The Sunday of the Passion
St. Luke 22:1–23:56
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
For you, Jesus rode into Jerusalem atop a donkey to shouts of Hosanna.
For you, Jesus was betrayed by one of His own disciples, one of His Twelves, a hand-picked follower.
For you, He sat at the table with His Twelve and made the Passover a meal of His own body and blood for the remembrance of His death that is your life.
For you, Jesus was captured, bound, and struck, enduring the scattering of His sheep.
For you, Jesus was tried and rejected by the religious leaders, and tried and found innocent by the governor, yet convicted anyway by a system that didn’t know true justice, even though He was standing right there before him, swapping places with an actual criminal.
For you, Jesus bore His cross through Jerusalem and to a hill outside of town, exhorting the women not to weep for Him but for Himself.
For you, Jesus endured His Passion because He would not see the sinner die. For you… Those words ought to sink in, because everything He did and suffered for you, He did so because you deserve it but He wouldn’t see you die for it, and that because you could not bring yourself back from death. If you die in your trespasses and sins, that’s it—game over—the end! You are the sinner He would not see die! This is the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ for you.
Mid-week Lent V
St. Luke 23:26-32
In the name of Jesus. Amen.
Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming when they will say, “Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!” Then they will begin to say to the mountains, “Fall on us,” and to the hills, “Cover us.” For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?
It’s not often that Jesus says something that sounds so hopeless. About the only time I can think of that comes near to this is when He said of Judas that it would have been better if he had not been born. (cf. Matthew 26:24) With regard to Judas, you know why Jesus said of him what he said. Jesus selected him specifically to play the part of betrayer. I won’t say that Jesus condemned the man to that role, but knowing all things in His divinity, He knew that the role would lead the man to faithlessness and condemnation. Jesus desires all men to be saved (cf. 1 Timothy 2:4), and so this hopeless-sounding statement from Christ regarding His disciple must be understood in light of that. Rather than seeing the man condemn Himself, it would have been better had he never been born. At the risk of putting words in Jesus’ mouth, I imagine He might say the same thing about all who are condemned.
In tonight’s text, the hopeless-sounding sentiment isn’t Christ’s own, though spoken by Him, but the people that are weeping for Him. More appropriately, it would be of the residents of Jerusalem.
The Fifth Sunday in Lent
St. Luke 20:9-20
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
In addition to last week’s parable, Jesus told another parable involving inheritance. A man owns a vineyard, leases it to some tenants, and goes off to a far country. The time comes for the harvest, and the owner sends some servants to collect payment. It’s only fair—it’s his land that they are farming, he’s owed payment for its use. Three times a servant is sent to the tenants; three times the tenants beat the servant and send him back empty-handed. Then, the owner sends his son—his beloved son—figuring that he would receive more respect than his servants. On the contrary, the son is beaten and killed. They figure they will get the land if the son is killed.
How ridiculous! Thinking that killing the land owner’s son will net them the land? But, that’s how Jesus told it: They beat the servants, kill the son, and refuse to pay the rent but expect to get the owner’s land. The land owner has every right to go in there and raze the land and slaughter the tenants.
Thus, Jesus said, “What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others.” His hearers scoffed at this idea.
Mid-week Lent IV
St. Luke 22:63–23:25
In the name of Jesus. Amen.
“He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.” (Isaiah 53:7) This passage from Isaiah was fulfilled in what you heard from tonight’s Gospel.
The Fourth Sunday in Lent
St. Luke 15:1-3, 11-32
In the name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Prodigal: adjective; recklessly extravagant, characterized by wasteful expenditure, lavish.
This is perhaps one of the best known parables of Jesus, if not the best known. It has become known as The Prodigal Son, but that title doesn’t fit quite right. The parable is not simply about the son, though the story mainly follows his actions. It does so to set up who the parable is about—the father who is prodigal in his own right.
