Dear Children of God,Special spiritual days are upon us with Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and The Resurrection of Our Lord nearing. I pray that you are greatly enriched by God’s grace as you contemplate the suffering and saving acts of Jesus which are remembered in these daysHere is the Wednesday Message:.
Wednesday’s Message
April 8, 2020
MAUNDY THURSDAY AND GOOD FRIDAY
Thursday’s Scriptures: Friday’s Scriptures:
Exodus 12:1-14 Isaiah 52:13-53:12
Psalm 116 Psalm 22
1 Corinthians 11:23-26 Hebrews 10:16-25
John 13:1-17, 31b-35 John 18:1-19:42
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ.
Have you been working on our memory verse from 1 Corinthians 16:13-14? Those two verses sum up all eight of the scriptures assigned for Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. Together these scriptures are a treasure trove of hope. Hope is precisely what the world needs right now. We are in the midst of what has been called “the worst week.” This is said from the perspective of our public health concerns. Thanks be to God that our “worst week” comes at the same time as our “best week,” Holy Week. This is a week that deepens our understanding and appreciation of God’s love, the Lord’s sacrifice, and our reason to be filled with hope and love in a time of adversity.
Keep alert
The first two words of our memory verse echo the instructions the Lord gave to the enslaved Israelites in Egypt just prior to their deliverance. “This is how you shall eat [the Passover meal:] your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it hurriedly. It is the Passover of the LORD.” The Lord was telling his people to be ready. He would save them. These are instructions from a confident God. Psalm 22 v.28 assures, “For dominion belongs to the LORD, and he rules over the nations.” God’s dominion is over the whole of creation. In our worst times our confident, dominant God is at his best; loving us, comforting us, and strengthening us. God’s best is revealed in his Son, Jesus. God’s best is evident in the obedient sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, through which sin, death and the devil were totally dominated for our sake.
In our “worst week” Jesus tells us to keep alert, he is present to save. “I am with you always” he reminds us, and “my blood was shed for you and for all people” for your salvation. By his death on the cross Jesus has set us free from anything and everything that threatens to stand between us and our dominant, loving God. Today, take your sin, fear and sorrow to the cross and receive the Lord’s comforting assurances of your forgiveness and salvation. Through his death he sets you free; the angel of death will “pass over” and you shall eternally live in and with the Lord. So keep alert, stay awake, the Lord of your salvation is with you and for you and will deliver you.
Stand firm in your faith, be courageous, be strong.
The two psalms for Maundy Thursday and Good Friday are templates for standing firm in faith in God. Psalm 22 has been called the “crucifixion psalm.” If you read it you will see why it carries that name. It is a plea for deliverance from suffering and hostility. The opening verse contains words that take us to the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Twenty-four verses later words of deliverance and faith are found, “he did not hide his face from me, but heard when I cried to him.”
Psalm 116 celebrates a recovery from illness. The psalmist testifies that the Lord “has heard my voice and my supplications” during a time when “The snares of death encompassed me.” The prayer for deliverance is answered by a gracious, merciful, and dominant God. Both psalms remind us that God hears our cries for help in times of distress and provides us with the strength to believe that he will answer and save us. Our faith in him is not misplaced.
God hears the cries of humanity and responds and saves because God loves us. Jesus said, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” John 3:16 It was out of love for you that the Father sent Jesus to you and it was out of love for you that Jesus endured death on the cross. That love is what sustains and strengthens you in your time of adversity. REMEMBER that as you endure these “worst weeks.”
REMEMBER, the Israelites were told, how God heard your cries and saved you by the blood of the sacrificial lamb. REMEMBER, the disciples of Jesus were told, how my blood is shed to save you. REMEMBER, we must tell ourselves today, that God hears our cries, responds and saves through the crucified and risen Christ. REMEMBER that because of Jesus you will not perish but have eternal life.
Because God loves us so much, we are able to stand firm in faith even when the ground beneath us is shaking. We have Jesus and in the final analysis he is truly all we need.
Let all that you do be done in love.
The final commandment that Jesus gave his disciples was to love. “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” John 13:34 The kind of love Jesus demonstrated is a sacrificial love in service to others. That is precisely the kind of love being required of us as we confront Covid-19. All of us are called to care for one another by staying physically separated and taking precautions if by necessity we are out and about, say at the grocery store. We are sacrificing our previous way of life for the time being, but we do not have to sacrifice our need to love.
One of the blessings coming forth from our present adversity is the imaginative ways people are finding to show love to others while separated. We should expect nothing less from the children of God. God is love. Love, like God, is dominating the worst of times. When we seek to love in the way Jesus loved, we find the best in ourselves even in the worst of times. And we find hope. And we give hope. Amen.
WERE YOU THERE
1. Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
Oh! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
Were you there when they crucified my Lord?
2. Were you there when they nailed him to the tree?
Were you there when they nailed him to the tree?
Oh! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
Were you there when they nailed him to the tree?
3. Were you there when they pierced him in the side?
Were you there when they pierced him in the side?
Oh! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
Were you there when they pierced him in the side?
4. Were you there when the sun refused to shine?
Were you there when the sun refused to shine?
Oh! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
Were you there when the sun refused to shine?
5. Were you there when they laid him in the tomb?
Were you there when they laid him in the tomb?
Oh! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.
Were you there when they laid him in the tomb?
Peace and blessings,
Pastor Bill