Renewal for the Weary Isaiah 40:28-31; Isaiah 40:21–31; 1 Corinthians 9:16–27; Mark 1:29–39 

Grace, mercy and peace to your, from God our Father, who strengthens our weary hearts, and our Lord, Jesus Christ, who renews our souls.

We’re going to talk about how God renews the weary. It’s taken from our Old Testament lesson, especially verses 28 – 31. 

28 Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. 29 He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength.

30 Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted;
31 but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

Back in the day, when I was a kid, there were two birds we rarely saw; one was a pheasant. With the fence lines all taken out, and everything plowed up they had no habitat, but then with the CRP, the Conversation Reserve Program, we started to see more pheasants, and now there’s quite a few around out there. 

The second bird we rarely if ever saw, was a bald eagle. I can never remember seeing one as a kid. But now I see them often. 

One evening awhile back when I was going home after work, I saw about a dozen or more of them, circling over Lake Waconia.

It’s a quite promise God that makes to His children, that they shall soar as on eagles’ wings.

When sing about that, as we just did in our sermon hymn, it kind of makes us feel like we’re soaring, high above our troubles, lifted up by the power of the Gospel.

As a mother eagle summons her young, her eaglets, to crawl on her back, and then with her mighty wings, she lifts them up, soaring high in the sky, teaching her young to fly, so our God summons us in His Gospel, calling us to come close to Him, that He might lift us up in spirit, and strengthen us to face our challenges, and overcome our struggles.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus healed Peter’s mother-in-law. Marks says, And he came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and the fever left her. 

This shows Jesus functioning in His kingly and priestly roles, as we talked about last Sunday: Jesus is our prophet, priest and king. 

In His priestly role, He heals our souls. In healing her body, Jesus showed that he can also heal the soul. 

And as King over all, Jesus is powerful to heal all sickness and disease. 

In this fallen world, there will be illness to contend with, until Jesus comes again as our King and ends it all. 

Then we’ll be raised up into Heaven. As we sing in Rock of Ages, as we soar to worlds unknown, to heavenly life, forever healed in body and soul, forever lifted up.

Since God will lift us up forever in Heaven, and since he lifts us up by His Spirit now, comforting and strengthening us, let us reach out, to lift up others.

Who do you know who’s carrying a heavy load? How can you come alongside that person, and help to carry his or her burden? 

Carry one another’s burdens, Galatians 6:2 says, and so fulfill the law of Christ. 

In our Epistle Paul says, I have made myself a servant of all. And verse 22, To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings. 

Paul was driven to help everyone and anyone who would hear the good news and believe.

How can you share the good news with those who don’t know it, or seem to have forgotten it, the good news that we have a God who lifts up the weary, and carries their burdens? 

Jesus took the heavy load from our shoulders, the weight of our iniquities, the guilt of all our sin. And on His shoulders he carried them, along with the cross, all the way to the hill on which he died. 

His shoulders were the only ones strong enough to carry this burden, all the guilt of the world. Only Jesus had the divine power to do that. Only Jesus had the perfect love to carry our greatest burdens, the burdens of sin and death.

With the burden of our sins on His shoulders, Jesus was nailed down and raised up on the cross. He bore the punishment for the world.

As Isaiah 53 says, Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows… he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

No one else has ever done that; and no one else ever will. No one has ever suffered so greatly, or stooped so low to rescue others. 

But His Father has rewarded His obedience. 

Jesus went so far down into suffering to save us, to the very depths and torments of Hell, but His Father has raised Him up so high, ascending to the very heights of Heaven, that He might be powerful to bless and help us in every way.

Remember this when your heart is discouraged, and your soul is weary. Jesus overcame the troubles of this weary world for you.

When the road of life has beaten and dragged you down, look up to the One who can renew your strength, who, Isaiah says, gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might, he increases strength.

Even when you feel you have nothing left to give, as if your soul is running on empty, like you have no might, no energy left to live and walk with Christ in this life; remember that, in God, you have a source of power that overcame even death, that raised Christ from the tomb. 

The Gospel strengthens the weakest, and lifts up the lowest, lifting them higher and closer to Heaven than the world can imagine. 

When we quit the charade of pretending that we are mighty in this world, and recognize in the big picture of things, how frail and weak we sinners really are that’s when the Spirit and power of God take over; that’s when our strength is renewed as on wings of an eagle, and we rise with Christ to overcome worldly troubles and temptations.

The devil would try to bring our world down with a hidden enemy, a tiny virus. By trying to bring the world down, in this and many other ways, the devil is trying to bring the Church down; that’s what He really wants.

In the hymn, Rise! To Arms! With Prayer Employ You, we sing, “for Satan has designed your fall”. Indeed he has. But Christ has designed your rising. 

Jesus has a design to bless you, to renew your spirit, to strengthen your heart and lift up your soul, that you might serve and honor Him in this fallen world. The Holy Spirit is hard at work through God’s Word and Sacraments, implementing this sacred design in your life. 

Embrace God’s design for you to follow Christ; gladly do the work God has given you to do. You serve and honor your God when you seek to lift up others in His love, and strengthen them with His Word. 

May God lift you up as on eagles’ wings, to, as Isaiah says, run and not be weary, to walk and not be faint. 

May you soar in faith and walk in love, and as you do, God’s peace, which passes understanding, will guard your heart and mind, in Christ Jesus, our Lord, who lifts us up to be close to Him forever. Amen.