from Matthew. He miraculously fed more than 5,000 people as much as they wanted to eat. There were even more leftovers than he began with. That miracle pointed to the fact that Jesus is who he says he is: the Son of God and the promised Savior of the world. Would that be enough for you to “digest” that day? We’d like to think so.

But it wasn’t for the people who benefitted from this miracle. If you read the account of Jesus feeding the 5,000 in John’s Gospel, you discover that, right after this miracle, many of those who followed Jesus turned away from him. Why? They wanted him to be something he never came to be. They wanted him to fill their stomachs miraculously every day and to do so from the throne of Israel—a glorious throne whose rule extended over all the earth.

But food for the stomach isn’t the topic of this morning’s text. Our text is from Isaiah 55. Do you recall the content of Isaiah 53? It’s the prophecy about how the Savior would be crushed for our iniquities—his crucifixion. Isaiah 55 then declares what God’s “marketing plan” is for getting the blessings of the Savior’s crucifixion to the consumers—a world full of sinners. Isaiah depicts the Lord as a merchant in an ancient marketplace, standing behind a table piled with food to eat and things to drink. Can you picture it? But this divine merchant is different from all the others. He’s offering what he has free of charge. That’s crazy! How long can he expect to “stay in business” with such a failed marketing plan?

But the scene becomes even more unusual. He states, “Come, buy wine and milk without cost.” He’s not offering free samples to entice you to buy what he’s selling. What he’s offering can’t be bought—not with all the money in the world.

That’s because he’s offering food for the soul. He states, “Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy?” We Americans are the world’s largest consumers. But we’re no more satisfied with our lives than those who have so much less than we do. That’s because what we can buy doesn’t satisfy what we really need—food for the soul. You can’t buy that food. It can’t be purchased.

So how do we get it? The Lord declares, “Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare. Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live.” Is it any wonder why your pastors have always encouraged you to be in worship? Sure you can listen to God’s word on your own, but hearing it together with your fellow Christians is what God wants for you. And get this—it costs you nothing! Listening—which costs you nothing—provides you with the richest of fare—the words of eternal life!

And that brings us back to our focus this morning. What do you want for nothing? God offers you satisfying food for the soul.

When you receive something for nothing, there are many reactions. One of them is joy. Another is gratitude. But another is skepticism. If this was really valuable, I wouldn’t be getting it for nothing. And when what we receive is declared to have eternal value, we become even more doubtful. In fact, our natural sinful opinion about ourselves states relentlessly that we get from our God what we deserve. So, if God’s gifts to us are free, it makes no sense. Exactly! The spiritual truth about ourselves is that we can’t buy what offers us forgiveness and we can’t earn it. We aren’t even worthy of it. It’s ours by grace. God’s grace. That’s soul food—the only soul food. And it’s what our God offers us every time we gather together to hear his word. We spend so much of our lives wondering why our life seems so unfair. We’re the ones who try to live like God’s children and yet we don’t see what we want coming our way. God responds by reminding us that we’re looking in the wrong places for what truly satisfies us. This life will never be what we want. It can’t be because of sin. But the Savior who was crucified for our sins gives us what truly satisfies—food for the soul. That food gives us eternal life. And it costs us nothing!

Part II.

A common advertising ploy is for the advertiser to claim that everyone needs this product. He wants you to think you can’t live without it. But you’re not fooled. You’ve heard that slick sales pitch so many times in your life that it no longer registers with you.

But what if the person pitching it is none other than your God?

In the closing verses of our text, the Lord describes himself as the responsible party in an everlasting contract or covenant. In fact, he’s talking about the world’s only Savior when he states that he will make him a “witness to the peoples.” Isaiah concludes by asserting, “Surely you will summon nations you know not, and nations that do not know you will hasten to you.” What’s his point?

Recall what I stated earlier about the context surrounding this chapter of Isaiah. Isaiah 53 is one of the most fascinating chapters in all of the Old Testament. Seven centuries before Jesus was born Isaiah describes his death for sins. And the Lord wants everyone to know that his death wasn’t simply to pay for the sins of God’s chosen people; it was for the sins of all. God’s love knows no bounds. That’s what he meant when he stated, “I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David.” God promised David a descendant who would rule forever. As the Bible clearly states, Jesus is that Son of God through whom God established a covenant of love for all people.

The love of God in Jesus is not for sale. It can’t be bought. It can’t be earned. It’s free and it’s for all.

What do you want for nothing? What more could you want than God’s faithful love for all?

Do you feel loved by God? Maybe now as you sit here in God’s house, but maybe not all the time. Did you feel loved by God during last week’s period of personal depression? Did you feel loved by God when your loved one disappointed you again? Will you feel loved by God this week when your Christianity causes you to make tough choices—between what God tells you to do and what you want to do? Will you feel loved by God when the disappointments this week begin to overwhelm you? Your God tells you, “I have made an everlasting covenant with you and I have made your Savior, Jesus, a witness to the peoples.” Jesus is your divine assurance of God’s love. Who else would take the punishment your sins deserve? Who else would sacrifice himself for you? Who else wants to spend an eternity with you? And it costs you nothing. It cost your God everything, but it costs you nothing. That’s what you need. That’s what you want. And your God gives it to you for nothing.

So how will you respond? I’ll let that up to you as you live for him this week. Amen.