LESSON: MARK 16:1-8

Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.” Matthew 28:10

Jesus Himself pointed out the benefit of His suffering, death, and resurrection when He said to the women, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.”

This is the first word that they heard from Jesus after His resurrection from the dead. He hereby confirms all His former teachings, as well as the blessings He had already conferred on them. They are reminded here that they will now indeed be the recipients of all these blessings. Not only this but He also intimates that the Christians who believe His words are His “brethren” even though they do not see like the apostles did.

He does not wait until we beg or beseech Him that we may become His brethren. All ideas of meritorious services are completely ruled out here.

What did the apostles merit? Peter denied the Lord three times; the other disciples all fled from Him; they stayed with Him like a hare stays with its young. He should have called them deserters, traitors, and scoundrels rather than brethren. So, this word was sent to them through these women by sheer mercy and grace.

The apostles could not help feeling this. We feel it, too, when we are held fast in sins, temptations, and damnation.

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PRAYER: We thank and praise you, dear Lord Jesus, for the wonderful grace and mercy which You have so richly bestowed upon us unworthy sinners in demonstrating by Your resurrection that we are Your brethren, with all the privileges of brethren. Amen.

Editor’s note: No American Edition (AE) equivalent for today’s sermon excerpt exists at the time of this publication. For an alternate English translation of this sermon, see Lenker, Church Postil—Gospels, 2:215-221.

LESSON: 1 JOHN 5:6-12

The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ … destined us in love to be his sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace which he lavished upon us. Ephesians 1:3, 5-8

When we discover what the Gospel of God’s free and unmerited love really is, we see how foolish it is to teach that people should bear suffering and death patiently to atone for their sins and to obtain grace. Some claim that if one bears all this patiently and willingly, all one’s sins will be forgiven accordingly. These people are seducers, because they conceal Christ with His death upon which our comfort depends. They induce people to rely on their own suffering and death.

This is the very worst thing that can befall anyone in the end, because it is a way that leads straight into hell. You must learn to say, “What is my death and patience? Nothing at all! I will have nothing at all to do with it and will close my ears to it as far as any consolation is concerned. Christ’s suffering and death is my one consolation. On this I place my reliance and trust that through it my sins are forgiven. I will gladly suffer death for my God’s praise and honor freely, gratuitously, and in my neighbor’s service, but place no reliance on it for myself.”

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PRAYER: Lord Jesus Christ, thanks and praise be to You for the completeness of Your work of salvation for us and for making this known to us in Your holy Gospel for our eternal comfort and consolation. Amen.

LESSON: 2 CORINTHIANS 5:14, 15

Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God. 1 Peter 3:18

Thorns pricked the sacred head of Christ, but you have actually deserved the pricks of more than a hundred thousand thorns. To be sure, you have deserved to be pricked by such thorns in all eternity, and much worse than He was pricked. Christ had to suffer the agony of having His hands and feet pierced with nails; you have deserved to suffer from much worse nails in eternity.

This is what will indeed befall those who disregard Christ’ suffering on their behalf. In this grim reflection, Christ does not lie or scold; what He indicates must surely follow. St. Bernard says, “I thought I was secure and knew nothing of the eternal sentence passed upon me in heaven until I saw that the only-begotten Son of God had mercy on me, stepped forth, and submitted to the sentence of condemnation on my behalf. If there is such seriousness here, it is not for me to play around any longer and to be secure.”

This also explains Christ’s words to the women of Jerusalem: “Do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.… If they do this when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?” (Luke 23:28, 31). Jesus means to say: “From my sufferings, learn what you have deserved and what will befall you.”

Christ’s sufferings should always be pondered with the greatest of seriousness on our part. They are written for our warning to teach us the awful and horrible nature of sin.

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PRAYER: Lord God, our heavenly Father, let the awful sufferings and death of our Lord Jesus Christ be for us a continual reminder of the horrible nature of all sin in your sight. Move us at all times to a serious consideration of our Savior’s passion and death on our behalf. Amen.

LESSON: ROMANS 15:1-6

Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. Galatians 6:2

Not the least part of love or self-surrender is for me to be able to give away my self-conceit or arrogance. I can no doubt give my neighbor temporal good and bodily service with my painstaking toil. I can also serve him with instruction and intercession, for example, by visiting him and consoling him when he is sick or sad. I can feed him when he is hungry, free him from imprisonment, and such like. But the greatest of all the services I can render my neighbor is bearing his weakness.

We will always fall short of the mark here. We will never attain to the perfection of Christ in this regard. He is the pure, bright Sun in which there is no mist. Our light is just like a glimmering stalk of straw in comparison with this Sun. Christ is a glowing oven full of fire and perfect love. But He is still satisfied with our little candle, if we provide some sort of evidence of letting our love shine forth.

Take a look at the Gospel record and see how Christ dealt with His disciples. He bore with them when they were guilty of foolish conduct and even when they, at times, went astray. In their service, His wisdom yielded to their folly. He did not condemn them but bore their weakness with long-suffering patience. “What I am doing you do not know now, but afterward you will understand,” He tells them on one occasion (John 13:7). Through such love He gives up His righteousness, judgement, might, wrath, punishment, and the rights he has over us and our sins. He could condemn us because of our folly. But He does no more than to say, “You are in the wrong; you do not know anything; do not, however, reject me, but trust me.”

And so I say that it is no small example of love to be able to bear with our neighbor when he is weak in faith and love.

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PRAYER: Dear Lord Jesus, fill our hearts at all times with such love for our neighbor that we understand his weaknesses and needs and continue to bear with him, for Your name’s sake. Amen.

LESSON: PSALM 19:7-14

They understood none of these things; this saying was hid from them, and they did not grasp what was said. Luke 18:34

What Jesus said to the disciples had no meaning for them at this time. “This saying was hid from them.” This amounts to saying, “Reason, flesh, and blood cannot understand or grasp that Scripture should declare how the Son of Man must be crucified.” Still less can it understand that such is His will, and that He does this gladly.

Reason does not believe that this is necessary for us; it wants to take care of itself before God with works. God must reveal this in our hearts by His Spirit, after proclaiming it outwardly into our ears by His Word.

Even those to whom the Spirit reveals it inwardly find it hard to believe this and have to struggle with this.

So great and wonderful a thing it is that the Son of man is crucified willingly and gladly to fulfill the Scriptures, that is, for our good. It is a mystery and remains a mystery.

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PRAYER: O Lord, we are always in need of the enlightenment of Your Holy Spirit through Your Word. We thank You that, through the Spirit, we can understand the treasures of Your Word and make them our own. Amen.

LESSON: HEBREWS 10:1-7

[Christ said,] “‘Lo, I have come to do thy will, O God,’ as it is written of me in the roll of the scroll.” Hebrews 10:7

Christ’s sufferings are understood correctly when we do not simply regard the sufferings as such but recognize and grasp His heart and will to suffer. For if one regards His sufferings in isolation without recognizing His heart and will therein, one will be shocked by Christ’s sufferings rather than rejoice in them. But if one sees that Christ’s heart and will are in these sufferings, it produces real comfort, confidence, and pleasure in Christ.

The psalmist praises this will of God and Christ in suffering when he says, “In the roll of the scroll it is written of me; I delight to do thy will, O my God; thy law is within my heart” (Psalm 40:7-8). The epistle to the Hebrews also refers to this when it says, “By that will we have been sanctified” (Hebrews 10:10). It does not say through the suffering and blood of Christ, which is pure enough, but through the will of God and of Christ, that they were both of one will to sanctify us through Christ’s blood.

This will to suffer He also manifests in the Gospel (Matthew 16:21-23), where He proclaims beforehand that He is going up to Jerusalem to suffer Himself to be crucified. It is as though He were saying, “Look into my heart to see that I am doing this willingly, without compulsion, and gladly, so that you may not be shocked or dismayed thereby when you see it come to pass and begin to think that I am doing it unwillingly, that I must do it, that I am forsaken, and that the Jews are doing it by their authority.”

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PRAYER: Thanks be to You, loving Father, for sending us such a ready and willing Savior, whose love for us has been manifested in His readiness and willingness to suffer and die for us and in our stead. Mercy and love are all Your ways, and those of Your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

LESSON: MATTHEW 16:21-23

Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps. 1 Peter 2:21

Jesus spoke the words of Matthew 16:21-23 before He entered upon His suffering, as He was on His way to Jerusalem. His immediate purpose was to celebrate Easter at Jerusalem. In all probability, the disciples had not the slightest idea of His impending sufferings at this time. They thought that they would have a joyful time at the festival.

Christ mentions His sufferings on this journey so that the faith of His disciples might be strengthened later on when they recalled His words in which He had told them of His sufferings. He had submitted to these sufferings willingly and was not simply crucified through the power and cunning of the Jews.

Isaiah had long foretold that He would willingly and gladly offer Himself (Isaiah 53:7). The angel, on Easter morning, also reminded the women to remember the words He had spoken to them (Luke 24:6) that they might know and more firmly believe that He suffered all this willingly and for our good.

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PRAYER: Lord Jesus Christ, thanks and praise to You for Your willingness and readiness to suffer and die on our behalf and for our good, for Your mercy’s sake. Amen.

PALM SUNDAY

LESSON: MATTHEW 13:45-46

“If anyone keeps my word.” John 8:51

It is quite clear from the context in which these words stand what Jesus means here by “keeping” His Word. He does not mean “keeping” in the sense that “keep” has when one speaks about “keeping” the Law. One “keeps” the Law by means of works. When Christ speaks here of “keeping” His Word, He means “keeping” it in one’s heart by faith, not keeping it with the fist or with works.

This is the wrong idea that the Jews have when they rage in such a horrible fashion against Christ and say to Him, “Now we know that you have a demon. Abraham died, as did the prophets; and you say, ‘If anyone keeps my word, he will never taste death’” (John 8:52). They do not know what “keep,” “dying,” and “living” mean in this context.

It is not without good reason that Jesus employs the word “keep” here, because keeping His Word involves a struggle and a battle, for sin bites, death exerts its presence, and hell threatens. Under such conditions we must “keep” Christ’s Word, cling to it firmly, and not let ourselves be parted from it.

Note how Christ replies to the Jews in praise of His doctrine. “You claim,” He says, “that my Word is from the devil and you want to suppress it even beneath hell. But I say that it has divine power within it and exalt it above all the heavens and all creatures.”

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PRAYER: Lord Jesus, You have clearly shown us in our Gospel that Your teaching is the most precious thing we can ever learn in our earthly lives. Grant us Your grace to appreciate this fact at all times so that we keep Your Word, for Your truth’s sake. Amen.