A Tongue that Is Taught
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“The Lord God has given
me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a
word him who is weary” (Isaiah 50:4).
Grace to you and peace
from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!
Many philosophers have
said many things about holding your tongue and watching what you say. Among my
favorites is Thumper: “If you can’t say some’tin nice… don’t say nothin’ at all.”
Then there’s: “It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to
speak up and remove all doubt.” (Variously attributed to Mark Twain, Abraham
Lincoln, and Samuel Johnson). And finally: “That mouth of yours is going to get
you in big trouble some day!” (Spoken by countless mothers and fathers
throughout history).
Controlling the tongue
is neither simple nor easy. It is not simply a peripheral issue on the edges of
Christian life, but it is the key to controlling the whole self. Someone who is
careful with their words and has learned to exercise self-control has earned
the privilege to be listened to.
Although the tongue is
just a three-inch muscle, wet, floppy, and only partially visible, it is
tremendously powerful. To underscore this point, James gives us a few examples
of little things that have bigger effects. One of them is the bits we put in
the mouths of horses. That little piece of steel in a horse’s mouth, when
managed properly, can control a huge animal. The rudder on a ship, that little
shaped plank, mostly invisible beneath the waterline enables a captain to pilot
an immense vessel. A third example is a spark in the forest. Under control, a
spark can make a small fire to warm cold travelers and cook their food. Out of control,
a spark can ignite an inferno that devours thousands of acres of woodlands.
Learning how to control
your tongue is important, not only to avoid hurting other people emotionally
and spiritually, but also to protect yourself. An uncontrolled tongue can turn
on you, corrupting the whole person, poisoning your mind, and bringing your
body down to the fires of hell (James 3:7).
Talk is not cheap.
Words do wound. Words can build up or destroy a person’s self-confidence. Words
can turn someone’s proud achievement into humiliation. Words can create or
destroy relationships. Words can spread hate or love. Words can sow truth or
plant lies. Words can cast suspicion or build trust.
Words are also God’s
means to rescue people from hell. A sermon, a Bible study, or an evangelism
visit over coffee all look tame and ineffectual. But God’s power to save
people, to create and sustain saving faith, rides with words.
Commenting on our text,
August Pieper writes: “Concretely then, the tongue taught of God is the tongue
of the prophet, preacher, teacher, a tongue that has been enlightened by the
Holy Spirit. The Servant is speaking of His endowment for His prophetic office…
His mouth is a sharp sword, a polished arrow, shaped by the Holy Spirit. He proclaims
the mysteries of God with the tongue of a master, and therefore with the power
of God to convert… His words are spirit and life.”[i]
It is vital for
Christians, and especially for us who speak in the Church’s name, to let God’s
Word control our words. People hate hypocrisy. “Double-minded” Christians
praising God and cursing one another, drive people away from the Savior. That
is why James is particularly hard on those who would be pastors: “Not many of
you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be
judged with greater strictness” (James 3:1).
Christ has placed a
very particular message on the tongues of His preachers. He has sent pastors to
proclaim repentance and forgiveness of sins in His name, teaching the baptized
to obey everything He has commanded. There is no room for preachers who seek to
replace the Word of Jesus with their own agendas, ambitions, or ideas. Jesus is
the Way and the Truth and the Life and no one gets to the Father except through
Him (John 14:6).
Let’s be honest: When it
comes to taming and teaching the tongue, we have all failed. Not once of us is
innocent—no one, not you, not me. And to drive home this point, James reminds
us of what we are all too capable of doing: we can sit here in the Divine
Service, praising our God in heaven, and then the next moment with the very
same tongue, can utter such lies and filth about others.
St. Paul writes: “For
all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). James would
agree wholeheartedly. His proof is the tongue. Ours are tongues that cannot be
tamed. Sure, we try. We put our mind to fixing the problem. After all, we are
children of God. Such a fiery tongue is not befitting us. Wouldn’t God want us
to tame it so that it speaks only words that glorify Him? Sure, He would. He
does. But the harder we try, it seems, the worse we do. St. James adds insult
to injury when he writes: “If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a
perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body” (v 2b).
But I am not a perfect
man. Neither my tongue nor my body is bridled. To borrow more words from St.
Paul: “Wretched man than I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”
(Romans 7:24).
So, is there nothing we
can do? Are we doomed to live this life in a never-ending battle against a
tongue that would just as soon destroy us as it would honor the God of our
salvation? Well, in a way, yes, and in
another, no. The battle will go on for each of us. But the words of the Epistle
point us toward the victory that is ours. Listen again: “If anyone does not
stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole
body” (James 3:2b). And here is the good news of God’s grace toward sinners
such as you and me: the Perfect Man.
In Isaiah, this Perfect
Man speaks to us. He says, “The Lord God has given Me the tongue of
those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is
weary. Morning by morning he awakens; He awakens My ear to hear as those who
are taught” (Isaiah 50:4).
Just who is speaking
here? This is the Servant of the Lord, whom Isaiah had introduced in chapter 42:1
as someone who was anointed with God’s Spirit. When He appeared next, He spoke
and announced that Yahweh had given Him a mouth like a sharp sword (49:2). In
this passage, the Servant of the Lord clarifies what He means by that: “The
Lord God has given Me the tongue of those who are taught.”
Part of the Servant’s
ministry will be to proclaim God’s Word. How can we be certain that the words
this Servant speaks come from God? The Servant obediently listens. “Morning by
morning,” that is, again and again, the Servant gives the Lord’s Word His
attention. But He does not just listen to the Word and then forget the words of
God, He willingly submits to the Word of God. He knows what the Lord wants, and
He obeys perfectly.
And for this, the Servant
suffers. For this Servant, obedience means that He will be beaten and
humiliated. He will give His back to those who strike Him. He will be whipped.
He will give His cheeks to those who would tear out His beard. Such treatment is
a disgrace and humiliation, but the Servant will willingly allow it to take
place because of His obedience to the Word of the Lord. His willing obedience will
be evident in the way He endures reproach and spitting.
The Servant who speaks
in this passage must be a special individual sent by God Himself to carry out a
mission that will involve proclaiming the truth of God’s Word , as well as
enduring such suffering and disgrace. He must be the Great Prophet promised (Deuteronomy
28:17-18) and the Great High Priest, who will offer up Himself as a sacrifice
for sin (Hebrews 7:26-28; 9:6-12). We know, of course, that He is Jesus the Christ,
pictured here in prophecy.
The truth of this
identification becomes clearer the more we learn about this Servant in the next
verses. The suffering of the Servant is necessary. It is a part of God’s plan,
which the Servant learns from the Lord God Himself. The Servant also learns
that the Lord will not desert Him. This idea runs through these Servant
passages like a golden thread. We are told, “He will not grow faint or be
discouraged” (Isaiah 42:4). Then when the Servant Himself appears to labor for
no purpose, He says, “yet surely My right is with the Lord, and My recompense
with My God” (Isaiah 49:4). Now He says, “I have not been disgraced” (Isaiah
50:7). He will indeed suffer to accomplish His mission. Therefore, the Servant
resolutely faces His suffering: “I have set My face like a flint.”
Hearing these words, I
cannot help but recall how resolutely Jesus sets His face as He journeyed to
Jerusalem to suffer and die (Luke 9:51). He tells His disciples what will
happen there, but the prospect of pain and death does not deter Him (e.g., Matthew
16:21; 20:17-19). From the anguish in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus arises to
face those who had come to arrest Him. He willingly obeys the Father and gives
Himself up to those who would inflict pain.
There is a note of
defiance in Servant’s words here. He will endure pain and suffering, but He
will remain convinced that He is doing the will of the Lord and that the Lord
will vindicate Him. That knowledge will enable the Servant to defy His accusers.
He asks, “Who will contend with Me? Let us stand up together. Who is My
adversary? Let him come near to Me” (Isaiah 50:8). The Servant is innocent of
any sin. The accusations against Him are intended to condemn Him, but they are
all nothing more than a moth-eaten garment, fit only to be discarded with the
trash.
So, we hear these
passages with Jesus in mind. Consider His words to Annas: “Why do you ask Me?
Ask those who have heard Me what I said to them; they know what I said” (John
18:21). Facing the mob, Jesus says: “Have you come out as against a robber,
with swords and clubs to capture Me? Day after day I sat in the temple,
teaching, and you did not seize Me. But all this has taken place that the
Scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled” (Matthew 26:55-56).
What does this Servant
passage mean to the people of Israel and to the world, to you and me? The Lord
has graciously promised deliverance from sin, death, and hell. As God’s prophet
Isaiah—yes, all of Scripture tells us, the Lord will fulfill His promise
through His Servant. Because we are all sinners, we must have this deliverance
from the hand of the Lord of grace. Before God, all humans stand in absolute
terror of the punishment we deserve because of our sins. But the faithful and
gracious Lord declares all sins not guilty because of this great Servant.
Believers possess deep
respect and awe for the Lord; therefore, we listen to His Word. We become
especially interested in the Word of this Servant, the One with a tongue that
is taught, whom the Lord has sent. Those who show appropriate fear of the Lord
prove it by giving ear to the Word of His great Suffering Servant. All who fear
the Lord and trust in the Word of the Lord’s Servant will find deliverance,
forgiveness, and life.
There is one who is the
Perfect Man. There is One who bridles His tongue and bridles His whole body.
There is one who lives the perfect life that you and I cannot live. There is
One who deserves none of what He receives at the hands of those who hang Him on
the cross but suffer every moment as He bears the burden of our sinful tongues.
That perfect One, our
Savior Jesus Christ, lives and dies and rises exactly because our tongues are
“a fire, a world of unrighteousness” (James 3:6). He bridles His tongue even in
the face of death so that we might receive His righteousness as He now lives in
us. So, we need not “give up,” not in the sense of living in despair or guilt.
Instead, we live as children of our heavenly Father. We live as those given the
inheritance of the only Son of God, who was silent on our behalf.
In the waters of Holy
Baptism, that fire that burns from your tongue was extinguished. The Word of
God that fills your mind and heart with pure truth from God. That Word replaces
all the “other words” and gives your tongue something righteous to speak. As
you receive the body and blood of Christ on your tongue, the wounds inflicted
on you by the things you say and are said against you are healed. God’s grace
is a saving flood that not even the fires of hell can stand against. And what
you are helpless against on your own, you conquer in Christ Jesus. Go in the
peace of the Lord and serve your neighbor with joy. You are forgiven for all
your sins.
In the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture
quotations are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001
by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by
permission. All rights reserved.
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