✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠
The Word of the Lord Endures Forever
Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum
Hebrews 5,7-9 1816
Judika (5. Sonntag der Passionszeit) 028 „Vindicate me“
Euphrasia, Virgin in Egypt, ✠ 410
Ronald Feuerhahn, ✠ 2015
13. März 2016
1. O Lord God, Heavenly Father, who by Your Son did suffer His baptism of crucifixion: We beseech You to abide graciously also with us when we suffer for being Jesus’ disciples. Preserve us from temptations and the wickedness of this world, so that we may seek comfort in You who has ransomed us and all people from sin, death and hell, through Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, One True God, world without end. Amen. (The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind for Judica).
2. In the days of His flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to Him who was able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His reverence. Although He was a Son, He learned obedience through what He suffered. And being made perfect, He became the Source of eternal salvation to all who obey Him.
3. The Prophet Isaiah described the Christ as the Lord’s Suffering Servant (Isaiah 52,13-53,12), and the Epistle to the Hebrews tells us that: »Although Jesus was a Son, He learned obedience through what He suffered.« This Epistle has in mind what Isaiah had written 800 years before: »Behold, My Servant was despised and rejected by men; a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we esteemed Him not. Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His wounds we are healed« (Isaiah 53,3-5).
4. This Suffering Servant is Jesus. He is the Son of God, but He was not born with a silver spoon in His mouth. His earthly parents were average Jews. Joseph was a carpenter, and as the firstborn son, Jesus would have been taught this trade by Joseph. We would probably call them middle class blue collar folk. The Greek word used to describe Jesus’ tradecraft is τεκτων (tekton); in English it is translated as carpenter, but actually it’s more generic and describes a wood-craftsman who did carpentry, construction and/or an artisan who did precision wood work (Matthew 13,55; Mark 6,3). As such, Jesus probably worked on numerous projects through the towns of Galilee making a plow or furniture, building a house or a boat and many other diverse projects.
5. Jesus also suffered rejection and ridicule. Many of the Jewish religious leaders rejected His claim to be their Messiah. They called Him a false prophet, a madman and even the Devil himself. They wanted to arrest Him and execute Him at least several times during His public ministry.
6. In two days it is the Ides of March, thus marking the middle of the month. The assassination of Julius Caesar made that date famous, along with Shakespeare’s infamous line from his play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar: Beware the ides of March! (Act 1, Scene 2). On 15. March 44 bc Julius Caesar was stabbed to death 23 times in in the Roman Senate by a group of conspirators led by Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus. 70 years later the Jewish Sanhedrin politically maneuvered Romans to execute Jesus for a similar crime. There had been tension between Caesar and the Senate over the possibly that he might claim the title of king. Likewise Jesus and the Sanhedrin clashed over Jesus’ declaration to be the Messiah and the King of the Jews.
7. Lent leads us along the path of Jesus’ suffering and Passion. The final stage of His public ministry leads to Him handed over by the Jewish leaders to Pontius Pilate to be executed by crucifixion. The Sanhedrin charged Him with blasphemy for He claimed to be the Son of God, and Pilate found Him guilty of sedition against the Roman State for affirming to be the King if the Jews.
8. The Epistle to the Hebrews proclaims: »Although Jesus was a Son, He learned obedience through what He suffered. And being made perfect, He became the Source of eternal salvation to all who obey Him.« Suffering and death are not a mark of failure or displeasure in God’s reign. God does not judge us, for His judgment has been poured out upon Jesus on the cross. Those to whom our Lord gives His body and blood can pray: »Iudica me Deus. Vindicate me, O God« (Psalm 42,1; 43,1) He cannot ignore us or deny us, for to do so would be to ignore and deny His Son, and He cannot and will not do that (Nagel 103,9). »Jesus vindicates us and defends our cause, for He is the God in whom we take refuge« (Psalm 43,1-2a). Jesus serves us and saves us by suffering for us in our place, for He is the Christ promised by our Heavenly Father.
9. This Christ gave His life as a ransom for all people (Mark 10,45). He is the Source of our salvation. He is the Suffering Servant sent by His Father in heaven. Thus we sing with the Psalmist at Vespers: »℣ Make haste, O God, to deliver me! ℟ Make haste to help me, O Lord!« (Psalm 70,1). »All who seek God rejoice and are glad in Him! Those who love His salvation say evermore: „God is great!“, for He is our Help and our Deliverer; our Lord does not delay!« (Psalm 70,4-5). Amen.
10. Let us pray. O Christ Jesus, the Son of Man, You arrived to serve and to give Your life as a ransom for all people, so that in doing so You have saved all the world and redeemed us back to Your Heavenly Father. Amen.
To God alone be the Glory
Soli Deo Gloria
✠
All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4th Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27th Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.
All quotations from the Book of Concord are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using Die Bekenntnisschriften der evangelisch-lutherischen Kirche, 12. Edition © 1998 by Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht.
ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern.
Nagel, Norman. Selected Sermons of Norman Nagel: From Valparaiso to St. Louis. Frederick W. Baue, Ed. Copyright © 2004 Concordia Publishing House.
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