Category: Devotion

“Jesus said to him, ‘You have said so. But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.’ Then the high priest tore his robes and said, ‘He has uttered blasphemy. What further witnesses do we need? You have now heard his blasphemy. What is your judgment?’ They answered, ‘He deserves death.’ Then they spit in his face and struck him. And some slapped him.”
Matthew 26:64-67

It’s difficult to stand by and watch injustice happen. There are painful sights that wrench our gut with compassion; sights that make our blood boil with anger. Yet while it’s difficult to watch others suffer, it’s just as hard for us to sit quietly when we ourselves are unjustly attacked. Our instinct is to strike back and exact our vengeance.

Matthew describes the perfect picture of an innocent man suffering at the hands of the unjust. Jesus endures the shameful sting of the slap, spit in his face, and the pain of merciless beating. Yet as provoking and undeserved as the attack is, Jesus endures it with patience and silence. The hymn writer voices why: Jesus suffers painful beatings so that we might be free from pain; Jesus suffers false accusations so that we might stand free from accusation. In this season of Lent, let us imitate Jesus as we patiently endure trials, trusting that all is in the hands of our heavenly Father.

Let us pray: Merciful Father, You sent Your Son as a lamb to the slaughter, and yet He remained silent. Grant us strength to be long-suffering in times of trial, so that we may learn to rely wholly on your will and word, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

(Martin Hill, Sem II)

“Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree’—”
Galatians 3:13

When we hear the word “cursed” we tend to think of fairy tales, Disney movies, or Harry Potter. Curses are terrible things that evil witches put on innocent victims; to us, they are often seen as things of fantasy; certainly, curses are not a part of our reality.

However, the Bible gives us a different reality. Not only are curses real, but Paul tells us that all of sinful mankind is cursed—we are under “the curse of the law.” “Cursed” here means that we have been sentenced to divine condemnation for breaking God’s Law; the curse of humanity is separation from God, death, and hell. We have all sinned and, therefore, we are all deserving of this very real curse.

But Paul also explains to us that God did not leave us in our cursed state. Out of His great love He sent His only Son into this cursed world to become a curse for us. Death upon a cross was reserved for the worst criminals and, indeed, upon that cross Jesus became the worst criminal, cursed on our behalf. He took the sins of the entire world onto Himself and as punishment He bore the curse that we deserve. He faced both separation from God and death—the curse meant for us—because of his great love for us. In “becoming a curse for us,” Jesus redeemed us from our curse so that now we are invited into God’s family and will live with Him eternally. Just as curses extend beyond fairy tales, so do happy endings. By becoming a curse on our behalf, Jesus has given us the happiest ending there ever could be—eternal life with Him in paradise!

Let us pray: Beautiful Savior, thank You for becoming a curse for us and in doing so redeeming us from our curse of sin, that we may live with You in eternity. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

(Rob Schrader, Sem II)

“I gave my back to those who strike,
and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard;
I hid not my face
from disgrace and spitting.”
Isaiah 50:6

With sharp detail, Isaiah gives to us a prophetic image, not about himself nor about someone in his own time, but someone yet to come although he was from the beginning—Jesus of Nazareth, God’s chosen servant to bring about deliverance. Thus He, although He was born without original sin and committed no sin of His own, was treated as the greatest of sinners. He was struck, He had his beard pulled out, He was disgraced and spat on.

Why? For you. Because of the sins of which all of us are guilty, both that which we are born with and those that we daily commit, we deserve to be the one struck, spat on, disgraced. We deserve, as we confess in the Divine Service, temporal and eternal punishment for our sins. But Christ bore our sins, suffered, died in our place, making full atonement for our sins, giving us true forgiveness from the Father. And He rose on the third day that we may be justified, that we may be made right with God.

Let us pray: Dear Father, this Lent we come before You with true repentance and beg forgiveness for the sake of Your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, who bore what we deserved; through His name we pray. Amen.

(Raymond Doubrava, Sem IV)

“But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.”
Isaiah 53:5

“Don’t worry about it.” “It’s ok.” God never says these words. There is no cheap forgiveness with God. He doesn’t ignore our sin or simply brush it off and move on. He wants a restored relationship with us. Cheap forgiveness can look like a restored relationship, but there is always distance, a separation. Something must be done to bring two people back together.

While we rightfully should be punished for our sin, instead Jesus was pierced, crushed, chastised, and wounded. His suffering and death paid the price of our costly forgiveness. Jesus restores our relationship with God, bridging all separation. God’s reconciliation, which is costly, reunites warring parties as the relationship is made right. When others wrong us, we can forgive because Jesus paid the cost. When we sin against God, He forgives because Jesus paid the cost. God’s Word spoken through pastors is never cheap or easy. Jesus bled and died so that we may hear the words: “I forgive you.”

Let us pray: Heavenly Father, You sent Your Son to die in order that we may live. Heal us by His wounds and give us peace by His chastisement, that we may forgive others as You have forgiven us; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

(Keith Kettner Sem. IV)

“And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.”
Matthew 27:50

All of God’s living creation has the inward desire to stay living. It is our natural instinct to survive at any cost. Jesus, being both divine but also mortal man, has this natural instinct as much as we do. Jesus in His passion had to set aside this fundamental desire to have life. Life was dear enough to him that he asked if His need to die could be taken from Him, but ultimately submitted to the Father’s will that He would give up His life (Matt. 26:39).

Jesus suffering on the cross was not simply a matter of endurance; it had to end in death. Jesus, though having His full power as God, had to submit to death. He had to endure the taunts that He should save Himself from it. It is one thing for a savior to suffer and endure, it is a much more shameful matter that a savior give up His life.

But we know that death was not the end for Jesus. Jesus would gain life from this, and promises the same for us. Let us take courage in Jesus’ submission to death, knowing that we all too must die. Like Jesus, we do not welcome death as a good thing, but we face it with the confidence that we will enter eternal life with our Lord Jesus.

Let us pray: Heavenly Father, Your Son Jesus gave Himself up even to death, knowing that He would rise up and promise a resurrection for all of us found to have faith in him. Give us confidence in this promise, so that we may face death knowing we have life in Him. Amen.

(Paul Gaschler, Sem. IV)

“It was about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, while the sun’s light failed. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two.”
Luke 23:44-45

Good Friday is still a long way off. Our focus has shifted from the joy of the arrival of our Savior to the darkness of our sins and expressing our grief and repentance in light of them. In our observance of the season of Lent, we can find ourselves trudging through the gloom looking often only towards the joy of Easter morning. However, on this first Friday of Lent we are a reminded that on our journey through this season, our eyes should be fixed on Good Friday; our eyes should be fixed on the cross.

It is not our own moanings and prayers and agonies that bring us forgiveness. Our salvation is found in Jesus Christ on that cross, giving up his very life in pain, despair, and innocence. Only when we see what He has done are we able to penitentially cry out to him, seeing that we are utterly unworthy and humble before Him. This is Lent: Jesus Christ, God with us, no longer veiled behind the curtain of the temple but before our very eyes, on the cross, dying for the sins of the world so that we may have eternal life with Him.

Let us Pray: O Christ, by your innocent suffering and death you have won for us the forgiveness of all our sins. Turn our eyes always to the cross so that through this time of Lent we would remember where our cries for mercy find relief, and our hope is found. In Your holy name we pray. Amen.

(Emilia Mugnolo, Deaconess Student)

“In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence.”
Hebrews 5:7

Lent can often seem like any other part of the year with the same joys and sorrows that take place, but for Christians it is a time of repentance and penitent prayer. We mourn over our sinful flesh and pray that God would grant us forgiveness. However, when we pray, we are not doing anything in and by ourselves that merits God’s favor. Instead, we join with Jesus in prayer.

Jesus Christ, God incarnate, offered up prayers and supplications as the great High Priest, and God the Father heard His prayers because of His reverence. Our comfort amid our sinful state is that the Father continues to hear our prayers because of Jesus’ intercession in the flesh. Even after His ascension He remains true man with flesh and blood and continues to intercede on our behalf. Thus, His prayer is now our prayer because of what He has done. As Luther said, “By means of such prayer He won for us and communicated to us the power and merit of His sacrifice, that is, forgiveness of sins, righteousness, and eternal life. Prayer like that is valid forever and works its power in all Christendom. In short, He continues to exercise this office as our Mediator and Advocate before God” (AE 13:320).

Let us pray: Lord God, heavenly Father, though we are sinful and unworthy of Your grace, we pray that You would have mercy on us and hear our pleas for forgiveness for the sake of Your Son who makes intercession on our behalf, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

(Garrett Buvinghausen, Sem. IV)

“But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’”
Luke 18:13

Today we celebrate Ash Wednesday. Some might think that “celebrate” is the wrong word for the occasion. As we attend services today, we trade “Alleluia” for “Lord, have mercy.” We trade feasts for fasting. We don ashes on our foreheads and mourn our sinful state. So, how can this be a celebration? After all, this is a penitential season filled with lamentations and grief. It’s a time where we grieve the sinful state of our flesh, the death that sin brings, and the fact that our Savior had to become man and bear our sins so that we might be saved eternally.

Yet we will not remain in our state of grief forever. Because of Christ we now have hope. In His bitter suffering and death, we now have the hope of salvation which cannot be taken away from us. The ashes of this day are made in the sign of the cross, which you also received in Holy Baptism. That washing of water and the Word has cleansed us of the perishable dust from which man was brought forth and has renewed us by Christ’s imperishable life as fully man and fully God. So, as we mourn and make our pleas with God for redemption, we know that our prayer has been heard in Christ.

Let us pray: Lord God, as we don the ashes of our sin in this penitential season, have mercy on us and guide our focus to the cross of Christ where our sins were crucified once and for all. Amen.

(Garrett Buvinghausen, Sem. IV)