Thursday, March 28, 2024

Sermon for Holy Maundy Thursday

LISTEN


Jesu Juva


“It’s All About the Lamb”

Text: Mark 14:12-26; 1 Corinthians 10:16-17

 

Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.


At the Passover, it was all about the lamb.


Did you notice the disciples’ question to Jesus? Where will you have us go and prepare for you to eat the Passover? Not: remember the Passover, not celebrate the Passover, but eat the Passover. The Passover that from the first was all about the lamb. The lamb that was slain, the lamb whose blood was poured out and painted on their doors to protect them from the angel of death that passed through the land of Egypt that very night, and the lamb that was then eaten


Every year after that, on that very day, God commanded the people of Israel to keep this feast. It was a Memorial Day for them. A day to remember all that God had done for them in rescuing them from their slavery in Egypt. But in all the succeeding years, when they would keep this feast, they would not smear the blood of the lamb on the doorposts of their houses, as they had that night in Egypt. But they would eat the lamb. Passover was all about the lamb.


And so they did down through the generations, to Jesus’ day. And that night, the night when Jesus was betrayed, it was still all about the lamb. That wouldn’t change. But something would change. The lamb would change. It would still be all about the lamb, but a new lamb, for a new Passover, and a new deliverance.


So that night, they ate the last of the old Passover lambs. And after supper, Jesus gave them a new one. A new lamb to eat: take, this is MY body. This is MY blood of the covenant, or testament. A mere lamb’s flesh and blood would no longer do. And there would also be a new remembrance: do this in remembrance of ME, Jesus said. In remembrance of what He was about to now do. And what He was about to do was be the Lamb of God, who would be slain and pour out His blood on the wood of the cross, that it now be for us our door; the door that would rescue us from death - the door from death to everlasting life. 


And from that day forward, down through the generations, this new Passover would take the place of the old one. No longer would many lambs have to be sacrificed, for Jesus poured out His blood for many - in the place of the many; for His blood was greater than the blood of all the lambs in the world.  His blood now marks our door. His sacrifice would not have to be repeated. But what would still is the eating. Do this, keep doing this, Jesus said. This meal, this eating and drinking. That we become not just rememberers, but participants. That this night still be all about the lamb. The lamb that saves.


Because we need saving. Now, not all know that, and not all believe that. Some think they are good enough. Some think they can save themselves. Not the disciples. When Jesus spoke of one of them betraying Him, they all had a guilty conscience. Each of them wondered if it was going to be him. Because each one of them knew it could be him. Like when you see the flashing blue police lights coming up behind you in your rearview mirror, you think, Is it I? because it could be you; maybe should be you. Or when the boss says some of you need to do better, you think, Is it I? because it could be you; maybe should be you. But with Jesus, it is you. We have all fallen short in our Christian life. Our sins have been many and our good works few. Our words harsh and our prayers weak. Desires indulged and repentance neglected. It is I.


So to the disciples and to us Jesus says: take, this is MY body. This is MY blood of the testament. We eat the flesh of the Lamb, the Lamb of God, and we drink the blood that forgives, that saves, and we are participants in His salvation. For the cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Indeed it is. This communion joins us to Christ and Christ to us, so that what we have done He takes upon Himself as His own, and dies for it. And what He has done He gives to us and we live. The curse of sin is lifted from us; we are no longer its slaves. We belong to another; we are united to Christ. For as St. Paul went on to say, because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread. The bread which is the Lamb. It’s all about the Lamb.


So tonight we take our place at Jesus’ Table. Where would Jesus have us go and eat the Passover? Here. A Table originally set for twelve, now set for a multitude no one can number. A Table originally set for Israel, now set for people of every nation, tribe, peoples, and language. A Table originally set in Egypt, now set in churches all around the world. To eat the Lamb. The Lamb of God who takes away your sin; and the sin of the world. And while many tables now, one day there will be only one Table again, a heavenly Table, and a feast that has no end. Just as the original Passover feast paved the way and pointed to this feast, so this feast paves the way and points to that feast, the great and final feast, with the Lamb not on the Table, but on His throne.


That night in Egypt was the seed that started it all. That night in Jerusalem, the fulfillment of the old and the start of the new. And this night here, our participation. In a new deliverance by a new Lamb for a new kingdom. And if you wonder, Is it I? Is it for me? Yes. For you who have been baptized in the sea of the Font. For you who have your death-dealing sins absolved by His blood. For you who have had the Gospel preached into your ears and hearts. For you, now, the Passover Lamb to eat and to drink. For you, now, the passover from death to life. For you, now, a new life to live.


Now Jesus goes, just as it is written of Him, to the cross, where He will die. And now you go, just as it is written of you, to this Table, this altar, where you will live.


It’s all about the Lamb. 

It always has been. 

So come, for all is now ready.


In the Name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.


Wednesday, March 27, 2024

Meditation for Holy Wednesday Vespers

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Jesu Juva


Holy Wednesday Meditation

Text: Romans 5:6-11

 

Who would you die for? A family member or loved one? Maybe. Someone who risked their life for you? Perhaps. A stranger? Probably not. Someone who hurt you or a loved one? Absolutely not! But whoever it is, that’s a big ask. Who would you die for?


That’s what makes tonight’s Word of God and what Jesus did so incredible. Christ died for the weak, the ungodly, sinners, and enemies. Christ died for those who wanted nothing to do with Him. Christ died for those who rebelled against Him. Christ died for those who actively worked against Him and even those who put Him on trial. He died for the false witnesses who testified lies against Him, for the soldiers who mistreated Him, and the soldiers who pounded the nails through His holy hands and feet. That’s who Jesus died for. Oh, and included in that list and those descriptions: you and me. So when you want to know - need to know! - that God loves you . . . that’s how you know. As Paul said: God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.


But Jesus didn’t just die for us, He then rose from the dead for us. Jesus also lives for us, to take of us and provide all we need. Like a faithful spouse. Traditionally, when a man and woman get married, it is til death us do part. They promise to love and sacrifice and care for each other no matter what, until they die. Because that’s what love does - it puts the other person first. Which is what Jesus did for you. Your welfare before His own, so He goes to the cross and dies for you. Because in the Bible, Jesus is the Bridegroom and the Church is His Bride. A weak, ungodly, sinful, and rebellious Bride! But God shows his love for us - even for His not-so-beautiful Bride! - in that while we were not very beautiful, Christ died for us. To not only make us His own, but to make us beautiful by washing away our sins and cleansing us with His forgiveness.


But with his resurrection from the dead, do you see what has happened? Til death us do part is off the table because Jesus defeated death in His resurrection! So as Paul will proclaim just a few chapters after this, nothing can now separate us from the love of our Bridegroom - ever! He has saved us not only for life with Him now, but for life with him forever. 


So on the first three nights of this Holy Week, we have encountered three women. First was Mary on Monday, as we remembered the Annunciation of Our Lord, the day the Word became flesh in the womb of the virgin Mary. When in the fullness of time, He came to die for His Bride. 


Then on Tuesday, we heard of the woman who anointed Jesus for His burial, for Jesus was about to lay down His life for His Bride. 


And tonight, we heard of the love of Christ for His Bride, the Church. That the Son of God who took on our flesh, died to justify us and cleanse us, and then He rose that we, too, will rise to life with Him forever. 


And starting tomorrow night, we will again live all that as we enter the Sacred Triduum - the holy three days. And we will marvel at His love for us. His incredible, steadfast, abundant love for us. And if you think the joy of Easter at the end of those three days is great, just imagine how great our joy will be on the great and final Easter, when Jesus comes again to raise us from the dead and take us home, to a life and joy that has no end. I hope you’ll join us. 


Tuesday, March 26, 2024

Meditation for Holy Tuesday Vespers

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Jesu Juva


Holy Tuesday Meditation

Text: Mark 14:1-11

 

Many people want to make a name for themselves. They want people to remember them after they die. That is how they will live on - in the hearts and minds of people, with their admiration and esteem. But we have seen in recent years how poor and fickle that can be. Those whose names were once synonymous with great deeds are now having their names expunged and their memorials cast down. What was once considered great and noteworthy is no longer. Those once considered heroic are now deemed shameful. Very few are those who will be able to survive such a purge.


But we heard of such a one tonight. Oh, Mark doesn’t tell us her name. Maybe he didn’t know it. But her heroic deed and her faithful witness lives on still, as Jesus said it would. Joseph of Arimathea was the one who took the body of Jesus down from the cross and placed it in his own new tomb, but it was this woman who had anointed Jesus’ body for that burial two days before. This woman who gave a flask of very costly ointment, worth an entire year’s wages, to her Saviour. Why would she do such a thing? Only because she had received a gift far more valuable from Jesus - the gift of forgiveness and life. And so she who had been made beautiful by her Saviour, did, as Jesus said, a beautiful thing.


But there is ugliness in the words we heard tonight, too. The ugly words of those who want to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill Him. The ugly words of those who criticize and scold this woman for wasting this expensive gift on Jesus. The ugly words of Judas Iscariot, who offers to betray Jesus to those who want Him dead. Those for whom Jesus is not beautiful are not beautiful and do not do beautiful. Those for whom Jesus is Saviour, are beautiful and do beautiful. This woman was not saved by her deed - she was saved by her Saviour, and her outpouring of love showed that.


Do your deeds? Do your deeds flow from your Saviour, from his forgiveness and life? Sometimes, perhaps. But we must confess, often no. Too often the ugly of our sin and sinful nature is what we do and what others see. Criticizing, scolding, betraying, even as we act piously, like those who thought a far better use of this ointment would have been to sell it and give the money to the poor. Lord, have mercy upon us!


And He does. It is why He was born. It is why He was in Bethany at the home of Simon the leper. It is why this woman anointed Him. It is why He died for ugly wretches like you and me. To mercy us. To make us beautiful. To wash us clean of our sin, that made beautiful, we do beautiful things. That we not worry about making a name for ourselves, but proudly bear His Name. The Name He put upon us in our Baptism: Christian. And even if no one else remembers anything you did, Jesus does. Even the little things. The cup of cold water. The bite of food. The clothes for the cold. The visit of the lonely. For whatever, He says, you did to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me (Matthew 25:40)


So maybe instead of aspiring to make a name for ourselves, we should aspire to be like this woman - someone made beautiful by Jesus and so who does beautiful things. And if that brings criticism, scolding, betrayal, and worse, well, Jesus told us it would (John 15:18-16:4). We should not be surprised. But neither should that stop us. For those for whom Jesus is Saviour, are beautiful and do beautiful. Like this woman, it is just who we are, in Jesus. 


Monday, March 25, 2024

Meditation for Holy Monday Vespers

(No audio)


Jesu Juva


Holy Monday Meditation

Text: Luke 1:26-38

 

March 25th is the day the church remembers and celebrates the Annunciation of Our Lord - the day when the angel Gabriel came to the virgin Mary and spoke to her the Word of God: that she would be a mother. But not just a mother, the mother of Jesus, the mother of the Saviour, the mother of God. 


Since this day falls during Holy Week, our celebration is subdued. But at the same time it seems quite appropriate that it should fall in Holy Week, for it is for this week, and what is done this week, that the Son of God took our human nature: to restore our human nature. That by His dying and rising, we who die might also rise to life with Him. That we might live again as the men and women we were created to be.


That we don’t - that we don’t live as the men and women we were created to be - is evident. Surely, we sin in many and various ways, but we also sin against the very manhood and womanhood our Lord has given to us. In our world today we see men becoming women and women becoming men. We see not just the fact, but also the promotion, of mothers to kill their babies, and of scourge fathers abandoning their wives, children, and families. We know this should not be, and yet it is. Lord, have mercy upon us.


But thanks be to God it is not so everywhere and in all places. There are women who rejoice in being mothers, and fathers who faithfully serve their families. It was so with Mary. She would fulfill her womanly vocation, that for which her body was designed and created, by conceiving a bearing a child. This was good news! But the even better news was that she was also given another vocation - of being the mother of the Saviour, the promised Messiah. Through her the Son of God would receive His human nature. She could have said no, as so many today say no to bearing a child. But instead, her soul magnified the Lord, and her spirit rejoiced in God her Saviour, as we will sing in just a moment. I am the servant of the Lord, she said. A task that though joyful, would not be easy.


And the Son she would bear would also be the servant of the Lord. And for Him, too, it would not be easy. He would be the suffering servant. He would fulfill His vocation by laying down His life for the life of the world. He would be the perfect servant of the Lord where we are not, and He would be the servant of the Lord in serving us. For we have a God who not only demands perfection and righteousness, but gives it. For we could not, we could never, be perfect and righteous, just as Mary could not and could never conceive while still a virgin. But she did, and we are, for as the angel Gabriel told Mary, nothing is impossible with God. 


So the Son of God is enfleshed, incarnated, this day of His Annunciation. The Son of God becomes a son of man, that we sons and daughters of man might be sons of God in Him. And at the end of this week, we hear why, as the darkness and death of Good Friday become the life and light of Easter. The life that began in the womb of a heretofore unknown virgin, nailed to a cross, and then risen, that all might have hope in Him. Hope of life now, and hope of life forever. That along with Mary, our souls, too, magnify the Lord and rejoice in God our Saviour. Words we now rise to sing . . .


Sunday, March 24, 2024

Sermon for Palm Sunday / Sunday of the Passion

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Jesu Juva


“This Man”

Text: John 12:12-19; Mark 14-15; Philippians 2:5-11

 

And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way [Jesus] breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son of God!”


We’ll hear that read in just a few moments now.

About this man who entered Jerusalem to the shouts of Hosanna.

This man who dined with the poor, and lepers, and sinners.

This man who was betrayed by His own.

This man was the Son of God.


This man who celebrated the Passover with His disciples, transforming it first by His words, and then by his death, to a new meal, a new food.

This man who told his closet disciples he would deny Him three times.

This man who prayed, alone, in sorrow and distress.

This man was the Son of God.


This man who was treated as a dangerous criminal.

This man who was kissed not by a kiss of love but of betrayal.

This man who would not defend Himself and was abandoned by all.

This man was the Son of God.


This man who was accused by false witnesses. 

This man who who only confessed who He truly was.

This man who was convicted of blasphemy for speaking the truth.

This man was the Son of God.


This man who mocked, spit on, and struck by the soldiers.

This man who was on trial but charged with no crime. 

This man who was traded for a murderer and insurrectionist.

This man was the Son of God.


This man who was scourged.

This man who was robed in a purple cloak and crowned with thorns.

This man who once again was struck and spit on and mocked and shamed.

This man was the Son of God.


This man who bore His own cross but stumbled under its weight.

This man who was stripped of His garments.

This man who was nailed to a cross.

This man was the Son of God.


This man who was then taunted and derided by all who passed by and saw Him hanging in shame.

This man who was scorned by the chief priests and scribes.

This man who could have saved Himself, but did not.

This man was the Son of God.


This man on whom the sun refused to shine for three hours.

This man who was forsaken by God.

This man who was given sour wine to drink.

This man was the Son of God.


This man who uttered a loud cry and breathed his last.

This man whose lifeless body was then taken down from the cross.

This man who was laid in a tomb.

This man was the Son of God.


This man who did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped.

This man who made Himself nothing.

This man who was perfectly obedient, even to the point of death.

This man was the Son of God.


This Son of God did this all for you.


Who else has given so much for you?

Who else loves you like this?

Who else knows all your worst, and gives you His best?

Who else, but the Son of God.


And what does He ask of you, O Christian?

Things equally great? Equal in magnitude to this?

Or just to love Him.

And to love your neighbor.

To honor Him as holy with your life.

To pray and give Him thanks.

To help and care for others.

Is this too much for us? 

Taking a look at your life, my life . . . apparently so.

O wretched men and women we are.


So where is your cross?

It is here.

This man is on it.

The Son of God.

For He could not bear to see you on it.

So on it He hung.

For you.

In your place.

With your sin, the disciples’ sin, Pilate’s sin, the chief priests’ and scribes’ sin, the soldiers sin, all sin. 

That all may live.


For now, God has highly exalted Him. 

God has bestowed on Him the name that is above every name.

To Him every knee will bow and every confess.

For He is not dead, but alive!

Risen from the tomb in which Joseph laid Him.


So we do not confess with the centurion, Truly this man was the Son of God!

No. Our confession is different.

So we confess, Truly this man is the Son of God!


This man who now forgives your sins.

This man who baptizes and washes sinners clean.

This man who feeds us with His own Body and Blood.

This man is the Son of God!


This man who gives us His Spirit.

This man who has brought you here today.

This man who is seated in glory, yet still serving sinners in His love.

This man is the Son of God!


This man who is all knowing, but remembers your sin no more.

This man who is all present, but puts Himself here for you.

This man who is all powerful, but uses His power not to punish but to save.

This man is the Son of God!


This man who has promised to come again for you to take you home.

This man who bids you depart in peace.

This man who has put His Name on you and proclaimed, you are mine.

This man is the Son of God!


Your God. Your Lord. Your Saviour.


So now we will hear all this.

Today, and all this week. 

The account of His Passion.

His passion, which means His suffering.

But this passion is because of His passion for you.


That is the why.

Why He does all this.

Though it make no sense.

Yet it is true.

And so worthy for us to ponder.


Yes, Jesus, I will ponder now, on your holy passion (LSB #440).