Holy Tuesday Meditation

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Jesu Juva

“Deliverance”

Text: Jeremiah 11:18-20; Psalm 54

Prophets did not have easy lives. God sent them to preach repentance. To call His people back to Him from their sins and the false gods they had gone after. 

But we don’t like to be called to repentance. We like to call out the sins of other people and call them to repentance! But our own sins . . . mind your own business! 

Maybe it’s because we like those sins and want to keep doing them.

Maybe it’s because we think we need those sins and so need to keep doing them.

Maybe it’s because we don’t want our sins uncovered and exposed. What we do in secret we want to stay secret. 

Maybe it’s because we don’t want the shame and guilt of our sins on us. We’d rather ignore them, rationalize them, forget about them, or pretend they’re okay.

But they’re not okay. And we’re not okay. Not if we want to keep doing our sin. Not if we think we need to keep doing our sin. Not when we have to live with their guilt and shame. For try as hard as we can to forget them, rationalize them, or pretend they’re okay - it doesn’t work. Oh, maybe it does for a while, but the guilt and shame often come back at the worst times, and shatter families, marriages, friendships, and maybe even faith.

So we need to be called to repentance. That’s what we need! For our sin and guilt and shame to be exposed. Not to further shame us! But so it can be taken away. Surgery hurts. But the reason it is done is not to hurt you, but to help you and save you.

And God is the great physician of body and soul. He has diagnosed our problem and sends His prophets, apostles, and pastors to provide the cure - the forgiveness of sins. But the diagnosis has to come first. You won’t go to the doctor, you won’t take the medicine, unless you know something is wrong. 

So God sent prophets like Jeremiah, who we heard from tonight. And God’s people plotted against him. They didn’t want the Word of God from Jeremiah - they had false prophets who were telling them what they wanted to hear; that they were fine. We’d like to hear that, too! But it’s a lie. And God won’t lie. Because He wants to save us.

So God sent prophets like Jeremiah to preach repentance, but even more, He sent His Son to take away the sin of the world, to save the world. So the words of Jeremiah that we heard tonight, while true for him, are even more true for Jesus. 

So first we heard from Jeremiah tonight that he was like a gentle lamb led to slaughter. But Jesus was the gentle lamb led to slaughter. The Lamb of God.

Jeremiah said he did not know their plots. Jesus did - and came and preached and laid down His life anyway.

Jeremiah wanted to see God’s vengeance upon those who rebelled against and rejected God. But for Jesus, He would see and feel God’s vengeance poured out - on Himself, on the cross.

And then Jeremiah said, for to you I have committed my cause. Which is what Jesus did. In the Garden, in the agony of prayer, saying: not My will, but Yours be done (Luke 22:42). And then again on the cross, saying: Father, into Your hands I commit My Spirit (Luke 23:46). 

And then the words of the psalm we sang tonight were fulfilled. Jesus was vindicated, which means that His faith, His trust in His Father, was shown to be right. Many mocked Him while He was on the cross about this: He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he said, ‘I am the Son of God’ (Matthew 27:43). Well God did! But He delivered Jesus not from death, but through death. Because through His death and then His resurrection would we be saved. Which is why Jeremiah, and why Jesus.

And with that the words of this psalm become our words, our prayer. Our prayer that God would save us. That God would vindicate us. Save us from our sins and the sins of others. And vindicate us and show that our faith and trust in Him are right. And this we pray not in uncertainty, but in certainty! Knowing that our Father will hear and answer our prayer. Because this is God’s will - to save us, and by vindicating our faith and trust in Him, to glorify His name. 

Which is why we can pray the end of this psalm in confidence - even before it happens! Because faith speaks of the future as if it has already happened. That’s how certain we can be. That how true and sure the words and promises of God are. And so we pray: 

I will give thanks to your name, O Lord, for it is good.
For he has delivered me from every trouble,
and my eye has looked in triumph on my enemies.

So there will be trouble and enemies. Sometimes we’ll be our own worst enemy! But our loving and gracious heavenly Father, who sent His Son to save, won’t leave us alone, won’t leave us to our sin, won’t leave us to bitter death. He will call us to repentance, and He will work in us through that Word by His Spirit, and He will bring us to the cross and the forgiveness of Jesus won for us there. The spiritual surgery we need. Not to hurt, but to heal and save. And thanks be to God that He does! That we see this Holy Week not only our sin, but even more our Saviour. And rejoice in His steadfast love.

Holy Monday Meditation

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Jesu Juva

“The Wings of Jesus”

Text: Isaiah 50:5-10; Psalm 36:5-10

 

In the psalm we sang tonight, we heard one of the most endearing images of God and what He does for us, when David wrote: The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings. 

Jesus spoke this way, too - maybe because of this psalm! - when He said: O Jerusalem, Jerusalem . . . How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing (Luke 13:34)! 

The picture is of a mother hen protecting her chicks from a predator by spreading her wings under which her chicks could hide and be safe. If the predator wanted them, it would have to go through her first.

That is such a precious picture of God and His steadfast love because there is a predator after you. Satan. He wants to swoop down upon you like a hawk upon baby chicks, grab you with his talons, and consume you. And as helpless as baby chicks are to a hungry hawk, so are we to satan. Easy prey. Were it not for the protection of God. The protection that we are remembering all this Holy Week. 

This week when we remember that God so loved the world that He sent His Son to stand between us and satan. That if satan wants us, he has to go through Jesus first. And he tried! Satan entered into Judas to betray Jesus (Luke 22:3), and when Jesus was in Roman custody, those things mentioned in the reading from Isaiah happened to Him: they flogged His back, they pulled out His beard, they disgraced Him, mocked Him, and spit on Him. But most of all, they crucified Him. Get rid of Jesus and the chicks will be his!

But God turned the tables! For the very tool used to kill Jesus became the source of our protection and life.

For I don’t know who first said it, but it has been said that when Jesus spread out His arms on the cross, He was spreading His wings, and that it is under those outstretched arms, at the foot of the cross, where we are protected from satan. Satan swooped down on Jesus there and did his worst, and Jesus took it so we would not. 

And this is where Jesus is better than a mother hen! For once a mother hen dies, she cannot protect her brood anymore. But Jesus rose from the dead and so lives to protect us - always. So we have a refuge we can count on - always.

But where is that protection, that refuge, to be found for us today? We cannot go to the foot of the cross Jesus hung on some 2,000 years ago - it’s not there anymore! So where can we take refuge in the shadow of his wings today?

Well, there’s another place wings are prominent in the Bible, and that is the wings of the angels of gold on the top of the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark which was God’s throne, or His mercy seat. It was the place God came to dwell with His people and give them mercy, forgiveness, and life. And the Ark resided in the Old Testament Church - first, the Tabernacle, then later the Temple. That’s where God’s people went for His mercy, forgiveness, and life, to protect them from sin and satan. 

But we don’t have that around anymore either! No cross, no Ark - so where do we go? Well, we go where God has promised to be for us today with His mercy, life, and forgiveness, and that is His Word, His Font, and His Altar. Those are the places where Jesus is for us today; that is where His arms are outstretched for us today, to protect us from sin, death, and satan with His forgiveness, life, and salvation. So when sin threatens and accuses you, we find refuge in Jesus’ words, I forgive you. When death raises its dreaded and frightening specter, we find refuge in Jesus’ victory over death and the grave in His resurrection, and that He has given us that victory in Baptism. And when satan wants you as a tasty morsel, we find refuge at the Altar, where Jesus gives us His Body to eat and His Blood to drink, that we devour Him instead of being devoured ourselves! And in His Body and Blood find the life and strength we need. For in all these ways, Jesus says you are mine. Satan cannot have you. If he wants you, He has to go through my dead body! And since I already died and rose and cannot die again, you are safe and secure in Me!

What wonderful comfort that is for us in our daily lives, in a world so full of sin and evil and death. You have a protector. You have a Saviour. That doesn’t mean bad things won’t happen - they will! We still live in a sinful and dying world. But it does mean they will not win. You have the victory in Jesus. 

We’ll remember that victory, the victory of His death and resurrection this weekend, and rejoice in His steadfast love. Love that would cause Him to come and spread His wings, His arms, over you. And not just once on the cross, but always. And forever. And so you are safe - no matter what happens. Safe in His love. Safe in His care. Safe under the wings of Jesus.

Sermon for Palm Sunday / Sunday of the Passion

No audio - sorry!

Jesu Juva

“Not Nostalgia, but Anticipation!”

Text: John 12:12-19; Philippians 2:5-11; Matthew 26-27

 

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

Why did we give out palm branches this morning? 

Well, the easy answer is that it’s Palm Sunday. As we heard from John at the beginning of the service, the large crowd of pilgrims that welcomed Jesus that day took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Him. So I suppose you could say that we are imitating the crowd that welcomed Jesus that first Palm Sunday.

But that’s not really it. From the beginning, the Church has not been about imitation. We baptize, but we don’t try to imitate John the Baptist. We celebrate the Lord’s Supper, but we don’t try to reenact the Upper Room. Even though we’ll be meeting in a house for the services of Holy Week, that is not by choice! We’re not trying to recreate the early church. If we did, that’s called nostalgia - a longing for the past and trying to return to it. The good ol’ days. Or what we think are the good ol’ days.

Well here’s a news flash: the good ol’ days aren’t coming back. The days when the church was the center of the community, when people didn’t work on Good Friday, when most people knew that Easter was the day Jesus rose from the dead, not the day Peeps went on sale. The Church isn’t about trying to reclaim the past, but striving for the future. The past is important and we remember it, but we live for the future. We live in the words and promises of God, fulfilled by Jesus. 

Which is what the crowds were doing that first Palm Sunday. The Son of David was coming to the city of David to sit on the throne of David! That’s what the words and promises of God said. The King was coming as Zechariah had prophesied. They called out the words of Psalm 118, a royal psalm. God was fulfilling His Word! 

And they were right! It’s just that the way Jesus was doing it was a bit different than they thought. Jesus was not coming to re-establish the old kingdom of Israel (the good ol’ days!), but to raise up a new Israel. He wasn’t coming to fight, but to die. His throne wasn’t going to be a chair of gold, but a cross of wood. For His kingdom was not of this world. So by the end of the week, the Jewish authorities had convinced many of them that if they wanted hosanna, which means save us . . . If they wanted saving, that would best be accomplished not by hailing Jesus as the King, but by crucifying Him as a criminal. Better that one man die to save the nation, than that the nation perish (John 11:50).

Nostalgia doesn’t work. Looking back turned Lot’s wife into a pillar of salt, frozen, unable to move into the future. Looking back to Egypt turned Israel in the wilderness to rebellion. And trying to return to the past doesn’t work for us either. It just makes us frozen and fearful and unable to move into the future. So we’re not imitating the first Palm Sunday. 

But actually, maybe you could say we are. But in this sense . . . We’re not reenacting what happened, but we are imitating them by looking to Jesus to come and save; to hosanna us. By looking to the future and Jesus fulfilling the words and promises of God with His second coming. That’s why we give out palm branches. 

For consider that there are only two places in the New Testament that mention palms branches. The first is in the Gospel we heard at the beginning of the service from John, which tells us what happened in the past. And the second is in the book of Revelation, which gives us a glimpse of the future . . .

After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” (Revelation 7:9-10)

That’s the great multitude we are joining today with our palm branches. That great multitude in heaven we will one day be a part of. For just as Jesus entered Jerusalem that day humbly to save, so He comes here today humbly to save. Then it was on a donkey, today it is in water, words, and bread and wine. Then it was to ascend the cross and die, today it is to give the gifts He won for us there in His death and then with His resurrection. But it is the same flesh and blood Jesus coming to us, then and now. Just now He is risen from the dead, never to die again. 

And since He comes here to us today, we anticipate the salvation He brings, just as the multitude did that first Palm Sunday. Which is why we sing the words of the crowd that greeted Him that day just before receiving the same Body and Blood of Jesus in the Lord’s Supper. Hosanna! Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord! He came to save. He comes to save. To bring us into His kingdom - not the old one, but the new one, the one not of this world. For this world is passing away, but His kingdom will not.

So the palm branch you received today is not to reenact the past, but to practice for the future. To revel in our coming King, and that just as He did then, so He is now fulfilling all His words and promises to us. You are baptized, absolved, and fed. You are a dearly loved child of God. And we’ll hear all this week all He did to make it so. For none of that is what you did or do; it’s all what He has done for you. Your Saviour and your King.

And it’s important to remember that. All that Jesus has done for you. Which is why today is not only Palm Sunday, but the Sunday of the Passion. That as we practice for and anticipate the future, we hear what made it so. That the glory that awaits us is because of the suffering He endured. For my sin. And yours. Yes, your sins really are that bad. The punishment-and-condemnation-of-the-cross bad. For though it has become fashionable these days to belittle and justify some sins by saying, Well, I’m not hurting anyone, that’s a lie. Because you are. For every sin, no matter how little, no matter how big, put Jesus on the cross. Every sin hurt Him. Even more than that - killed Him. Which is a pretty sobering thought next time you want to sin. The next time you want to lash out with your tongue, or disobey your parents, or act selfishly.

But here’s another sobering thought to match that one - the Son of God came to do that, wanted to do that, for you. Jesus agreed with the High Priest: Yes, it was better that HE die to save the WORLD, than that the WORLD perish. As hard as that would be to do. So we’ll hear that story today and all this week, how God so loved the world . . . (John 3:16). And as you hear it, remember the past, what happened. Remember your sins and repent of them. But also look to the future, what will be. Hear your Saviour’s words of Absolution. And what Jesus has promised you: a kingdom that has no end.

And then . . . then the words of the apostle Paul will be true for you. You will have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus. This mind: to make yourself nothing. To be a servant. To lay down your life. To be all in for others. Which seems like a pretty big ask! How can you do that? How can you have a mind like that? Only if you know there is a kingdom waiting for you in the end, and that has no end. Only if you know you have a future that is safe and secure. Only if you know that what Jesus has for you is greater than anything this world can give, or that you can accomplish yourself. 

But knowing all that, by the Spirit of God given to you (1 Corinthians 2:16), you can think and live differently. With the mind of Christ. I will tell you, it’s easier not to! Safer, too. The world doesn’t like those who live like Christ, and who speak and believe His Word. They put Him on a cross, and it’s why there are more Christian martyrs than any other religion.

But while it’s not easy or safe, it is better. Maybe not better as the world measures better - in greater wealth, greater fame, or greater power. But the pursuit of those things . . . well, how’d that work out for old Israel? Or Rome? Or any other kingdom of this world? They’re all gone. Dead and buried. But the kingdom of the one who humbled Himself, made Himself nothing, served, and died on a cross, His kingdom goes on. And his Church is still here. She may be despised by the world, weak in comparison to the world, and irrelevant to the world - as her Lord was, and is - but there will be only one kingdom standing in the end: the kingdom of the crucified one. The one to whom - whether they like it or not! - every knee [will] bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

So do that now. Wave your palm branches this day to your King who is coming to you here, humble, to save you. Bend the knee of your heart in repentance. Confess your sin to Him who bore your sin. And then open that same mouth to receive His Body and Blood. 

And with all that remember the past, but live for the future.

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

The Congregation at Prayer

For Holy Week (March 30  April 4, 2026)

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

Speak the Apostles’ Creed. 

Verse: John 12:32 – “[Jesus said:] “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”

Hymn of the Week:  Lutheran Service Book #450 “O Sacred Head Now Wounded”

Hymns for Holy Maundy Thursday: 445, 422, 617, 450

Hymns for Holy Good Friday: 440, 451, 434, 708 (v. 3)

Hymns for Easter Vigil: 487, 478

Hymns for Sunday: 465, 458, 633, 464, 467, 457

Readings for the Week:

Monday: Mark 14:1 – 15:47

The Passion according to St. Mark. Pay special attention to all the words spoken in Mark’s account. What do you notice?

Tuesday: John 12:20-50

How is the cross Jesus’ glory? Why is the cross where Jesus wanted to be seen by the Greeks? Why is this also true for us?

Wednesday: Luke 22:1 – 23:56

The Passion according to St. Luke. What details does Luke include here that Mark did not? Why do you think that is?

Thursday: John 13:1-20

How is foot washing about more than foot washing? What words in this account reveal this? What daily washing do we need?

Friday: John 18:1 – 19:42

The Passion according to St. John. How does John depict Jesus as being in control of all that is happening this night?

Saturday: Daniel 6:1-24

How is what happened to Daniel here a foreshadowing of what happened to Jesus?

The Catechism - The Ten Commandments: The Ninth Commandment: You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that do not scheme to get our neighbor’s inheritance or house, or get it in a way which only appears right, but help and be of service to him in keeping it.

Collect for the Week: O God, creator of heaven and earth, grant that as the crucified body of Your dear Son was laid in the tomb and rested on this holy Sabbath, so we may await with Him the coming of the third day, and rise with Him to newness of life, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

The Prayers:  Please pray for . . .

+ yourself and for all in need (remembering especially those on our prayer list).

+ God’s blessing, wisdom, and guidance for our congregational financial secretary, Dave Fields.

+ the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia, for God’s wisdom, blessing, guidance, and provision.

+ God’s blessing, guidance, wisdom, and provision for the Lutheran Heritage Foundation.

Conclude with the Lord’s Prayer and Luther’s Morning or Evening Prayer from the Catechism.

Now joyfully go about your day (or to bed) in good cheer, child of God!

Collect for the Week © 2018 Concordia Publishing House.

Lutheran Service Book Hymn License: 110019268