Robe of Righteousness

Title: Robe of Righteousness By Pastor Lohn Johnson Text:  Isaiah 61:10 " 10 I will greatly rejoice in the LORD; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. INTRODUCTION:    My dear friends in Christ, The Prince and the Pauper is a classic tale.  Written by Mark Twain in the 19th Century, it tells the story of two boys in 16th Century England.  They were identical to each other in their looks, but one of the boys lived in the king’s palace and the other lived in a shack.  As the tale goes, one day the boys decided to switch places.  The prince put on the pauper’s ragged clothing and the pauper put on the royal garments of the prince.  And for a while each boy lived in the other boy’s shoes.  The pauper lived as a prince and the prince lived as a pauper.
I. The story is intriguing and it resembles the true story of our life in Christ. “The Word became flesh,” writes St. John.  St. Paul says, “Our Lord Jesus Christ… though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor that you through His poverty might become rich.”  Isaiah writes, “I will greatly rejoice in the Lord…for He has clothed me with the garments of salvation; He has clothed me with the robe of righteousness.”  What does all this mean?  It means that the Prince became a pauper, and we paupers are now clothed as princes.
	A. Jesus is the Prince of Peace.  As the Son of God His place is with the Father and the Spirit in the highest heavens.  But one day many years ago he came to our poor world of sin and death and He dressed Himself with the clothing of a pauper.  Jesus, although He was the Prince of Heaven, did not look like a prince; He looked like a pauper.
			1. Mary and Joseph were not wealthy.  Jesus was born of a humble and lowly virgin.  After His birth, she wrapped Him in swaddling clothes and laid Him in a wooden box which was nothing more than a feeding trough.  2. Even as He grew up, you could not tell that Jesus was a prince.
					a. His flesh was like our flesh.  He became hungry and thirsty.  He grew tired.  He shed tears.  He was a pauper. All He had were the clothes on His back and they were shabby indeed. b.  God had become Man in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.
		B. In the tale by Mark Twain, even dressed as a pauper the prince remained a prince.
			1. And so with Jesus.  Though covered with human flesh, Jesus did not cease being God.  He is true God and true Man.
					a. And in Twain’s story because the prince was dressed as a pauper, he was treated like a pauper. So with our Lord.  People treated Jesus with contempt.  They were critical of Him.  They gave Him no respect.  They did not laud Him as their prince.   b. In the end they rejected Him by casting Him out of the royal city and nailing Him to a cross.  Although He was and is the Prince of God Jesus, dressed with the clothing of a poor pauper, was treated as the lowest pauper of all.
			2. But it had to be that way.  In the story by Mark Twain, the only way for the pauper to live as a prince was by the prince putting on his poor clothing and then giving his rich garments to him.  And so for us.
							a. Unless God had become Man; unless He had dressed Himself with our pauper’s clothing and been treated as a pauper, and even died as a pauper, you and I would never live as princes before God.  b. Mark Twain’s prince may have donned the pauper’s clothing out of boyish curiosity, but God did it out of pure grace and mercy.  “He became poor so that you through His poverty might become rich.”
II.  You and I may look like common, everyday people; but we are paupers really…for we are poor, wretched sinners before God.
				A. We are all born that way.
			1. And in a spiritual sense paupers do not become anything else in life except paupers.  A pauper cannot become a prince by trying real hard.  Princes are born, not made.  Sons of kings are princes, but children of paupers always remain paupers.  2. But in the picture presented by the tale by Mark Twain we see this strange occurrence that the pauper lived as a prince.
							a. The pauper was treated as a prince.  He ate like a prince. He slept like a prince.  b. He was a prince and only because the prince became a pauper.
		B. And that story’s strange occurrence is God’s truth for you.  Jesus became poor that you might become rich.  He took your place and gave His place to you.  “He has clothed me,” writes Isaiah, “With the garments of salvation…with the robe of righteousness.”
			1. This happened in your baptism.
							a. You, a pauper…a poor sinner with no hope, were clothed by God with the garments of your Prince.  You cannot see those garments, but they are there.  You are wearing Christ.  You are covered with His righteousness.  You are clothed with His salvation.  b. Jesus, your Prince, switched places with you in the waters of the font.  He took your sins to Himself, and He gave you His royal garments to wear.
			2. That doesn’t seem fair, does it?   I always wondered why Mark Twain’s prince would agree to become a pauper and suffer as a pauper suffers.  The pauper had nothing to lose.  He got the good end of the deal.  He was raised up, but the prince became the lowest in the kingdom.
						a. Jesus took your place as a pauper.  He was unjustly tried in your place. [Video: Trial] He took your place on the cross.  He took your place in hell because being fair is not what God is all about.  b. God is about showing mercy to you no matter what the cost is to Him.  And so Jesus becomes covered with blood on Golgotha, and in baptism He covers you with His holy innocence.  Jesus becomes clothed with nothing but shame as they strip Him on the cross, and you He clothes with garments of salvation.
III.  And so who are you really?  Are you a prince, or a pauper?
		A. In twain’s story, when the pauper lived as a prince there were times when he nearly gave the secret away.  How he acted and what he said were not always in the manner of a prince.  And so with us.
			1. In Holy Baptism God dressed you as a prince; as His royal son or daughter.  But day after day how we speak and how we act gives away the deep, dark secret inside us.  That secret is that we are nothing more than paupers; we are and remain wretched sinners.  We have no right to the King’s palace.  We have no claim to His inheritance.  2. But, now we are not just paupers; we are also what God has declared us to be—in Holy Baptism we were given birth into Christ.  We were born of our King and His royal garments are ours forever.
		B. In Twain’s tale the story ends happily.  The true prince back in his palace declares that the pauper with whom he had exchanged roles was forever a friend of the royal family.   His place now was always with the prince; always within the palace.
			1. Dear fellow paupers, this also is our place with Jesus forever.
					a. He does not see us as a poor pauper.  He forgives our wretched sins.  Our place is not outside of His Kingdom.  Our place is in the palace of the King of Kings.  He clothes us with the garment of salvation.  He will always have a place for us at His side.  b. And now today our place is here in His House where His Word bespeaks us righteous.  Our place is at His Table where His royal Supper is given to us—the rich food of His own body and blood.  c. And even though we come to His House and to His Table time after time with stains upon those garments; with the stains of our sinfulness soiling the pure robe which He put on us in baptism, He never stops forgiving us; He never grows weary of washing our robes in His blood shed for us.
			2. And so who are we?  We are paupers who live forever as princes because He, our Prince, became a pauper for us.  This means that we want to take great care in how we speak to each other and how we act toward one another.
					a. If we look for the worthless pauper in each other, we will easily find it.  We won’t have to dig too deep into each other’s lives to find the pauper’s ragged clothing.  It’s there.  Our sins and weaknesses; our worthlessness is pretty evident in how we live.  b. And now we are brought to see each other as our God does.  No we are brought to treat each other as our God does.  He sees us as princes in Christ.  He deals with us in mercy.  He forgives us.  He does not pass us off as a worthless paupers.  He calls us His own children for Jesus’ sake.  Not one of us has a claim on Christ, but He claims each and every one of us, and not because we live like princes…for we do not…but because He is our Prince who loves to show mercy.  Now we can  show that same kind of mercy to our brothers and sisters in Christ and the rest of the world too.  Amen.
The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.   Amen