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.
The theme for the Fifth Sunday in Lent is the fruit
of the cross. Formerly, the fifth Sunday in Lent was named, “Passion
Sunday.” Though the name has changed, the theme of suffering and sacrifice of
Christ is prevalent. The fruits or results of Christ’s passion are given. In
the Gospel Jesus’ upcoming death is an hour of glory for both the Son and the
Father. From this suffering Jesus learns obedience (Epistle lesson). The new covenant, promised in the Old
Testament lesson is fulfilled through the death of the Lamb. Christ’s cross enables
God and man to enter a new era of reconciliation. Because of the benefits of
the cross, we can glory in it. With the end of Lent approaching, it is good to
give consideration to the benefits of the cross of Jesus Christ.
Monday, 12 March
2018—Psalm 116:1-4, 8; antiphon, Psalm 43:1—In the antiphon, the psalmist cries out for deliverance
from the wickedness that surrounds him. The rest of the Introit praises the Lord for His deliverance. When we are
made to bear our crosses in our own lives, we, who are righteous by faith, also
cry out for deliverance, and praise the Lord
for the deliverance He has given us from our most fearsome enemies: the devil,
the world, and our flesh.
Tuesday, 13 March
2018—Psalm 119:9-16 key verse, verse 10—I seek
you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands. As the cross
and suffering of Christ loom near us, we need the Lord’s presences in our life
now more than at any other time. This Psalm speaks of this need.
Wednesday,
14 March 2018—Jeremiah 3:31-34—The cross establishes a new covenant. Through
the prophet Jeremiah, God promises to establish a new covenant with His people
– a covenant of grace. Through the atoning death of His Son, God has restored
His relationship with rebellious mankind. All who trust in the sacrifice of
Christ are incorporated into this new covenant (Romans 9:30). It is all God’s
work; we can do nothing to earn our place in it.
Thursday, 15
March 2018—Hebrews 5:1-10—The cross teaches obedience and earns eternal
salvation. Christ is the Mediator of the new covenant. It is by His perfect
obedience, by His shedding of blood, by His death that we have received eternal
life. He bore the cross, not for Himself, but solely for our benefit.
Here we see
the human Jesus praying with tears and cries to avoid the cross. In an allusion
to Gethsemane , Jesus’ appeal is denied.
Through His suffering and death, Jesus learned obedience to God’s will. By His
obedience He was made “perfect;” that is, He completed and fulfilled His
God-given mission to die for the salvation of the world.
Friday, 16 March 2018—Matthew 10:
(32-34) 35-45—The cross bears the fruit of eternal life. But at what price? Jesus clearly tells us, Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will
also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men, I will
disown him before my Father in heaven.
There are many loves we have in this life:
family, work, church, country. The list is endless yet, our first love, our
first priority must be to the Savior. Anything less is a violation of the First
Commandment. The Father will honor the Son as He gave honor and obedience to
the will of the Father. In following Christ we must acknowledge Him and follow
in His ways. Christ is the one who willingly submitted to the will of His
Father. It’s now all about you. Jesus proved this in His obedience and His
trudge to the cross.
Saturday, 17
March 2018—The hymn of the Day is Jesus, I My Cross have Taken. Jesus willingly bore our sins in His body, and
carried them to the cross. We, who have been incorporated into the body of
Christ by our baptisms, must also bear crosses in this life. When our hour of
trial comes, we beseech the Lord that He would give us the strength gladly to
bear whatever cross He would. Luther writes concerning this, in the Large
Catechism: So there is just as great a
need, as in all the other petitions, that we pray without ceasing: “Dear
Father, Your will be done, not the devil’s will or our enemies’ or anything
that would persecute and suppress Your holy Word or hinder Your kingdom. Grant
that we may bear with patience and overcome whatever is to be endured because
of Your Word and kingdom, so that our poor flesh may not yield or fall away
because of weakness or sluggishness.”
Collect for the
Fifth Sunday in Lent—Almighty and everlasting God, who hast
willed that Thy Son should bear for us the pains of the cross that Thou
mightest remove from us the power of the adversary, help us so to remember and
give thanks for our Lord’s Passion that we may obtain remission of sins and
redemption from everlasting death; through the same Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our
Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world
without end. Amen.
Sources:
Prayers from Lutheran Service Book © 2006 Concordia Publishing House.
Lectionary Preaching Workbook Series B John Brokhoff © 1981 CSS Publishing Lima, OH
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).
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