+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. (Amen.)
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, especially my brothers in the Office of the Holy Ministry from Circuit #14,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. (Amen.)
Pilgrim’s five Midweek Lenten Vespers services this year heard the Divinely‑inspired St. Matthew’s account of Jesus’s Passion, and each week my Special Midweek Sermon Series reflected on one arguable example of prophecy’s being fulfilled in that night’s portion of the Passion account. The five examples were these: Jesus’s being betrayed and going as it is written of Him (Psalm 41:9; Matthew 26:23-24), Jesus the Shepherd’s being struck and the disciples the sheep of the flock’s being scattered as it is written (Zechariah 13:7; Matthew 26:31, 54, 56), Peter’s three times denying Jesus before the rooster crowed as Jesus had said (Matthew 26:34, 75), the Jewish leaders’ taking the thirty pieces of silver that they originally gave to Judas to betray Jesus and then giving them for a potter’s field and so fulfilling what had been spoken by the prophet Jeremiah (Jeremiah 18:2-3; 19:11; 32:6-11; and Zechariah 11:13; Matthew 27:9-10), and Joseph of Arimathea’s burying Jesus in his own new tomb arguably as had been prophesied by the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 53:9; Matthew 27:57, 60). At the end of each sermon, each of those five particular examples was put under Jesus’s general statements that we heard in today’s Second Reading, that everything written about Jesus must be fulfilled and that what is written about Jesus in the Scriptures that must be fulfilled is both that He should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His Name to all nations. That proclamation of repentance for the forgiveness of sins is why we all are here in Matins this morning, whether in general or in the Office of the Holy Ministry in particular, for “Everything written must be fulfilled”.
What we heard Jesus say in today’s Second Reading in some way relates back to what we heard Jesus say in today’s First Reading (Luke 9:18-22). In the Second Reading, Jesus apparently on Easter Evening reminded at least ten of His disciples (Luke 24:33; confer John 20:24) of the words that He had spoken to them while He was still with them. Which words? The words He had spoken about His fulfilling spoken words! The words that everything written about Him in the law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. Those three categories clearly take in all of the Jewish Old Testament, but what is less‑clear is when and where Jesus said those words to His disciples, as they are not recorded as such elsewhere, in either St. Luke’s or the other Gospel accounts. St. Luke does record that, earlier on Easter Day, a pair of angels reminded the women who had come with Jesus from Galilee how Jesus had told them while He was still in Galilee that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise (Luke 23:55; 24:1-9). The angels presumably were referring to what we heard in today’s First Reading; although the women are not said to have been there at that time, the disciples could have told them later. At that time in the First Reading, perhaps on the basis of the Jewish Old Testament, Jesus explained the necessity for the Son of Man to be crucified and resurrected. Jesus may have so explained that necessity then and perhaps at least three other recorded times before His crucifixion, but the disciples did not understand it (Luke 9:44-45; 17:25; 18:31-34), and, as we heard, even after His resurrection the disciples still needed Jesus to open their mind in order for them to understand the Scriptures (confer Luke 24:27, 32).
By nature, we are as “closed-minded” as the disciples! Based solidly on Holy Scripture, with the Small Catechism we believe, teach, and confess that we cannot by our own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, our Lord, or come to Him. Our sinful nature not only keeps us from knowing God, but our sinful nature also leads us to commit countless sins of thought, word, and deed, for any one of which sins alone we each deserve death here and now and torment in hell for eternity. Except, called and thereby enabled by the Holy Spirit’s working through the preaching of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, we each turn in sorrow from our sin, trust God to forgive our sin, and want to stop sinning. When we each so repent, then God forgives each of us as individuals. We pray as we did in the antiphon for today’s Additional Psalm, “Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Your law”, God’s “torah” or His “teaching” (Psalm 119:17‑24; antiphon: v.18).
In today’s Office Hymn, we sang: “No work is left undone Of all the Father willed; [Jesus’s] toil, His sorrows, one by one, The Scriptures have fulfilled” (Lutheran Service Book 452:2). The Son of God in human flesh, Jesus did fulfill all of the Scriptures written about Him, and He fulfilled all of the Scriptures written about Him for us. His crucifixion and resurrection were Divinely necessary not simply because the Scriptures said that they would happen, but the Scriptures said that His crucifixion and resurrection would happen because of God’s love that freely willed to save from their sin all people, including you and me. As we heard in both of today’s Readings, closely connected—arguably inseparably connected—are Jesus’s identity as the Christ of God, His work of suffering and being raised, and the proclamation in His Name of repentance for the forgiveness of sins to all nations. God alone both opens our minds to understand— to “experience” through our senses—the Scriptures and opens our hearts to believe what they say (Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration II:26), namely: that when we by the power of the Holy Spirit repent, then, by grace for Jesus the Son’s sake, God the Father forgives us through His Word and Sacraments.
In today’s Second Reading, the Holy Trinity is reflected in Jesus the Son’s speaking of His sending the Promise of His Father, the Power from on high, upon His disciples. When the Day of Pentecost arrived and the disciples‑turned‑apostles were all filled with the Holy Spirit, then they at least seemed to better understand the writings of the Scriptures that the Christ should suffer and rise and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His Name! The apostles not only read and preached the fulfillment of God’s Word and thereby fulfilled God’s Word (for example, Acts 2:38; 3:18), but they also baptized in the Triune Name, individually absolved in that Triune Name, and gave Christ’s Body and Blood in, with, and under bread and wine as He instituted—all for the forgiveness of sins. Although no one else is a witness as the apostles were witnesses, they passed down the Office of the Holy Ministry to today’s pastors, who in their ordinations are given a gift of the Holy Spirit for their ministry in Christ’s Name confessing Him. Thus, the Scriptures are fulfilled concerning us.
Thus, we are here today: both penitent lay-people seeking and receiving the peace and joy of the forgiveness of sins and penitent pastors whose consciences also need such comforting, needing such comfort sometimes especially from someone other than from themselves, instead of their own voices leaving their own mouths and entering their own ears, another’s voice entering their ears, for example, as a father confessor effects forgiveness, in the stead and by the command of our Lord Jesus Christ. “Everything written must be fulfilled”, and that includes everything written about all of us, both as beneficiaries of Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection through the ministry in His Name and either as those who minister in His Name, if not to all nations, then to the portion of the nations who are in the corner of His Church that is the individual congregations that we have been called to serve, or as those who serve in other vocations, having Holy-Spirit provided opportunities to give a reason for the hope that we have in Christ. We all do what we can do in our respective callings, and, with daily repentance and faith, we live in God’s forgiveness of sins, now and for eternity.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. (Amen.)
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +
