God’s Suffering Servant
A Study for Palm Sunday
March 27- April 1, 2023
March 27- April 1, 2023
The
Passion of the Christ is quite evident in the Lessons for this week. The Gospel
consists of the story of Jesus’ suffering and death. The Old Testament lesson
speaks of suffering in terms of disgrace. The Epistle lesson refers to Jesus’
humiliation as a suffering servant to the point of death. The Prayer of the Day
mentions Jesus’ coming “to suffer death on the cross.” The Psalm of the Day reminds us of Jesus’ words
from the cross.
The cross
was no accident. Throughout the Passion history there is reflected again and
again that all of this was in fulfillment of the Scriptures. The suffering of
the Christ was according to a divine plan for a divine purpose – the redemption
and salvation of the world.
Monday, March 27, 2023 – Psalm 31 -The Antiphon for this coming week’s Introit is taken from
verse 31, Into Your hands I commit my
spirit; redeem me, O lord, the God of truth. This Psalm is a prayer of
deliverance when confronted by conspiracy so powerful and open that all David’s
friends abandoned him. Where do we go when we feel as if we haven’t a friend?
We go to Jesus, our friend and confidante our Savior and our Redeemer.
Tuesday, March 28, 2023 –Isaiah
50:4-9a- In the Old
Testament lesson God’s servant suffers willingly because of his trust in God.
God’s servant faces suffering confident of God’s help. The suffering of the Messiah was not only
physical but mental and emotional. This may be a worse form of hurt – hurt
feelings. The Servant as a faithful follower of God endures shameful treatment.
His enemies pull out his beard and spit in His face. Jesus endures this form of
suffering: the soldiers dressed him as a king, the superscription above His
head, crucified between two criminals, exposed naked before a crowd, taunted
and mocked: “If you are the Son of God…”
Wednesday, March 29, 2023 –
Philippians 2:5-11 - In our Epistle lesson we learn
that as an obedient servant Jesus humbles Himself to die on a cross. As He
humbles Himself even to death God exalts Him.
Because Jesus came down to the humiliation of the cross, Jesus was
raised in exaltation. There are two sides of a coin. Jesus taught that He who
humbles himself will be exalted, and the reverse also applies. During Holy Week
we watch Jesus stooping to the lowest level by dying a criminal’s most horrible
death and on Easter He is raised to glory. His exaltation will not be complete
until every knee shall bow and every tongue confesses Him as Lord.
Thursday, March 30, 2023 – John
12:20-43 – In the
Gospel lesson Jesus suffers the death of the cross as wee view the history of
Jesus’ passion. The cross of Christ produces a response. It is not an ordinary
death which might cause only sympathy. There is a positive response by those
with at least neutral eyes as expressed by a professional soldier, “Truly this was the Son of God.”
Friday,
March 31, 2023 – Psalm 118:19-28 The
Psalm appointed for this coming Sunday. This section seems to be the answer and
a great thanksgiving song which echoes the “Give
thanks” of verse 1, the “answered …me”
of verse 5 and the testimony of verse 14.
Saturday,
April 1, 2023 – Matthew 21:16 – This verse is the inspiration for the hymn, “All Glory Laud and Honor” {LSB #442}
This verse is a quotation from Psalm 8. Infants and children give thanks and
praise to the Savior. As Palm Sunday looms a host of Old Testament scriptures
will be fulfilled by Jesus’ Passion.
Christ is the fulfillment of all Old Testament prophecy. He is the
center of the book of books, the Bible.
Prayer for Palm Sunday–Almighty and everlasting God, You sent Your
Son, our Savior Jesus Christ, to take upon Himself our flesh and to suffer
death upon the cross. Mercifully grant that we may follow the example of His
great humility and patience and be made partakers of His resurrection; through
the same Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives, and reigns with You and the Holy
Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.
Sources:
THE LUTHERAN HYMNAL © 1940 Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis , MO
LUTHERAN WORSHIP © 1982 Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis , MO
LUTHERAN SEVICE BOOK LECTIONARY © 2006 Concordia Publishing House, St. Louis
LECTIONARY PREACHING WORKBOOK
A – John Brokhoff © 1980 CSS Publishing, Lima ,
OH
Schnorr von Carolsfeld
woodcuts © WELS Permission to use these copyrighted items is limited to
personal and congregational use
No comments:
Post a Comment