Follow Jesus our Passover Lamb! (Exodus 12:1-14)

Maundy Thursday 

April 5, 2012

Dear friends in Christ.

Back in March of 2006 a man named Jack Dorsey created and shortly after launched what we now know as Twitter.  Now, if you are not familiar with Twitter, it is an online social networking service that allows you to follow your friends, experts, favorite celebrities, and breaking news, as they tweet or post their latest information online.  For example, as of 9:05 PM on April 3, there are 385,065 people following leadership expert, John C. Maxwell on twitter.  There are 13,704,986 people following President Obama, and there are 22,143,612 people following singer Lady Gaga.  Yet while it can be fun to follow people on twitter and find out what they are up to on a regular basis, as Christians, the person we want to be following is Jesus, our Passover Lamb.  In fact, as we study the lesson before us this evening we will take a closer look at the feast of the Passover as we follow after Jesus, our Passover Lamb.

Now, as we heard in our lesson a few moments ago, Israel is still in Egypt, suffering under the oppression of slavery.  Moses is going head to head with Pharaoh, and the Lord is preparing to send the tenth and final plague against the Egyptians.  As the Lord is preparing this, he relates to Moses and Aaron how he wants the people to prepare for their departure.  The Lord says, “Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household…The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the people of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs… On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn--both men and animals--and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD. The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt. "This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the LORD--a lasting ordinance. (Exodus 12:3,5-7,12-14).

This meal of the Passover was first eaten by the Israelites in Egypt according to the Lord command.  On that night, they ate it with their cloaks tucked into their belts, their sandals on their feet, and their staffs in their hands.  They ate it in haste because the Lord had said they would be leaving Egypt that very night, and that is exactly what happened.  For on that night, the Lord did exactly has he had promised.  At midnight the Lord struck down all the firstborn of Egypt from the house of Pharaoh to the house of the lowliest prisoner, as well as the firstborn of all their livestock.  But when the Lord saw the blood on the doors of the houses of the Israelites, he passed over them as he had promised.  From that time on, the Israelites had celebrated the Passover as the Lord had commanded them to.  They had gathered to eat roast lamb and bitter herbs and to tell their children the stories of how the Lord had delivered them from Egypt as he had promised. But while this was truly an important event in the lives of the Israelites, this meal of the Passover not only reminded them of their deliverance from the Egyptians, it also foreshadowed another important event.  If foreshadowed their deliverance from sin and satan, which found its fulfillment in Jesus Christ our Passover Lamb.

It is this deliverance that we are celebrating tonight, the deliverance from sin and satan that Jesus won for us as our Passover Lamb. Although we normally associate the Passover with Maundy Thursday, and Jesus’ crucifixion with Good Friday, the beautiful truth of God’s plan is that Jesus, our Passover Lamb was sacrificed for our sins on the day of the Passover.  On that evening, our Passover Lamb celebrated the Passover with his disciples, he instituted the new meal of the Lord’s Supper, and he was slaughtered to bring to fulfillment the forgiveness that was foreshadowed in the Passover meal. 

But now comes the question, “How could that be if Jesus ate the Passover with his disciples on Thursday night?”  To answer that question we must remind ourselves of how the Israelites counted their days; for them, when the sun set on Thursday evening, Thursday came to an end, and Friday began.  The setting of the sun marked the ending of their day.  Take for example our services tonight.  If we measured our days the way the Israelites measured them, we would be holding this service in the closing hours of Thursday evening.  In this way even though we would have started worshiping on Thursday we would have finished our service in the early hours of Friday morning.  So, when Jesus ate the Passover with his disciples at twilight, he was eating it in the first few hours of the day of the Passover.  When Jesus was crucified some 15 hours later, he was being sacrificed as our Passover Lamb, on the day of the Passover.

Thus, tonight, as we celebrate Maundy Thursday, we have followed our Passover Lamb to the upper room where he celebrated the Passover with his disciples.  We will shortly be dining with him as we come forward to receive his body and blood in the Sacrament, and tomorrow evening we will follow our Passover Lamb to the Cross.  We will again remind ourselves of how Jesus was pierced there for our transgressions.  We will remind ourselves how the Holy Spirit took some of the blood of our Passover Lamb and painted it on the door posts and door frames of our hearts to mark us as forgiven children of God.

This is why we have gathered here this evening.  We have gathered to follow Jesus our Passover Lamb; the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.  He is the Lamb who was slain.  He is the Lamb whose blood has caused God’s great wrath to Passover us.  He is the Lamb who willingly gave his life in our place and gives us his body and blood to eat and drink to assure us that we have been completely cleansed of all our sins .  This is Jesus, our Passover Lamb whom we follow this evening.

Though I’m sure if we looked hard enough we could probably find a Twitter user sending out tweets as Jesus Christ, tonight we have chosen to follow the real thing.  Tonight we have followed our Passover Lamb to the upper room and to the cross.  Tonight we have been assured of the forgiveness he won for us and the wrath that has passed over us.  Let us continue to follow him as he leads us on the path from his empty tomb to our home with him forever in heaven.

Amen.

Pastor David M. Shilling

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church--Le Sueur, MN

Sing Praise to the King of Glory (Psalm 24:1-10)

Sixth Sunday in Lent Palm Sunday 

April 1, 2012

Dear friends in Christ.

If there is one part of worship that I love more than the others, that part would be singing.  I love singing.  Ever since I was a little child I have loved to sing.  I love singing hymns of praise to our Lord each and every week.  I love singing the Psalms between the readings.  I even love singing the familiar melodies of the Liturgy!  I love singing in church because I know that as I sing, my praises are going up to the Lord who is the King of Glory!  I love to sing, and I know that you love to sing too.  For as I have often told you, I have the best seat in the house when it comes to just sitting and listening to you sing your praises to the Lord, the King of Glory!  And today is no exception!  For today, already, I have been overjoyed to hear your voices melding together in thanks and praise of Jesus our Lord, our Savior, our King of Glory!

Well, today, as we study the lesson before us, we don’t even need to take a break from singing our praises, because the lesson for our consideration this morning comes to us from the song book of the Old Testament.  Our lesson, this morning comes to us from the book of the Psalms; Psalm 24.  Now, I invite you to open your bulletins to the first two pages of the insert and we will read this Psalm responsively, just as we did at the beginning of the service.  We will read only the verse of the Psalm omitting the hymn. 

P:        “The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it;

C:      for he founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters.

P:        Who may ascend the hill of the LORD? Who may stand in his holy place? 

C:    He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by what is false.

P:        He will receive blessing from the LORD and vindication from God his Savior.  Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek your face, O God of Jacob.  Lift up your heads, O you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.

C:      Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle.

P:        Lift up your heads, O you gates; lift them up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.

P:      Who is he, this King of glory? The LORD Almighty— he is the King of glory. (Psalm 24:1–10, NIV84)

What better song of praise could there be for us to study this morning than a song of praise written by King David himself!  It was David whom the Lord chose to be King over Israel.  It was David whom the Lord used to pen many beautiful Psalms about the coming Savior.  It was David and his line through whom the Savior was promised to come, and it was David whom the Lord inspired to write the beautiful words we have before us this morning.  Now, when King David wrote these words, it is very likely that he wrote them for the day when the Ark of the Covenant would be brought into Jerusalem for the first time.  Before this the Ark had been kept in the Tabernacle at Shiloh.  This was where Hannah had brought her son Samuel, when he was three years old, as she had promised the Lord when she prayed for a son.  This was where the Lord had called Samuel at night, and Samuel had run to Eli three different times before Eli had figured out what was happening.  This is where the Lord gave Samuel a message of Judgment against Eli and his family because Eli had allowed his sons to act in ways that were terribly disrespectful of the Lord.  And this is where the Ark of the Covenant had been until the day Eli’s two sons had taken it into battle against the Philistines.

I’m sure you remember the story from your Sunday School days.  Though Eli’s sons had brought the Ark into the Israelite camp, on that day the Israelites were thoroughly defeated by the Philistines and the Ark was taken into captivity for seven months.  Though they moved it from city to city, the Lord’s hand was so heavily against them that they finally sent the Ark back to the Israelites in a cart pulled by two cows that had just calved.  It came to the town of Kiriath Jearim where it stayed for the next 70 years, until David was King, Jerusalem had been taken, and all was ready to bring the Ark into Jerusalem. (see 1 Samuel 1-6)

Can’t you just imagine the procession that day!  Can’t you just see the Levites carrying the Ark on their shoulders as the Lord commanded, with King David and a procession of hundreds if not thousands of people coming to Jerusalem with the Ark of the Covenant?  Can’t you just hear the sounds of tambourines, harps, lyres, and trumpets being played in celebration of the Ark coming to Jerusalem?  Can’t you just feel the joy that radiated off all the people as the Ark of God, which is called by the Name, the name of the LORD Almighty, who is enthroned between the cherubim that are on the ark, (2 Samuel 6:2) was brought into the city?  Can’t you just imagine the procession of people singing the words of Psalm 24, singing to the Lord God, King of Glory, as the Ark approached the city?  Let’s read those words together again:

P:        “The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it;

C:      for he founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters.

P:        Who may ascend the hill of the LORD? Who may stand in his holy place? 

C:    He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by what is false.

P:        He will receive blessing from the LORD and vindication from God his Savior.  Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek your face, O God of Jacob.  Lift up your heads, O you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.

C:      Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle.

P:        Lift up your heads, O you gates; lift them up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.

P:      Who is he, this King of glory? The LORD Almighty— he is the King of glory. (Psalm 24:1–10, NIV84)

Now, fast forward to Palm Sunday!  Can’t you just see all the people gathered around Jesus as his disciples cover the donkey with their cloaks?  Can’t you just see all the people as they spread their cloaks on the road and laid down palm branches in his path?  Can’t you just hear the songs the people were singing along the road as they traveled the few miles from Bethany to Jerusalem?  Though the Bible doesn’t say which songs they sang, other than the song of Hosanna to the Son of David as they saw Jerusalem and approached the temple, I can just imagine this crowd singing praise to their King of Glory with the words of Psalm 24 at some point before they began their shouts of Hosanna!  I can just imagine that because Psalm 24 was regularly read in the temple on the first day of the week.  Psalm 24 was a psalm that builds on the theme of the Lord’s coming for his people.  On that Palm Sunday, as Jesus, the King of Glory was riding to Jerusalem on the back of a donkey, I can just imagine someone in the crowd beginning to sing the words of Psalm 24 which we read again together,

P:        “The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it;

C:      for he founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters.

P:        Who may ascend the hill of the LORD? Who may stand in his holy place?  

C:    He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by what is false.

P:        He will receive blessing from the LORD and vindication from God his Savior.  Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek your face, O God of Jacob.  Lift up your heads, O you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.

C:      Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle.

P:        Lift up your heads, O you gates; lift them up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.

P:      Who is he, this King of glory? The LORD Almighty— he is the King of glory. (Psalm 24:1–10, NIV84)

What better song of praise could there be for us to sing and to meditate upon today, especially as we Celebrate Palm Sunday!  For today, we are celebrating the fact that even though Jesus humbly rode into Jerusalem on a colt, the foal of a donkey, he rode into Jerusalem as the King of Glory!  Even though Jesus humbly road into Jerusalem following a path that would lead to utter humiliation, kangaroo courts, illegal trials, mocking, whippings, beatings, and finally crucifixion, he rode in as the King of Glory who came to free each and every one of us from our sins.  Just as the Lord had come to Jerusalem centuries before when the people welcomed the Ark of the Covenant, so also Jesus came to his people as the Savior who would free them from their sins.  Though we know the sorrow and the humiliation that will face as he is arrested, tried, convicted and crucified, we also know that he willingly did all this in our place.  Jesus willingly carried the weight of our sins to the cross so that we could be forgiven and live with our King in his glorious heavenly kingdom forever.

Thus, today, as we sing praise to Jesus, our King of Glory, we not only remember how he came to the earth to be our Savior, but we also look forward to the day of his returning.  We look forward to the day when we will see the glory our King returning on the clouds of heaven.  We look forward to the day when we will hear the trumpet blast of the angle and see the procession of Jesus with his angels and all those who have gone before us through faith in him.  We look forward to the day when we will stand before the Lord and as our lesson says, “receive blessing from the LORD and vindication from God [our] Savior." (Psalm 24:5, NIV84)  We look forward to that day when we will be judged innocent of all our sins through faith in Jesus.  We will be declared righteous in the sight of our God.  It will be proclaimed that we have clean hands and a pure heart and we will be blessed to ascend the hill of the Lord and stand in the presence of our King of glory forever more.  This is the day we are waiting for, because we have already received all these blessings through faith in Jesus sour King of Glory!

Thus, today we have gathered to join our hearts and voices in praise of Jesus, our King of Glory.  We have gathered meld our voices together in praise and let them echo about our church in worship of the Lord our God!  So, as we close today, let us raise our voices in praise of Jesus our King of Glory by speaking responsively the words of Psalm 24 1 more time. 

P:        “The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it;

C:      for he founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters.

P:        Who may ascend the hill of the LORD? Who may stand in his holy place? 

C:    He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by what is false.

P:        He will receive blessing from the LORD and vindication from God his Savior.  Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek your face, O God of Jacob.  Lift up your heads, O you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.

C:      Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle.

P:        Lift up your heads, O you gates; lift them up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.

P:      Who is he, this King of glory? The LORD Almighty— he is the King of glory. (Psalm 24:1–10, NIV84)

Amen.

Pastor David M. Shilling

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church--Le Sueur, MN

Look to the Lord and Live! (Numbers 21:4-9)

March 4, 2012

Dear friends in Christ.

Back in 1896 when the first modern day Olympic Games were held, weightlifting was included, though it wasn’t an event in its own right as it is today.  Instead, it was originally held as part of the Field event, which was the predecessor to today’s Track and Field or Athletics event.  Because of this, weightlifting was not regularly a part of the Olympics until 1920, when fourteen nations competed.  Though there have been a number of different types of weight lifting competitions through the years, today there are only two types of lift competitions—the snatch and the clean and jerk.  Though similar, the essence of the snatch is to lift the barbell from the platform to locked arms overhead in a smooth continuous movement, while in the clean and jerk competitors first lift the barbell from the floor to chest height and then lift it up to locked arms overhead.  But regardless of which style lift a competitor is performing, each one knows just how important it is to find a specific point to focus on during the lift, for by looking intently at that single point, a weight lifter is able to focus all his attention on the task of successfully lifting the weight he has chosen to lift.  Well, in our lesson today, our Lord is calling on us to do the very same thing.  He is calling on us to look to him and live.  He is calling on us to move the eyes of our faith from the things of this world and focus them on him so that we might live. 

Look to the Lord and live!  Truthfully, this is all that the Lord really wanted from his people, Israel, as he led them through the wilderness on their way to the land of Canaan.  However, looking to the Lord and guarding their lives against sin seemed to be the very last thing that thing that the Israelites wanted to do.  For as you know, the Israelites were famous for their  grumbling and complaining against the Lord as well as their stubborn refusal to follow his will in just about every situation.  In fact, this is exactly what Moses is revealing to us in our lesson today as he writes: “They traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea, to go around Edom. But the people grew impatient on the way; 5 they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the desert? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!” 6 Then the LORD sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died." (Numbers 21:4–6, NIV84)

Sadly, it seems that whenever the going got too tough, or the way to the Promised Land was just too long, rather than guarding against sin and following the Lord’s will, the people embraced their sin and complained against him.  It seems that whenever even the slightest thing went wrong the people stopped looking to the Lord and looked at themselves as they complained about the things that they didn’t have.  Yet, before we go and judge the Israelites too harshly, we have to ask ourselves if we are any different than they were.  If we are honest with ourselves, then we will immediately realize that we are no different than they were.  For how often doesn’t it happen that whenever the going gets too tough or slightest thing goes wrong, we, like they, fail to look to the Lord?  How often don’t we fail to guard ourselves against our sins, and begin to complain and wail against the Lord just as they did.

Just think about it.  Though we haven’t had much to complain about when it comes to snow or ice, how often haven’t we been surprised by the cold temperatures and began complaining about them?  Or how often don’t we complain about traffic and road construction?  How often don’t we complain about mosquitoes, lady bugs, and box elder bugs?  How often don’t we complain about taxes, insurance, and the costs of prescription drugs?  How often don’t we complain about our jobs?  How often don’t we complain about our homes, or our friends, or our families?  How often don’t we complain about our church, or our pastor, or our childcare, or each other?  How often don’t we complain about our synod schools, or our synod officials.  In short, How often don’t we fail to guard our lives from sin by complain about anything and everything that crosses our minds?  How often don’t we have opened the floodgates and allowed our sins to pour out before the Lord our God?  So often we have failed to guard our lives from sin and have failed to look to the Lord who saves us! 

In fact, if there ever was a people who deserved the Lord’s wrath more than the Israelites, it is us.  If there ever was a people who deserved the Lord to unleash poisonous serpents in their mist, then we would have to stand up and declare that we deserve it.  For the truth is, even though we know exactly what the Lord’s will is for our lives, we have done the exact opposite on just about every occasion.  But even though the Lord has not sent poisonous snakes among us to chastise us as he did with his people, he still uses the tool of his law to turn us back to him.  Sometimes all it takes is the prick of our consciences constantly reminding us how we failed the Lord before we turn to him in repentance.  Sometimes it takes the heavy hand of his commandments pressing down on our backs before we recognize what we have done.  But then there are the times that it takes the full 16 ton weight of God’s Law falling on us and crushing us to the ground before like so many of the Warner Brothers cartoon characters before we realize how we have completely failed to look to the Lord and guard our lives from sin.  But even though it might take the full weight of God’s Law to crush us to dust and make us realize how horribly we have sinned against the Lord, when that realization finally comes, it is the Lord who gently speaks to us and tells us, “Turn to me for forgiveness.  Look to me and live!

Look to the Lord and live!  Turn to the Lord for forgiveness!  These two short phrases form the point of what the Lord was saying to his people when he sent the poisonous snakes among them.  For in the same way that he sometimes crushes us with the full weight of the Law, the Lord intended to crush his people with the full weight of the consequence of their sin, and recognize it they did.  When the people saw how those who were bitten by the snakes died, they quickly realized their sins and turned to the Lord for forgiveness as Moses tells us, “The people came to Moses and said, “We sinned when we spoke against the LORD and against you. Pray that the LORD will take the snakes away from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. 8 The LORD said to Moses, “Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.” 9 So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived." (Numbers 21:7–9, NIV84)

When the Israelites turned to the Lord for forgiveness, the Lord not only forgave them; he also gave them tangible assurance that if they looked to him in faith they would live.  This is why the Lord had Moses set up the bronze serpent for the people and tell them that if they were bitten, they could look at this snake and live.  He did this to give them a visual reminder of what faith was all about.  For just as the forgiveness of sins came to the people Israel through faith in the Lord God, healing from the fatal snake bites came only from looking at the bronze serpent with their eyes, and looking past it, with the eyes of faith, to the Lord so that they might live.

We have the same assurance from the Lord our God today!  For when we realize the enormity of our sins against the Lord and turn to the Lord for forgiveness, it is the Lord who says, “Look to me and live!”  For in the same way that the Lord gave tangible assurance to the Israelites of the forgiveness of their sins, the Lord has given us the same tangible assurance of the forgiveness of our sins through his Son, Jesus Christ our Savior.  For in the same way that Moses lifted up that bronze snake in the desert, so also has God the Father lifted up his Son, Jesus Christ, in the desert of Golgotha, for the forgiveness of all of our sins.  In the same way that those who looked at that snake with the eyes of faith lived, we who have been bitten by the poisonous vipers of our sins, and have been crushed by the full weight of God’s law, have looked to the Lord our Savior, and have lived.  We have looked to the Lord our Savior who was lifted up on the cross, sacrificed for our sins, and raised to life on the third day, and we are assured that we have received the forgiveness that he won for us.  Now, whenever we look at the cross, we don’t see a broken and dying Savior, but we see the Savior who conquered sin and death by his death and resurrection.  Now, when we look at the cross, we don’t see a device for execution, we see a symbol of comfort and hope.  For whenever we look at the cross, we see more than just two pieces of wood.  We see our Savior to whom we turn for the forgiveness of sins.  We see our Lord to whom we can look and live.

What a great comfort it is for us to look to the Lord our God and focus the eyes of our faith on him.  For in the same way that weight lifters focus all their attention on a single point so that they might successfully lift the weight they are lifting, we who now look to the Lord in faith know that we will live.  Though we may not always be successful at guarding our lives against sin, we know that when we turn to the Lord in repentance he will forgive us, and having been forgiven, we will seek to look to him once more so that we might continue to live for him.

Amen.

Pastor David M. Shilling

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church--Le Sueur, MN