Weekly Message & Bulletin

Although we live in the glow of Jesus’ Easter victory during these Sundays of Easter, we anticipate Jesus’ ascension.  Although Jesus has removed His visible presence from us, He is still with us as we carry out His Great Commission.  In fact, as we go forward baptizing and teaching all nations, Jesus has promised us in His own, almighty and omni-present way: “And surely I am with you always until the end of the age” (Matthew 28:15).   

Moreover, as we will hear on Pentecost, Jesus promised to send His disciples the “Counselor,” the Holy Spirit, to be with them and gift them in special ways as they carried out His ministry.  So, Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to be with us today, as the Spirit works through the word and sacraments that we administer according to Jesus’ will.   

Jesus’ promises of His presence bring us comfort and confidence, since Jesus’ ascension into heaven 40 days after Easter Sunday…when He removed His visible presence from us.  This year Ascension Day falls on May 26.  Jesus’ ascension to God’s right hand means that He no longer has to “humble” Himself.  He completed that role as part of His saving work.  In His state of exaltation, Jesus now rules without setting aside the use of His divine glory, knowledge or power.   

What an encouragement to Jesus’ Church as He sends us with the word, through which the Holy Spirit works, to convict sinners and bring them into the family of believers through faith. Because of that faith-family relationship, we can all look forward to one day receiving our heavenly mansion as prepared by our ascended Savior (John 14:1-3). 

Certainly, there remain many human definitions of love.  Some consider love a mere feeling, that unfortunately can change.  It rises and falls like the tide along a sea shore. 

Others see love as purely emotional.  While it’s true that feelings are at play in this kind of love, this type of “feel good” love revolves around “what makes me happy.” Rooted in selfishness flawed by sin, if circumstances change, such love quickly vanishes and can even transform into hatred. 

While God-pleasing love affects the feelings and touches the emotions, it’s grounded in commitment.  We witness examples of such steadfast love throughout the Bible.  In Acts, love for souls compels Christians to share the good news of Jesus’ forgiveness to lost souls, even to enemies who reject God’s gospel.  In Revelation, John assures Jesus’ saving-love outcome for our Lord’s faithful. 

Finally, John, characterized as God’s “apostle of love,” emphasizes how Jesus demonstrated perfect, committed love.  Such self-sacrificing love moved our Jesus to save unlovable sinners.  Moreover, as forgiven sinners value Jesus’ saving love, His love compels us to share Christlike love as we interact with others. 

Blessed Mothers’ Day to all…whether blessed with the birth of your own child, an adopted child or even if you are “mother at heart!”  Truly, we remain grateful to our Lord for His precious gift of our mothers.  After all, through a miracle worked by the Holy Spirit on Mary, Jesus came in human flesh.  In fact, at such a blessed gift to be the birth mother of Jesus, Mary exclaimed, “My spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior” (Luke 1:47). 

Yes, through a mother, Jesus was born into this world as Mary’s Savior and ours.  Unlike any other human “born of a woman,” Jesus came in the flesh as the “Holy One” (Luke 1:37).  Born without sin as the “Son of the Most High” (Luke 1:32) Jesus would never sin, die for our sins and rise victoriously demonstrating He conquered our sin and defeated our death. 

Isaiah wrote these words of comfort and confidence concerning God’s saving promise to us because of His Son using this picture of a mother’s love for her child: “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has born?  Though she may forget, I will not forget you!  See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands” (49:15-16).  How grateful we remain to God for our Christian mother’s love; how thankful we remain for the LORD’s unfailing love to us! 

Third Sunday of Easter                                                                     May 1, 2022 

As St. John closes his gospel in chapter 21, he records how Jesus had appeared to His disciples for the third time.  This time, while fishing, the Savior repeated an earlier miracle so they might recognize that He, who had risen, was the same Lord Jesus who had died for all and called them to “fish for men.”  Prior to this renewed commissioning, John shared how Jesus indicated that the essence of this divine mission—as we heard last Sunday—is to proclaim law and gospel: “’Just as the Father has sent me, I am also sending you.’  After saying this, he breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.  Whenever you forgive people’s sins, they are forgiven.  Whenever you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven’” (20:21-23).  

Therefore, we can conclude this important truth.  The essence of our Christian life revolves around proclaiming Jesus as “the Way and the Truth and the Life” (John 14:6).  Jesus keeps us on this earth—instead of instantly taking us to heaven once “Christianized”—so we can “go and gather disciples from all nations by baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and by teaching them to keep all the instructions I have given you” (Matthew 28:19)—that is our mission! 

Starting this Second Sunday of Easter, we replace the readings from the Old Testament with a series of readings from Acts.  This book, written by the gospel writer Luke, continues the story of Jesus after His ascension into heaven.  We could rightly paraphrase the gospels: the acts of Jesus during His earthly ministry; we could rightly summarize the book of Acts: acts of Jesus through His apostles after His ascension into heaven. 

Therefore, Acts emphasizes how God’s word continues to triumph through His witnesses, building His Church despite all opposition.  Acts demonstrates how this word of Christ progresses especially among the Gentiles.  In fact, all our readings today stress how our Christ remains in control of His Church as He arms and sends His workers with His powerful word.  

  

Easter Sunday truly remains the high point of the church year as well as for our Christian faith.  As Paul rightly put it: “For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised.  And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.  Then it also follows that those who fell asleep in Christ perished.  If our hope in Christ applies only to this life, we are the most pitiful people of all” (1 Corinthians 15:16-19). 

No wonder, then, Christians in earlier times celebrated Easter with a sunrise service, an evening service as well as an Easter Monday service.  Often, too, the various services shared the resurrection accounts as distinguished by the different gospel writers.  Regardless of the emphasis or way of detailing Jesus’ resurrection by the various writers, the truth remains: “The Holy Spirit recorded this miraculous event for our comfort and confidence that our Jesus rose triumphantly in bodily form as the God-man, our Savior.  Christ is risen…He is risen indeed! 

Today we celebrate “Palm Sunday.” Palm Sunday’s name stems from the palm branches Jesus’ followers spread on His path as He entered Jerusalem for Holy Week.  Jesus’ humble entry on a beast of burden reflected His life of humility and foreshadowed His death.  The praises sung by those welcoming Him offer a foretaste of His victory over sin and death.  Palm Sunday puts both Christ’s humility and glory on display.  Truly, Jesus’ cross leads to His crown.  

Traditionally, on Palm Sunday the church received into membership candidates for baptism and confirmation.  In today’s epistle lesson, Paul certainly provides a basis for this practice when he writes, “Your attitude should be the same as that of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  Then, Paul proceeds to outline the steps of Jesus’ humiliation and exaltation. 

Christians certainly follow in their Savior’s footsteps.  We follow Jesus to the cross where He paid for our sins and we continue to follow our Savior from the empty tomb proclaiming His victory for us over sin and death.  May the Holy Spirit through word and sacrament keep us faithfully following Jesus’ ultimate goal for us in heaven (Revelation 2:10). 

Historically in the Christian church, the Sundays in Lent have been referred to as “mini-Easters.”  Therefore, Christians often emphasized the passion of Jesus during the special midweek services instead of during the regular Sunday services.  According to a custom stemming from this practice years ago, however, Christians started calling the regular Sundays in Lent “Passion Sundays,” and the focus spread between the normal Sunday and midweek, special Lenten services. 

In particular, today’s gospel reading reflects Jesus’ passion by outlining how hatred against our Christ had increased.   We note, too, how in Psalm 73 the Spirit’s chosen writer, Asaph, acknowledged that unbelievers seem to have no struggles—unlike Christians—as wells as the disdain those without regard for God have for Christians…including our Jesus! 

The Bible’s central theme remains “For God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life” (John 3:16).  During Lent we trace our Savior’s steps to Calvary’s cross where we witness HOW God proved that love, specifically by giving His Son to suffer and die on the cross.   

Also central to the Bible and our teaching is rightfully always keeping before us Easter’s empty tomb.  Jesus’ rising from death assures that “Christ has indeed been raised from the dead…so in Christ all will be made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:20 & 22).  Today, we hear of two attitudes toward the cross’ meaning and naturally Christ’s rising from death.  

Our Scripture lessons for this Third Sunday in Lent wonderfully illustrate Law and Gospel.  The Law part warns God’s people not to reject His call to serve, ignore the power of His word when confronted by temptation, or question His ways when we don’t understand.  The Gospel part holds before us God’s grace-promise of free salvation through Jesus and His powerful word, which equips us for His work, provides a powerful weapon to combat temptation and creates the “peace of mind which transcends all understanding and guards our hearts & minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7).