Isaiah 35:3-10 The Way of Holiness December 15, 2013

Strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way; say to those with fearful hearts, “Be strong, do not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution he will come to save you.” Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy. Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. The burning sand will become a pool, the thirsty ground bubbling springs. In the haunts where jackals once lay, grass and reeds and papyrus will grow. And a highway will be there; it will be called the Way of Holiness. The unclean will not journey on it; it will be for those who walk in that Way; wicked fools will not go about on it. No lion will be there, nor will any ferocious beast get up on it; they will not be found there. But only the redeemed will walk there, and the ransomed of the Lord will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away. (NIV)

For many people, the very word “highway” calls to mind the feeling of freedom, makes them think of phrases like “the open road.” They love the idea of “making good time” and being able to get places quickly and comfortably. For other people, the word “highway” makes them edgy. Perhaps it’s because they know of the danger that exists on highways—high speeds mixed with bad drivers sounds to them like a recipe for disaster, making them feel as though they’re playing a sort of Russian roulette any time they get on the highway. And some view the highway system as being more than a little confusing. So many highways, so easy to end up on the wrong one and quickly end up someplace you don’t want to go. A number of years ago there was a song that said, “Life Is a Highway.” And I suppose there was some truth in that title. There are many different highways that people can take through this life—the Highway of Hedonism, the Highway of Asceticism, the Highway of Stoicism, the Highway of Morality, the High Road Highway, the Low Road Highway, the Middle of the Road Highway, and on and on. These highways differ in some ways. Some provide stunning scenery, some provide twists and turns that will ensure that you never fall asleep at the wheel, some provide a numbing sameness that some people find comforting, some are as flat and even keel as I-80 through Nebraska, while others are as up and down and around as I-70 through western Colorado. But in the end all the highways of life can be divided into two categories—those that lead to Hell and those that lead to Heaven. And in the end it is the destination that matters, isn’t it? Sure, there are people who say that it’s not the destination, it’s the journey. Try telling that to someone trying to make it to Seattle in time for their sister’s wedding as you drive them through the beautiful scenery on I-70 East through Vail. Try telling them that where the road leads isn’t particularly important. Try getting them to take comfort in the fact that there’s very little traffic on I-70. Try to tell them what great time they’re making and what great scenery they’re enjoying. In the midst of the scenery that whizzes by our windows as we travel the highway of life, we dare not forget that at the end of the highway is a sudden stop and our final destination. And if that destination is Hell, we will find no comfort in the knowledge that at least it was a wild and entertaining ride to get there. No, we will forever—truly forever—bemoan the fact that we were on the wrong highway. So what’s the Highway to Heaven? Another name for it is the one Isaiah used in our reading—“The Way of Holiness.” Of course it is. God’s a holy God, Heaven’s a holy place, and therefore the highway leading there would be a highway of holiness. What happens when you jump on that highway? You are fired up and ready to go! You put the pedal to the metal, and get ready to make some time! You are committed to all-out, 100% holiness! If the Blues Brothers were “on a mission from God”, you are on a mission from—and also to —God! And then you see something interesting at the end of the next off-ramp. It’s something less than holy, but it’s pretty enticing. It looks like it would be fun. The notion of pulling over for a while and resting also seems pretty appealing. After all, we know that you can’t go hundreds of miles without stopping for a break or just to stretch for a while—not if you want to maintain your sanity. Pedal to the metal holiness feels like it’s wearing you out. Maybe you’ll just pull off the highway for a moment, indulge yourself for a bit. After that, you’ll find the on-ramp and get right back on that highway! But once we get off the highway, “a few minutes” turns into “a few minutes more.” We don’t just let our spiritual car idle, but even shut it off entirely. “A few minutes more” turns into “a few hours”, and next thing we know it’s evening. Well, there doesn’t seem to be any point in getting back on the highway now. Maybe we should just stay there and get a good night’s sleep and then get started the next morning. But the next morning as we make fits and starts to arouse ourselves spiritually and to get back on the Way of Holiness, we look out the window and see that a terrible blizzard has moved in. We close the curtains and lazily snuggle back under the warm covers. After all, the highway will still be there tomorrow. No rush. And now we’ve blown it. In fact, we blew it the moment we veered off the highway because now we’re no longer holy. Now because of our sin we have become unholy, or unclean. And one thing about the Way of Holiness—God in our text reminds us that “the unclean will not journey on it.” Now you can try to get back on it. Good luck. In the end you’ll feel like someone who is driving around a city’s surface streets who can see the highway they want to travel. They can practically touch it, in fact. They can drive under it. They can drive alongside it. But they can’t find the on-ramp. And when they do finally find that on-ramp, it’s closed. God has blocked off the Highway to Heaven to people like us. And it’s no surprise. We’ve just got too much baggage. Just as certain vehicles aren’t allowed on certain highways because their size means they won’t be able to fit through the narrow tunnels or under the bridges, people dragging along “wide loads” of sin won’t be able to enter through the gates of heaven—and are therefore barred from the Way of Holiness. I-71 runs north and south through Ohio. Heading north towards Cleveland, there was an exit for, as I recall, a place called West Salem. Exiting there was no problem. There was a big wide off-ramp that made exiting quite easy. But the problem came when you wanted to get back on the highway. Inexplicably, there was no on-ramp from there to I-71 north. And it was too late now. Your fate was sealed as soon as you decided to exit. Similarly, once you sin, you’re off the Way of Holiness, and you’re not getting back on. Looking around us, we see what we’ve done. What the Devil held out before us as a way of refreshment and enjoyment has turned out to be nothing more than a mirage that is actually “burning sand” for our souls. We realize that we’re in the wilderness described in the previous chapter of Isaiah—overrun by “thorns…nettles and brambles” (Isaiah 34:13), “a haunt for jackals…hyenas, and wild goats.” (Isaiah 34:13,14). And none of them are particularly interested in getting us back on the road. Instead, they crowd in on us, a glint in their eye. In the movie “Vacation”, Chevy Chase decides to get off the highway for a while to see see what there is to see. Soon he’s lost in a part of town that he doesn’t want to be in, asking the locals for directions—locals who have no particular interest in helping him get on his way, but do have an interest in stealing his hubcaps while others distract him. That’s what happens when we take an off- ramp from the Way of Holiness—we end up lost, asking those around us (like the Devil, the world, and our flesh) for guidance, and having them steal our spiritual hubcaps. And then that roaring lion known as the Devil leaves us for the jackal known as Death, who waits for us to drop over dead from spiritual dehydration. Are you frightened? It would seem that we should be. We’ve made a catastrophic error in straying off the Highway of Holiness, and then we’ve compounded that error thousands of times over by continuing to sin. And the on-ramp to that Highway of Holiness is completely blocked by a holy God who demands to see complete and 100% holiness from us before he allows us on the road to Heaven. And then, as we’re stranded in the middle of the worst neighborhood you can imagine, facing a certain fate, weak-kneed with fear, ready to curl up into the fetal position and wait for the worst as night falls, we read the words “Strengthen the feeble hands, steady the knees that give way; say to those with fearful hearts, ‘Be strong; do not fear; your God will come, he will come with vengeance; with divine retribution he will come to save you.’” It’s all very similar to the message of the angels to the shepherds in the hills near Bethlehem—“Do not be afraid. Your God has come. He has come to save you. Today in the city of David a Savior has been born to you. He is Christ the Lord.” Willingly entering the worst neighborhood ever, Jesus was born in order that he might take on that roaring lion named Satan, the “ferocious beast” known as Sin, and that jackal known as Death. Jesus was born that he might come with vengeance against those who dared to lure his chosen ones from the Way of Holiness. He traveled that Way of Holiness through his perfect life. He never took any of the exits you and I have so foolishly taken. Even though Satan was trying mightily to lure him off the highway, Jesus kept going. And then after completing the journey of perfect obedience to God’s law, the journey of perfect holiness, he paid for the foolish exits we had taken from the Way of Holiness by offering himself at the place where his journey had taken him—a hill outside of Jerusalem—as a sacrifice for your sin, and mine, and the sins of the whole world. Therefore you are “redeemed” (“bought back”), or “ransomed.” You now belong to Jesus, and Jesus himself is the Way of Holiness. Jesus himself is the way—the only way—to heaven. There are lots of ways to Hell, but only Jesus is the Highway to Heaven. As he said, “I am the way…” (John 14:6). Now that you have been placed on the Way of Holiness through faith in Jesus, remain on that Way. Don’t be distracted by what awaits at the off-ramps. Don’t fall victim to a Peter-like overconfidence that thinks that you can just exit for a little while— that you can just watch that sort of entertainment, that you can just be less than honest on your taxes this year, that you can just cut back on your worship life once in a while—and then as soon as you do, you’ll get right back on the highway. That’s going into the lion’s den. The Devil hangs out by those off-ramps because he knows that he can’t come up to God’s highway to get you. The reading says “No lion will be there.” So stay on the Way of Holiness, stay focused on Jesus and on the destination, and neither the Devil nor any other “ferocious beast” will be able to touch your soul. And when I say “stay focused on Jesus”, I mean staying focused on Jesus as the one who has “come to save you”, Jesus as the one who is holy in your place. There is a deceptive highway that looks oh so much like the Way of Holiness. It’s the highway on which I think that God will receive me into heaven (or, as it’s called often in the Bible, “Zion”) because I try to live the way that Jesus lived. Don’t be fooled by that highway, because it’s nothing more than another off-ramp on the Highway to Hell. Remember instead through frequent confession of sin and frequent hearing of the words of forgiveness that you are on the Way of Holiness because you are one that has been “redeemed” and “ransomed” by Jesus. And do enjoy the ride. Our reading says that we “will enter Zion with singing ”, so we may as well get started now. Let “gladness and joy…overtake” you, for you know that you’re on the right highway, and you know where the journey ends—in heaven where “everlasting joy will crown [your] head.” Amen.