Slaughtered lambs and sacrifices are not something we are used to. The whole concept of a lamb being killed and its blood being shed to cover our sin seems odd and off-putting; brutal and cruel; just a bit barbaric. The whole, “Lamb of God” (“Agnus Dei”) all just seems just a bit…much.
Let’s just talk about Jesus sacrifice for sin in an abstract way. A sanitized way. Let’s just think about Good Friday and what happened there as an concept; an academic reality; as a tragic story.
The reality of Good Friday and Jesus as the Agnus Dei should cause us deep and lasting pause. It should cause a rip in our heart and a breathlessness in our spirit.
When we understand the true and utter pain and sacrifice – of will and life – taken on by our Lord, it should be shocking, devastating, and numbing. The trauma He underwent should traumatize us to the core.
But…it should also move us from the deep regret from the reality of our sins which precipitated this willing action to a deeper gratitude and soul-stirring joy for the results this brings – complete forgiveness, fulfilled life from death, everlasting communion with God!
“Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”John 1:29.
Behold. Look upon. Take to heart and mind Who He is and what He did. All of it. Don’t shy away. Don’t avert your eyes. Behold. The Lamb of God. For you. For the world.
“Thank, You, Lord Jesus, Agnus Dei, for all of it. For me. Thank You.”
In our Old Testament lesson we see the results of the Israelites’ ‘golden calf’ rebellion and Moses’ smashing of the first set of tablets from the Lord. – They needed a new start!
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘Thus says the LORD, “Let My people go, that they may serve Me.”’”
Exodus 8:1 (ESV)
In our Passion Sunday Gospel text, we hear the people shouting praises to the Lord, welcoming Him into town. Later that same week, the people will be shouting “crucify Him!” Because of their rebellion they will also need a new start!
We need not even look to some monumental rebellion in our lives to see what we need. Every day we rebel again God, His heart, His laws, His children, His creation – and every rebellion results in the same need – a new start!
That’s what God does; He gives a new start in Jesus. Through His promised coming, His birth, His life, His suffering, His miracles, His teachings, His scoldings, His sermons, His unjust trial, His beatings, His mockings, His death, His resurrection, His appearances, His ascension, and His preparation of our everlasting Home with Him, His promise to come again – all of it is about another chance, away from death and in His Life! It’s about His mercy, His forgiveness, His grace upon grace! It’s about no longer having the Law written in stone to threaten stoning but the opportunity to shout “Hosanna to the Son of David!” because there is “now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1)!
And because we are given another chance, we also have the opportunity – the joyful obligation and privilege – to give chances to others, too.
As we have been forgiven, we forgive. As we have been granted Life, we share. As we have been loved, we love.
As we start a difficult and most-Holy week, let us wrestle with both the reason a “second change” needed to be given in Jesus; sin. Our sin. But let us not stay on the reason, but move instead to the Solution, the Savior, the Lord – Jesus! Through Him we have all things. And through Him we live in newness of life; for Him and for others.
Hosanna! Hosanna! Thank You Lord Jesus!
“We praise and thank You, Lord God, heavenly Father, for giving all mankind – for giving us a second chance through Your Son, our Savior Jesus! Through Him we have all we need or could ever want or imagine! Grant us, Lord, to share Your mercy and grace in our hearts and actions joyfully. Focus us this Holy week on Your willing, full, and complete Sacrifice for us, Jesus, and grant that we continue from the depths of Good Friday to the height of Easter Sunday; which changed everything! In Jesus’ most precious Name do we pray. Amen!”
God’s plan from Before time headed toward our time to share it with all.
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh and say to hGo therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.
I want to say that every parent has heard and experienced that emphatic “mine!” from their kids, but the truth is, I think most adults at one time or another has expressed this same sentiment (albeit usually more subtlety.
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘Thus says the LORD, “Let My people go, that they may serve Me.”’”
Exodus 8:1 (ESV)
We like stuff; from when we first see it to the plan for acquiring it (and then, sadly, the all-too-quick plan to replace it)!
Today we see “the Ten Words” (more often referred to as “the Ten Commandments”). The last of these refers to “coveting” – the deep desire toa make something your own in whatever way you can. It is a blatant lack of contentment for what you have (what God has given and blessed you with).
It also fails to recognize the reality that nothing actually ever belongs to us! Everything is the Lord’s (including us)! We are merely His stewards.
When we realize that He has everything, that He wants (and has) us, that He has given us all that we need to support this body and life, that He has forgiven us and saved us for eternity; then it is an easy step to take to get to contentment! It comes from a deep gratitude recognized in our true reality. It is a joy that comes from what we have rather than despair in what we lack. It’s a fullness of spirit that comes from knowing we are His instead of the empty and endless futileness that comes from constant pursuit of things, status, or pleasure.
We – along with everything else – are the Lord’s! Praise Him for that! May we be content and joyous is the revelation that we need nothing other than Him, because, through Jesus, we have everything unto everlasting life!
Halleluia!
“O Lord, we are Yours! Fully and completely. Help us, when we are tempted and covet to be reminded that, as Your children, You have given us everything that matters – including forgiveness, mercy, grace, life, and salvation! Send us Your Spirit to be, not only content in everything, but joyful in You and all Your Gifts! Thank You for creating us, wanting us, saving us, providing for us, and desiring to be with us forever! In Jesus’ precious name; amen!”
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘Thus says the LORD, “Let My people go, that they may serve Me.”’”
Exodus 8:1 (ESV)
“Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink” (Exodus 17:6).
Water is a basic necessity of life. Without it no one would last long.
And it doesn’t just provide life through drinking, it also is needed for cleansing and waste removal; and even for recreation.
So it is understandable why the Israelites are…testy…when they are living in the wilderness with no water – for themselves or their livestock.
So they revert back to their seemingly only playbook – complain about God and bemoan how good Egypt was.
Sigh.
After countless displays of His faithfulness to them, He is once again at the end of their displeasure and lack of trust.
So He provides a means of, literally, getting water from a Rock; providing water from the very Water of Life, the pre-incarnate Christ! If we go to Him for drink and believe in Him, “out of [our] heart will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:38).
We are guaranteed of all this because blood and water flowed from His side on the cross. We see that it is through God’s Words and promise joined to water in our Baptism that we are united with Him; with His suffering, in His victory over sin, death, and the Devil; in His resurrection.
“Strike the Rock” was the command, and the result was the saving of the Israelites with the Living Water.
God saves us through the same Living Water, Jesus, through faith and baptism. God saves us from being struck down in death because He was struck as the Rock; struck before Pilate; struck on the Cross.
We are saved by the Living Water, Jesus! Drink Him in fully and, strengthened in Him, flow in that Water to drench others with Him; His Word, His love; His forgiveness; His life.
The Rock was struck! Through faith in Him, you and I are saved!
How amazing! Thank You, Lord!
“Gracious Father, thank You for providing Your Son, the Living Water to save Your people in the wilderness and saving us through the waters of Baptism. Grant us a continual thirst for Him so that we always seek, drink, live, and share Him in all our dealings with life and others. In His precious and life-giving name do we pray. Amen.”
“Stop trying and start trusting.” That’s the truth God teaches his people in Exodus 14. And that’s the Gospel truth God teaches us as well.
People like to be independent. We like to chow the world and ourselves that we can do it and don’t need help. We want to show we can “pull ourselves up by our bootstraps.”
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘Thus says the LORD, “Let My people go, that they may serve Me.”’”
Exodus 8:1 (ESV)
But the reality is, we can’t do everything by ourselves – and that’s good!
When you believe you need no one, you believe you are God.
The Israelites had “won.” Pharaoh had let them go and they were on the way to the Promised Land.
Then God told them to turn back just as He was hardening Pharaoh’s heart to pursue them and bring them back.
What?!
The people were understandably upset. Why was Moses leading them back; so they could “die in the wilderness?” They would rather have been left alone, so that they “may serve the Egyptians” instead of God.
What a terrible statement!
But Moses answers that they will see “the salvation of the Lord” today and that “The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”
What an amazing statement!
We know the story; the Israelites crossed over the sea on dry ground and the Lord destroyed the Pharaoh’s army in that sea.
God saved them!
Sometimes we get the mistaken impression that we must handle everything – including our salvation. We believe that we are the reliable ones in the couple of God and us. But the reality is, God is the only One who is reliable. Always!
This is manifested most fully in our salvation. Jesus fulfilled the Law; we couldn’t. Jesus lived perfectly in love; we wouldn’t. Jesus died; we didn’t.
Rather than bemoan when we realize we need God, we should rejoice; for in faith we see God waiting when we get to the end of ourselves.
It’s time to “stop trying and start trusting” that God’s got us and all our issues. He fights for us and we have only to be silent.
“Thank You, Lord!”
“O Lord, thank You for providing all our daily needs for body and life. Forgive us when we fail to trust You and try to do things ourselves. Help us to look to You, trust in You, and live in You for all things, through faith in Jesus. In His name we pray. Amen.”
When God makes Himself known in our lives, we are changed.
For some that change is done in pride and obstinance, resulting in a tenacity of rebellion.
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go in to Pharaoh and say to him, ‘Thus says the LORD, “Let My people go, that they may serve Me.”’”
Exodus 8:1 (ESV)
For others, it is a transformation of our very core identity, life of sacrifice, and cross-bearing unto everlasting life.
We see in our Scriptures from Exodus 3 how God changes us through
His presence,
His Plan,
His Purpose, and
His Messiah!
And how we, as ones now changed in Jesus, are:
humble in stature,
bold in action,
steadfast in adversity,
confident in uncertainty.
God has changed you through Jesus! He has broken into your life and moved you from the deepest depths of your sins to the highest pinnacle of perfection! But as His redeemed ones, He also calls us to service outside of our plans, ourselves; outside out comfort zones; outside of ourselves.
And that will changes us too.
That will changes others through us.
Because God uses His people to change people; to free people; to work His Plan in Jesus!
“Thank You, Lord, for changing us forever through Jesus’ suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension. Give us boldness when You call us to a life of change with Your presence, Your plan, and Your provision, because of Your Messiah. Give us humility, boldness, steadfastness, and confidence to live in You and Your change for us every day. In Jesus’ precious name do we pray; Amen.”
