Category: Lectionary Meditations

“Go, return on your way….” – 1 Kings 19:15

Elijah’s success had turned to utter disaster. In chapter 18, things were going fantastically well for Elijah. He confronts the wicked king, and then the prophets of Baal are defeated and destroyed at Mount Carmel, and then God sends rain again after over three years. It’s a fantastic day for Elijah.

And then, just like that, he’s running for his life. The wicked king and his wicked queen are still wicked, and Queen Jezebel wants him dead. So Elijah runs. And Elijah lays down and wants to die. But that’s not what God intends for Elijah. And so, after 40 days the LORD appears to Elijah at Mount Horeb.

And there Elijah whines. Just complains about how lousy things are and how good he’s been. It is full on drama time – not a one of you reading have ever complained at your parents about how unfair life is as hard as Elijah does here. And what is the LORD’s response? He doesn’t pat Elijah and say, “there, there.” Nor does He go all gruff and say, “Suck it up.” Instead, the LORD tells Elijah go, back on his way. Go back and do what you ought to be doing – go and live, because it’s going to be alright.

So often we want to judge and evaluate our lives by the moment – if things are great we are elated, but if they are bad we crash hard. And we swing all over the place. And that ride is no fun. But consider what Christ Jesus does for you. He doesn’t make you wait 40 days, but week in and week out He calls you to His House, and there He forgives you, He blesses you and makes His face shine upon you, and then He tells you to go, to live your life, but live your life confident in His love for you.

Jesus has died for you. Your life and its hardships will never get lower than that. Jesus has risen for you, and even the best high in this life isn’t going to top the day when He raises you. Jesus has it all covered, and He has it covered for you. Go and live and enjoy the many gifts and blessings that He gives to you, because in Christ Jesus it really is alright.

“Who is a God like You, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression….”

Think for a second about the gods of the ancient world that you know of. Zeus, Odin, Baal, Neptune. They aren’t exactly the most peaceful or patient of fellows, are they? In fact, the general idea was that there were mighty, powerful gods all over the place, and you had better keep your nose clean or they would kill you flat.

In fact, if we want to be blunt and honest, this is still how many people think about God today. There’s a lot of people who think of the LORD first and foremost as a fire and brimstone sort of God. And while it is true that the LORD is a mighty warrior, and if it became a contest of who smites best, God would certainly win, that’s not really who the LORD is.

Jesus doesn’t default to destruction. No, He doesn’t want the disciples to call down fire from heaven. He didn’t come into the world to condemn the world, but to redeem it. And this isn’t just a “New Testament Truth” – this is Who God was all throughout the Old Testament – showing mercy and patience over and over and over.

We forget how prevalent God’s patience and mercy is in the Old Testament. We forget how quick God is to pardon iniquity and to pass over our transgressions. Micah knew that the LORD was different, and so did all the people who listen to him. Of course, being patient and showing mercy is frankly boring. Fire and Brimstone are more “exciting” – but Jesus isn’t interested in adrenaline rushes or explosions. He really is much more focused on forgiving folks, forgiving you. That’s why He goes to the Cross for you – not because of some random quirk, but because that is precisely who He is. He is the God of steadfast love, even steadfast love for you.

“Fear not, Abram, I am your shield.”

Abram had been through the ringer since leaving his homeland back in Genesis 12. Famine, arguments, having to rescue Lot and the kings of Sodom and Gamorrah. The promised land was looking to be rife with difficulties and hardships. And so the LORD comes to Abram and makes a blunt statement – I am your shield.

This is a fantastic promise. All this stuff that you see getting thrown at you and tossed at you, Abram – don’t worry about it. God is your shield – it’s going to hit Him, not you. The LORD will take the brunt of it, not you.

Yet, Abram isn’t pleased. He’s near despondent because he hasn’t got any kids yet. The LORD had said he’d have kids – that he would be made into a great nation in the promised land. And the LORD has Abram look at the stars, says again that Abram will have kids – in the LORD’s time, though.

Of course, Abram would, because one of Abram’s descendants would be Christ Jesus, the LORD Himself. And Jesus would be Abram’s shield most fully. Jesus would provide not just protection from daily troubles, but Jesus would be Abram’s shield (and our shield) against Satan and Sin and Death. Jesus would go to the Cross and there take upon Himself the impact and blow of Sin and Death so that Abram, so that you and I, will live eternally.

When the LORD makes a promise, He means it. And it’s a good promise. Sometimes we get distracted by details or don’t like the timing, but Christ Jesus is your shield, He is your life and your salvation, and that is for eternity. That is true on your best day or on your worst day, for He is faithful and true to you.

“Woe is me! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.”

Isaiah knew he was a dead man. That’s what “woe is me” means. I’m dead. He had been in the temple, minding his own business, and suddenly He sees the LORD. The invisible becomes visible – and Isaiah can only conclude that he is dead. Done for. Toast.

He has a very good reason for thinking that. He knows that He is a sinful man. Sinful man gets blotted out in the presence of the Holy God. That’s what happens. And every statement he says it utterly true and accurate. He is sinful. And frankly, if God had wished to blot Isaiah out, He’d have been totally justified in so doing.

But that’s not what happens. The goal of the LORD’s appearing was not to bring death and destruction, but to bring about cleansing and forgiveness. The angel brings the coal, Isaiah’s lips are touched, and guilt is removed, sin atoned for, and Isaiah can be safely in the presence of God.

This is precisely what Jesus does and why He comes. He does not come to condemn the world, but with His death and resurrection to remove guilt and atone for sin. He comes to us in His Supper and places His own Body and Blood upon our lips so that being forgiven we may enjoy in presence now and eternally. Indeed, we even sing with that angelic host that Isaiah beheld “Holy, Holy, Holy”. While we deserve death, Christ Jesus is determined to be our Savior. This is His great love for us.

“Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens…”

Barely a few generations after the flood, the patience had run out. Rather than waiting for the deliverance of God, in His own timetable, people decided they would take matters into their own hand. Why fill the earth and be patient for the LORD’s plan of salvation – we will build our way for heaven and we will make a name for ourselves by which we will be saved. And our plans will be good because we say so.

This is the offense of Babel. It is the sin of seeking to be one’s own savior. It is the sin of trying to achieve salvation and life via one’s own work. And God is not One to simply let idols stand. He goes and He confuses languages, introduces all sorts of disunity and strife among mankind – sets the stage for so many wars and fights. And why?

Because all semblance of peace and unity that we sinful people can make – it’s not the real thing. It doesn’t last. It still ends in sin and death, no matter how pretty or majestic it looks. We cannot work our way to God. Rather, God, Himself must come down to us. Jesus must come, and He must be the One to declare Peace, a peace won and earned by His own work of salvation.

And likewise, God will topple our idols today. He will bring our own works of pride to naught. Not because He’s mean or petty, but because He will not let anything stand in the place of Jesus. Because He is determined to be your Savior – and so He will be. This is His promise to you in Christ Jesus.

“Please, let there be a double portion of your spirit on me.” – 2 Kings 2:9

Elijah is going to be taken up to the LORD. There will be chariots of fire and a mighty whirlwind. It will be an impressive thing. But before Elijah goes, he asks his pupil Elisha if there is anything Elisha wants. Elisha asks for a double portion of Elijah’s spirit so that he would be up for the tasks set in front of him. Elijah says that if Elisha sees him taken up, he’ll get it. And then Elijah is taken up, and indeed, Elisha goes on to become a mighty prophet.

However, as wondrous as this story is, Christ Jesus our Lord far surpasses it. Yes, Jesus’ disciples would see Him ascend, and yes, 10 days later at Pentecost they would have the Holy Spirit poured upon them. But what Jesus does goes beyond just that. Those disciples would preach, and they would administer the Sacraments – baptizing and giving out Christ’s Body and Blood in the Supper. And whenever they did so, the Holy Spirit would be given, creating faith and sanctifying people.

And this has happened, on and on, over and over, even unto today. Whenever we hear Christ’s Word, whenever we receive His Supper, His Spirit is poured upon us, strengthening us and preparing us for the tasks which God lays out before us. Week in and week out, in sermon and Supper, the Spirit of God given to us, a double portion. And we don’t even have to trek beyond the Jordan and witness a once-in-the-bible event to get it; we simply are gathered to the place where the Spirit gathers us. This is the great love of Jesus for us.

“For there is no food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food” – Numbers 21:5

They were in the middle of one of the most mindblowing miraculous times in the history of the world, and they didn’t see it. The children of Israel were in the midst of the Exodus, and daily, out in the middle of the wilderness, God would provide them their daily (meat and) bread. There was quail, there was manna. Bread that they did not have to work for – the curse laid upon Adam (by the sweat of your face you shall eat your bread) is for a time reversed.

And they didn’t see it. They despised it. They complained about it.

We know what happens next. The fiery serpents come, and the people of Israel are driven to repentance. And God has Moses put a serpent upon the pole, and anyone who looked upon it would live.

We are in the middle of one of the most mindblowing miraculous times in the history of the world – the very last days. What the prophets and patriarchs longed to see – we have seen in Christ Jesus. They knew that someday a Savior would come – we know that Jesus has come. They merely saw a bronze serpent, we know that Christ was lifted up upon the Cross to utterly crush that old Serpent Satan under His heel. And to top it off, God gives us bread today, but not just bread – but His Body in, with, and under the Bread, His blood shed for us in, with, and under the wine.

And often we are tempted not to see this. That’s what the world does; that’s what our sinful flesh does. But God is merciful and gives us repentance and bids us behold Christ Crucified again, indeed places Christ Himself upon our lips and tongues, and because of Him, we live.

“The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the Earth. He does not faint or grow weary.” – Isaiah 40:25-31

There is an interesting play at work here in Isaiah that might seem odd. The LORD is the Creator, but then it is emphasized that He does not faint or grow weary. And here we would think about Genesis, about creation, and one of the main points of the story of creation is that on the seventh day God rested.

Well, why did He rest if He doesn’t grow weary?

This is because everything the LORD your God does, He does for your good. On a simple, practical level, He established a day of rest because we need rest. We are not God, we do grow faint and weary, so we need rest. We get worn down, so we need a time of restoration and renewal of our strength, and so God gives this to us.

But more than that. With the impact of sin and death upon the world, our faintness and our weariness increased, and in fact, became fatal. And so the LORD Himself, Christ Jesus, would become Man and He would take up that weakness Himself, and He would suffer and die, and on the seventh day of the week, the Sabbath Saturday after Good Friday, He rested in His tomb. And why? So that He would rise; so that He would raise you up and renew you for all eternity. So that He would bring out the host of His people with not one missing.

It is good to remember that what God does in the Scripture He does simply and solely for your good, for your benefit. This is what it means when we say that the LORD is our God and Creator – that He has done all things, and that all these things are done for you good, given freely as a gift to you. This is Jesus’ great love for you.

“So I will seek out My sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness.”

The children of Israel were scattered. Ezekiel was there with the exiles off in Babylon, watching from afar as the leaders left in Jerusalem went down a rebellious path. Soon enough, the folks left would end up fleeing to Egypt or parts even further afield. To Ezekiel and the exiles in Babylon, it would have looked like the end of the people.

Yet the LORD makes a promise – even though all are scattered and scattering moreso, He would draw them back to Jerusalem. And indeed, several centuries later, on Mount Calvary in the midst of a day of clouds and thick darkness, where the sun itself was blotted out, the LORD Himself hung upon the Cross to gather His people unto Himself.

Fear and war had scattered people. Fear and war – the old consequences of sin and death. They had been driving people apart and destroying them ever since the days of old Adam. But there, upon the Cross, Jesus puts and end to sin and death, taking them up and destroying them, gathering all His people unto Himself.

We are rescued by Christ. Granted, we still see fear and war, we still feel the impacts of sin and death in our own lives – death’s death-rattles still shake us on occasion. But the LORD came and won us life with His death and resurrection, and He will come again in the clouds to put an end to sin and death for all eternity. Come quickly, O Risen LORD!

“As for you, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.” – Zechariah 9:11

Palm Sunday is not for Jesus. It’s not for His good or benefit. Jesus isn’t riding in with all these shouts and praises because He thought He would need a little pick me up before the Passion, or anything like this. No, Jesus is fulfilling prophesy. That which Zechariah foretold is unfolding there on Palm Sunday.

And while a lot of this deals with Jesus will do, it’s not really for Jesus. He doesn’t establish a rule for Himself, He doesn’t cut off the battle bow for His own good. No, this Palm Sunday is for you. Jesus strides into Jerusalem for you, to win you forgiveness and salvation and freedom from sin and death. Jesus enters in, and you exit, free and redeemed. It is for you.

But this is true of all the things that Jesus does. He does them for you, for your good, for your benefit. It really is as simple as that. And we have such a hard time comprehending that. We are so used to ulterior motives and playing the angles and manipulating and using the leverage that we can’t even imagine such selfless love that Jesus shows.

But it is all for you. God promised to be Your God and Savior. That was the promise He made to you at your Baptism, by Water and the Word. He would save you from the waterless pit, and so Jesus rides on into Jerusalem for your good. He rides to the cross for you. He rises for you. It is all for you.