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

What brings you comfort? What makes you feel comfortable? When you are afflicted with a cold, perhaps comfort foods like warm chicken soup help. When your back aches, you want a comfortable bed and a heating pad. When you're cold, a warm comforter helps. When you're in the hospital, the nurses show you the pain scale from 1-10 and ask you to rate your level of discomfort, and they medicate you accordingly to make you comfortable. When you're sad and blue, comforting words and embraces from a loved one is what you need. And each day, you want the comfort of knowing you have a place to live, plenty to eat, and friends and family to love you.

It would not be a stretch to say that much of our life is devoted to finding and preserving such comforts. And we should give thanks when God relieves our discomforts and also give us enjoyment of creature comforts.

But as uncomfortable as our physical afflictions are, and as frustrating as it is when we lose creature comforts, there is a far more serious source of discomfort that all of us face, and that is the uncomfortable fact that God our Creator is also our Master and Judge, and we are accountable to Him for how we live. We owe Him an explanation for how we are using the life that He has given us, why we have made this or that decision, why we have acted one way or another. And He sets our standards of conduct in His Law, and judges us according to it.

This fact of God as our Judge is so uncomfortable to us that many people have tried to wish God away, convincing themselves that He doesn't even exist. "With no God to judge us," they think, "we can be free, independent, autonomous, masters of our own destinies."

Others have dealt with the discomfort of God's judgment upon sin by redefining God or redefining God's standards for us. "God is love, which means He will save all people," some think. He accepts them as they are, no matter what they do." Or else, "God wants us to be happy, so even though the Bible says such and such is a sin, that doesn't really apply to us today. The world has changed, so God's Laws don't always matter anymore."

But you, on the other hand, you know that you can't wish God away, or redefine Him, or redefine His standards of judgment. And so you are more like Adam and Eve, who knew very well that God existed, and that He had a Law for them to follow, and had promised to judge them. So what did they try to do after they rebelled against their Creator? They tried to hide from Him. And that is our favorite tactic,too. We try to relieve the discomfort of knowing that God is our Judge by hiding from Him. "Where are you?" God calls out to us sinners, and we try to hide from Him behind the bushes of excuses, behind the fig leaves of lies. "God, it was that woman you gave me; she made me do it." "Well the devil made me do it!" Everyone is to blame but ourselves.

But you can't really be comfortable at such times. You know that God sees through your lame excuses and lies. As God's Word says, "No creature is hidden from [God's] sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account" (Hebrews 4:13). "For we know him who said, "Vengeance is mine; I will repay." And again, "The Lord will judge his people." It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (Hebrews 10:30-31).

There is no comfort in that, only grave discomfort in our hearts and consciences, spiritual affliction when we think that God is only our Judge and will have no mercy upon us. That is what it means to live under the Law, and without Jesus Christ as our Savior from sin and death. Of course, Satan loves to get us into that position. He uses God's Law against us. When Satan attacks us and accuses us of our sins, it can cause us to doubt the comforting truth that God has answered for our sins in Christ, and so He does not condemn those who are in Christ Jesus. When Satan succeeds at getting us to think that God has abandoned us, then we are afflicted with fear and can find no peace until the Lord comforts us again with the Gospel, the full assurance that He forgives us completely and is reconciled to us in Jesus.

And that is why the Lord sends people to speak the Gospel to us, to remind us constantly of His grace, even as He did for Israel in the Old Testament. Our reading from Isaiah begins with God's instructions to Isaiah, one of the Lord's preachers: "Comfort, comfort my people… Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins" (Isaiah 40:1-2). Israel had strayed sinfully from the Lord, as they had time and time again, but in His mercy He promised to deliver not double the punishment that they deserved, but rather, He promised double the needed forgiveness wherever Israel's sins had merited wrath and punishment. The Lord's forgiveness in Christ is always more than enough to cover our guilt. And according to Isaiah, what would indicate that that forgiveness had been given? A voice. The voice of another preacher who was yet to come.

Isaiah said, "A voice cries: 'In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord'" (Isaiah 40:3). That unmistakable voice is the one Jesus speaks of in our Gospel reading: John the Baptist is identified as the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy. So it is John's voice that declares the Word of the Lord in order to lift up the valleys and lower the mountains. In other words, John came to afflict the comfortable and to comfort the afflicted.

That is an old saying about the task of preaching: "to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted." Those who are afflicted in conscience and fearful of God's wrath against their sins find themselves in the valley of despair and need comfort, while those who ignore God and do not fear Him reside on the mountaintops of pride and self-righteousness and need to be afflicted.

So in order to afflict the proud and callously comfortable John cried out during his ministry with the words given to him by the Lord through Isaiah the prophet: "All flesh is grass, and all its beauty is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades when the breath of the Lord blows on it; surely the people are grass" (Isaiah 40:7-8). If you are comfortable where you are right now, pleased by your abundance of possessions, secure in your sins, and forgetful that God has given you all that you have in this life, then listen to John wipe out your mountain and bring you crashing to the ground: we are all like grass that wilts and dies when God's scorching breath blows over it.

One day sooner than we expect all of our creature comforts will matter not one bit, when our flesh lies cold in a casket, only to be covered with hundreds of pounds of dead grass and plain old dirt. The grass that grows over our graves will thrive, while our bodies break down into worm food. If you ever think, "I don't want to die, since life in this world is so comfortable," then take John's message to heart: because you are a flesh and blood sinner, you are like grass that will wither and die one day soon. And for all who have become comfortable with their sins and lived in unrepentance, those who have not feared the Lord their God, their Maker, then they are not looking forward to eternal comfort, but eternal affliction in hell. Listen to John the Baptist, and repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.

But John came not only to afflict the comfortable, but to comfort those who are afflicted in conscience and fearful of death and judgment. He preaches, "Surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever" (Isaiah 40:8). That word of our God that will stand forever is not the Law-word of judgment and condemnation, but as St. Peter tells us, "This word is the good news that was preached to you" (1 Peter 1:25). "Good news," that's Gospel. That's the message that Jesus came to suffer and die for your sins, and to rise on the third day to defeat death. And Jesus is the One that John had been sent to preach about.

John the Baptist would only have been a hellfire and brimstone Law-preacher except that the Lord God had sent him to herald the coming of the Gospel in the God-Man Jesus. So more than anything John was a Good News preacher. St. Mark tells us that "John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins" (Mark 1:4). Repentance, yes; affliction for comfortable sinners, yes; but baptism for the forgiveness of sins, that is Gospel, comfort for those with afflicted consciences, who recognize their sins and lament their guilt and desire to be right with God.

And that comfort accounts for the remarkable scene in the Jordan River when people went out to hear John preach, and then orally confessed their sins to John and were baptized by him for their forgiveness. Few things are as uncomfortable as orally confessing our sins to another person; it is like opening a window into your own heart and mind; but the scene at the Jordan shows that when forgiveness of sins is promised, there is no shame in confessing them out loud to another person. In fact, there is no shame at all in confessing our sins; there is only shame in covering them and remaining comfortable with them. But where there is confession of sins followed by Holy Baptism and Holy Absolution, then the forgiveness of sins lifts us out of the valley of despair; it comforts the afflicted.

But such forgiveness of sins is costly; not for us, but for God. The forgiveness that John distributed at the Jordan was possible only because of the One that John came to prepare the way for. John announced, "After me comes he who is mightier than I, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie" (Mark 1:7). That announcement recalls the prophecy from Isaiah, "Behold, the Lord God comes with might, and his arm rules for him; behold, his reward is with him, and his recompense before him" (Isaiah 40:11). The mighty Son of God would bind Satan hand and foot and rob him of his right to accuse us sinners, setting us free from bondage to sin and hell, and compensating us with a salvation that we could never deserve but which He gives us freely.

Yet Jesus would not accomplish this by His might, His almighty power as God the Son; but rather He would save us in weakness, on the cross, where He was afflicted to bring us comfort. The preacher Isaiah later would write about Jesus, "He was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed" (Isaiah 53:5). John the Baptist did not neglect to preach concerning this weakness and lowliness shown by Isaiah's Suffering Servant. John pointed at Jesus one day and called out, "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). That Lamb was burdened with the sin of the world and then afflicted by God the Father with death and condemnation to bring eternal comfort to His little sheep.

In our text, Isaiah promised that the Messiah would be our Good Shepherd: "He will tend his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms; he will carry them in his bosom, and gently lead those that are with young" (Isaiah 40:11). In fulfillment of this prophecy, Jesus later would say, "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep" (John 10:11). And we sinful lost sheep sorely need this Good Shepherd's care, as Isaiah said, "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned-every one-to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all" (Isaiah 53:6). As the Lenten hymn puts it, "The Shepherd dies for sheep that loved to wander" (TLH 143:4).

Dear sinners, take comfort: all of your sins have been placed upon on the back of the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world; all of your iniquities have been taken up by the Good Shepherd who lays down His life for you sheep. Because your Savior Jesus Christ was afflicted for your eternal comfort, you have no sins on your own back, no guilt to answer for; you have instead received double for your sins-twice as much forgiveness as you really need, just so there is no doubt in your mind.

You are forgiven. In the refreshing waters of Baptism the Lord has offloaded your guilt onto Jesus, and loaded Christ's righteousness onto you, granting all that you need for eternal comfort in heaven. In the Absolution and Gospel words and works of Jesus, you have overflowing comfort for your stricken consciences, since God does not count your sins against you for Christ's sake. And in the Lord's Supper God gives you comfort food for your body and soul, the true body and blood of Jesus, which delivers "forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation," the full assurance of everlasting life when you are weary and weighed down with the burden of your guilt before God.

And so we redeemed of the Lord can shout out with Isaiah the prophet, "Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth; break forth, O mountains, into singing! For the Lord has comforted his people and will have compassion on his afflicted" (Isaiah 49:13). The Lord has comforted you His people, and will always have compassion on you even when you are afflicted in body, and especially when you are afflicted in your conscience-all because Jesus was afflicted for your comfort. In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

And the peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting. Amen.