“Wandering and Wondering in the Wilderness”
Original sermon given on the Third Sunday in Advent, Sunday, December 14, 2025 written and delivered by Pastor Jeff Leininger at First Saint Paul’s Lutheran Church.
Watch the sermon live.
“Wandering and Wondering in the Wilderness”
Isaiah 35.1-10; Matt 11
In the name of the Living God and the Christ who is coming soon. Amen.
Before we get to Jesus, we need to get to John the Baptist. And before we get to John, we need to wander and wonder in the wilderness with Isaiah. Our Old Testament reading from Isaiah 35 describes a wilderness, and what a wilderness it is!
1The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom;
like the crocus 2 it shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice with joy and singing.
5Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped;
6then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy.
For waters shall break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert;
Wandering in this wilderness reminds me of hiking with our daughter Gracie out in California. One spring after the drought was over, the flowers bloomed in the desert and streams flowed down the hills. (I told her it reminded me of the Midwest, only without the mountains.)
Isaiah is both a prophet and a poet, and here he employs every image he can. He reaches deep into his verbal arsenal in order to beautifully and powerfully convey God’s good news to Israel. The setting: the wilderness; the theme: renewal, return, redemption.
The historic context is important: when Isaiah prophesied, God’s people were soon to be dragged off into captivity in Babylon because they forsook his covenant. The God who had once freed them from the slavery of Egypt by a mighty hand and outstretched arm would now also hand them over to new enemies — but for only a time, and for a purpose: that they would finally lean only upon him in every time of need; that they would learn only of his redemption for them; that they would live in a new covenant relationship forged in the forth-coming messiah.
Isaiah 35 is saturated with words of promise that the Lord would indeed one day bring them home from their captivity. As we shovel snow and spread salt on ice, it’s difficult for us to place ourselves there. God uses the imagery of a desperate desert journey home, being transformed and enabled in every way possible. It is a complete reversal of every challenge they would face in travel. Instead of being barren, the land is lush. Instead of hands losing grip, knees giving way, and hearts full of fear; we have strength, steadiness, and courage. Instead of blind and mute and lame travelers, stricken by the weariness and disease of the journey, we have healing and singing and leaping for joy. And instead of a dry, dead desert, we have streams of flowing water.
So you see what I mean — Isaiah by the Spirit of God gives us a picture of the complete transformation of the way home through the wilderness: they are consumed by gladness and joy; sorrow and sighing flee from them.
But now, what good is an ancient poem for those who’ve never been to Babylon and who live in a city by a lake?
But the truth of the matter is that we all know what it means to wander and wonder in the wilderness. That is, to greater and lesser degrees, we all know what it’s like to be in a Spiritual Desert. And we all know what it’s like to yearn for sustenance and strength on an arduous journey.
Sometimes our wilderness wandering is of our own deserving — like the people of Israel during Isaiah’s day. We bring it on ourselves. We have strayed from the Lord’s righteous ways; we wander from his paths in sins, selfishness, and even shame.
Some of our wilderness wandering has been afflicted upon us by the misdeeds of others: we have been hurt, rejected, misused, abused in ways that bring emptiness, fear, and loneliness.
And sometimes, it is just not that simple. Sometimes it is hard for us to untangle why we are in the wilderness, why God feels so far from us, why we seem to be looking under every rock or weed for some kind of hope of nourishment. The difficult thing is that we may never completely be able to untangle the “why” of the wilderness… we may not know the why, but we can know the “who”. Here’s where we fast-forward to Jesus.
The full breadth and depth and reach of Isaiah’s words can only be ultimately understood as we hear them coming from the lips of our Lord himself. Centuries after Isaiah’s poetry, Jesus quotes these words and expresses them as fulfilled in his own life and work. From today’s gospel, Matthew 11: “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: the blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised and the good news is preached to the poor.” The full and culmination of Yahweh’s redemptive work, his freeing and restoring of his people, was not and could not be limited to one people at one time. In Jesus, the Messiah who John bore witness to, the wilderness wanderings of all people of all time have now been filled with promise: in Christ’s birth, his life, his death, his resurrection, Jesus has summoned all people home through every desert of sin, through every wilderness of loneliness, through every dry and empty place of confusion and despair.
In Advent, we are reminded that there will always be something of the wilderness around us, during our earthly pilgrimage. But in Christ, we have the promise that he will never leave us, and in him our wilderness wanderings are given meaning and purpose. As we look forward to Christmas, we look forward to that final time when Christ will return to fill our wilderness places with life, nourishment, meaning, hope, and yes, even joy.
The “why” may remain… but the “who” stays the same. The promised one of Israel, the Christ of God is the only source of water in our wilderness wanderings.
Come soon Lord Jesus. Amen.
