✠ One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you ✠
The Word of the Lord Endures Forever
se cwide þæs béaggiefan ábireþ ferhþ
Psalm 25,1.2.4.8.10.11; 25,6 1717
Reminiszere (2. Sonntag der Passionszeit) 025 „Remember“
Gregory the Great, Bishop of Rome ✠ 604
12. März 2017
1. О Lord, Thou Comfort of the distressed; consider our afflictions and forgive all our sins, so that we may live each day in peace and security. Amen. (Gradual)
2. Remember Your mercy, O Lord, and Your steadfast love, for they have been from of old. To You, O Lord, I lift up my life. O my God, in You I trust; let me not be put to shame; let not my enemies exult over me. Make me to know Your ways, O Lord; teach me Your paths. Good and upright is the Lord; therefore He instructs sinners in the way. All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep His covenant and His testimonies. For Your Name’s sake, O Lord, pardon my guilt, for it is great.
3. »Remember Your mercy, O Lord, and Your steadfast love, for they have been from of old.« The Introit begins by reminding us that God’s love for us is eternal and unchanging. This truth is vital to remember in a fallen world where we are ridiculed, persecuted, victims of sinful actions, doubt our own worth and a host of other afflictions. God’s love for us resulted in His creating us in His Image and Likeness. He created man to be the crowning jewel of His creation. The Psalmist proclaims: »God made man a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor« (Psalm 8,5). All the earth was given to man to be a steward over it on behalf of God (Psalm 8,6). When Adam brought sin into our human nature, God promised, out of love for us, to redeem us by sending His own Son to be our Savior.
4. Therefore, »to You, O Lord, we lift up our life, and we trust in You, O God; let us not be put to shame; let not our enemies exult over us.« In the Holy Gospels, the enemies of Jesus and God’s people were ironically the Jewish religious leaders. They questioned His teachings, accused Him of breaking the Mosaic laws and were aghast when He didn’t follow all the traditions of the elders. Jesus spoke today’s parable against the chief priests, the scribes and the elders. Their consciouses were convicted, but instead of repenting and receiving Jesus as their Messiah they instead doubled down as God’s enemies by seeking to arrest Him (Mark 12,1.12).
5. »Make me to know Your ways, O Lord; teach me Your paths.« The Introit exhorts us to make God the Cornerstone of our lives. The Psalmist also proclaims: »O God, Your Word is a Lamp to my feet and a Light to my path« (Psalm 119,105), for »good and upright is the Lord; therefore He instructs sinners in the way.« The Holy Gospels instruct us that only Jesus is the Savior of our wretched condition. Our sins need to be forgiven, and Jesus forgives them. Our sinfulness needed to be paid for, and Jesus atoned us. Death needed to be overcome, and Jesus rose from the grave in victory over Death. The devil needed to be overthrown, and Jesus defeated him. Hades’ gates were locked tight, and Jesus unlocked those gates and set the prisoners free. »All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep His covenant and His testimonies.« To keep the Lord’s covenant is to believe on Jesus Christ; He is the Cornerstone of our salvation. In Christ we see God’s steadfast love and faithfulness, for in Christ, the Lord, has pardoned all our guilt.
6. The Psalmist declares: »The Stone that the builders rejected has become the Cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes« (Psalm 118,22-23). Many religious leaders rejected Jesus as the Stone of the Lord’s salvation. They wanted to be secure in their comfortable works-righteous of the law and the tradition of the elders. But the Lord’s salvation and righteousness is built upon the Son of God who laid down His life to take away the sin of the world (John 1,29).
7. The Apostle Paul assures us: »While we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly, for God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us« (Romans 5,6.8). We remember this Great Cornerstone of our faith. We have been justified by the shed blood of Jesus; we have been saved from the wrath of God; we have been reconciled by the redemption price Jesus paid on the cross (Romans 5,9-10). The Pharisees feared this sort of Christ, and they devised a way to arrest Him. We trust in this sort of Christ, and we gladly rejoice in Him and worship Him.
8. It is true that the world does not want the Crucified Jesus, because the Crucified Jesus is divisive. Christ crucified is exclusive because Christ declares that only He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. The road to heaven runs through Christ dying on the cross for our sins and rising on the third day from His grave. That cross causes all manner of people to stumble, but Christ crucified is the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets. Christ crucified is our salvation and eternal life. The vineyard, then, is ours, for it given as a gift by the Lord, so that we may live long and prosper, and have peace and long life forever and ever. That gift is ours through Christ the Cornerstone. It is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes. Remember. Amen.
9. Let us pray. O Lord Jesus Christ, who shows His love for us in that You died for us while we were still sinners, pour upon us Your grace so that we daily trust in Your mercy and merit that declares us righteous. Amen.
To God alone be the Glory
Gode ealdore sy se cyneþrymm
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All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4. Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27. Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart.
ELKB. Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern. www.bayern-evangelisch.de/www/index.php. Copyright © 2013 Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche in Bayern.
VELKD. Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands. www.velkd.de. Copyright © 2013 Vereinigte Evangelisch-Lutherische Kirche Deutschlands.
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