Time in the Word - Lent 2

The theme for the Second Sunday in Lent is The Cross – The Way of Life. The Gospel of Lent 1 was related to the beginning of Jesus’ ministry.  Today the public ministry draws to a close. Today’s Gospel follows the experience at Caesarea Philippi where Peter confesses Jesus as the Christ. If He is the Messiah, He must go to Jerusalem to suffer and die. Likewise, His followers must adopt this same style of life: denial, suffering, and the cross. The way of the cross leads home to God. In the Old Testament lesson, the Lord calls Abraham to walk before Him and be blameless. We do this through our adoption into the family of God.  Out of suffering, Paul says in the Epistle lesson, ultimately comes hope and out of Jesus’ passion comes reconciliation with God. The Psalm urges us to trust this God of mercy. The suggested Hymn of the Day is related to the Gospel lesson that calls upon the Christian to take up the cross and follow after Jesus.

Monday, 22 February 2015—Psalm 115:11-13; antiphon, Psalm 25:6—The Introit sets the theme for the day: Lent is a time of suffering as the way of the cross often involves suffering for the Christian.  In the midst of our suffering, we cry out with the Psalmist, “Remember Your mercy O Lord, and Your steadfast love.”  We ask the Father to look at us through His eye of mercy as He remembers the work of Christ our Savior.

Tuesday, 23 February 2015—Psalm 22:23-31—In this psalm, David vows to praise the Lord when the Lord’s sure deliverance comes. The vows proper appear in verses 22 and 25. Verses 23-24 anticipate the calls to praise that will accompany the psalmist’s praise. Verses 26-31 describe the expanding company of those who will take up the praise – a worldwide company of persons from every station in life and continuing through the generations. No psalm or prophecy contains a grander vision of this scope of the throng of worshipers who will join in the praise of God’s saving acts. 

Wednesday, 24 February 2015—Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16—In our Old Testament reading, Abram’s name is changed to Abraham as the Lord gives him the covenant of circumcision. The covenant is God’s. God calls it “my covenant” as He initiates and established it. God has covenanted to keep His promises. The Lord gives us His pledge to be the protector of His people and the One who provides for their well-being and guarantees their future blessings.  

Thursday, 25 February 2015—Romans 5:1-11—Paul teaches that Christians have peace with God through the reconciliation made possible by the cross. This lesson is a transition from justification by faith to a life of faith beginning with chapter 6.  Hence, we have Paul’s “therefore” (verse 1).  By grace through faith, we are one with God in peace and harmony. Out of this relationship come reasons to rejoice: that we share in the glory of God (verse 2), that we experience suffering that eventuates in hope (verses 3-4), and that we are reconciled to God through Christ (verse 11). In our suffering, sin, and weakness, God comes to us in love expressed in the death of our Savior Jesus Christ.

Friday, 27 February 2015—Mark 8:27-38— Jesus teaches that He must suffer and die and calls upon His disciples to follow Him in the same.

Jesus and the disciples are at Caesarea Philippi. Peter had confessed Jesus as the Christ. Thereupon Jesus explains to His disciples that as the Messiah He must go to Jerusalem to suffer and die.  This did not fit into Peter’s conception of the Messiah and, therefore, he rebukes Jesus. Jesus sees this as a temptation not to go to the cross. He turns down the temptation by seeing Satan in Peter. Then, in the second part of the lesson (verses 34-38), Jesus explains to both disciples and people that they, too, are to take the way of the cross and that involves denial, suffering, and sacrifice.

The rugged cross means a rugged way of life for a follower of Christ.  The Christian style of life is a hard life. Jesus’ life consisted of sorrow, rejection, suffering, and death. His followers can expect no less. The Christian life has a cross at its center. John Donne said, “No cross is so extreme, as to have none. There is no gain without pain.” President Truman had a sign on his desk: “Bring me only bad news. Good news weakens me.” In Tom Sawyer, Clemens wrote, “He had discovered a great law of human action, without knowing it – namely, that in order to make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to obtain.”

Saturday, 28 February 2015— Luke 3:22-23—The hymn of the Day is Great is Thy Faithfulness {LSB 809}. The suggested reference reminds us that God was faithful to His promise in sending the Holy Spirit upon His only Son as He began His ministry. God is faithful to all of His promises. As He promised to send His Son and to anoint Him with the Holy Spirit, this same Son will work our salvation. The promises of God are fulfilled in the work of His Son, our Savior Jesus Christ.

 809 Great Is Thy Faithfulness

1                   Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father;
    There is no shadow of turning with Thee.
Thou changest not: Thy compassions, they fail not;
    As Thou hast been, Thou forever wilt be. Refrain

refrain            Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness!
    Morning by morning new mercies I see;
All I have needed Thy hand hath provided;
    Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!

2                   Summer and winter and springtime and harvest,
    Sun, moon, and stars in their courses above
Join with all nature in manifold witness
    To Thy great faithfulness, mercy, and love. Refrain

3                   Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth,
    Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide;
Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow,
    Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside! Refrain

© 1923, renewed 1951 Hope Publishing Co. Used by permission: LSB Hymn License .NET, no. 100013721.

Collect for the Second Sunday in Lent—O God, You see that of ourselves we have no strength. By Your mighty power defend us from all adversities that may happen to the body and from all evil thoughts that may assault and hurt the soul through Jesus Christ, Your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen

A Prayer for aid against temptation: O God, You justify the ungodly and desire not the death of the sinner. Graciously assist us by Your heavenly aid and evermore shield us with Your protection, that no temptation may separate us from Your love in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

A Prayer in times of temptation: Almighty and everlasting God, through Your Son You have promised us forgiveness of sins and everlasting life. Govern our hearts by Your Holy Spirit that in our daily needs, and especially in all time of temptation we may seek Your help and, by a true and lively faith in Your Word, obtain all that You have promised; through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord.  

A Prayer for humility: O God, You resist the proud and give grace to the humble. Grant us true humility after the likeness of Your only Son that we may never be arrogant and prideful and thus provoke Your wrath but in all lowliness be made partakers of the gifts of Your grace; through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

For blessing on the Word: Lord God, bless Your Word wherever it is proclaimed. Make it a word of power and peace to convert those not yet Your own and to confirm those who have come to saving faith. May Your Word pass from the ear to the heart, from the heart to the lip, and from the lip to the life that, as You have promised, Your Word may achieve the purpose for which You send it; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Prayers from Lutheran Service Book © 2006 Concordia Publishing House.

Illustration from a woodcut by Baron Julius Schnoor von Carolsfeld, 1794-1872, a distinguished German artist known especially for his book, Das Buch der Bücher in Bilden (The Book of Books in Pictures).

Lectionary Preaching Workbook Series B John Brokhoff © 1981 CSS Publishing Lima, OH