November 16, 2024

Today's Reading: Introit for Pentecost 26 - Ps. 48:11-14; antiphon: Mark 13:13b

Daily Lectionary: Jeremiah 31:1-17, 23-34; Revelation 16:1-21; Matthew 27:1-10

Let Mount Zion be glad! Let the daughters of Judah rejoice because of your judgments! Walk about Zion, go around her, number her towers, consider well her ramparts, go through her citadels, that you may tell the next generation that this is God, our God forever and ever. He will guide us forever. (Psalm 48:11-14)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Zion is the city of David. It’s the city of promise. The Lord promised David that his throne would not end. The promise goes not just to David but to all Israelites, for from David’s lineage will come forth the Messiah, the Savior.

In this way, the Canaanite woman, pleading to Jesus to help her daughter, rightly addresses Jesus as Son of David: “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon” (Matthew 15:22).

Psalm 48 gives us to rejoice, “Let Mount Zion be glad, let the daughters of Judah rejoice … consider her ramparts, go through her citadels … tell the next generation that this is God, our God, forever and ever.”

The promise to Zion is “forever and ever.” We don’t reduce the Zion promise to a political action of establishing a powerful government in Jerusalem. The promise is that Mt. Zion will be the everlasting throne of David’s greater Son, and He will be the everlasting King of Mercy for every sinner. The promise of a “forever and ever” Zion is the promise, then, of the cross. At the cross, Jesus establishes His Throne of Grace for all those who, like the Canaanite woman, turn to the Son of David for mercy.

Jesus is the Son of David. Those who belong to His cross are His “city of Zion,” the city of the Living God. When Jesus called you into his Church, He gathered you into the assembly of all those who belong to Him. That is the promise of Zion brought to you and me and our families.

But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new [testament], and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel (Hebrews 12:22-24).

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Dear Jesus, Son of David, bless your holy Church on Earth. Let us be glad in the Gifts of your Church and rejoice in your judgments of salvation by which you justify us. According to your promise, keep us in the assembly of your people gathered to your Name to receive your blood of the new testament for the forgiveness of sins. Amen.

-Rev. Warren Graff, pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in Albuquerque, NM

Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Jonathan Lackey is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, KY.

Spend time reading and meditating on God’s Word throughout the Church Year with the Enduring Grace Journal. Includes scripture readings, prayers, prompts, and space for journaling. The Church Year Journal, Enduring Grace, now available from Concordia Publishing House.