The Resurrection and the Life
"THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE"
Text - JOHN 11:1--44
GRACE BE UNTO YOU AND PEACE FROM GOD THE FATHER AND FROM OUR RESURRECTION AND OUR LIFE - OUR LORD AND SAVIOR JESUS THE CHRIST.
On the day our text took place, Jesus spoke the most powerful and comforting words ever heard by human ears – “I am The Resurrection and The Life”. And the way He said those powerful words and the situation in which He said them enabled people to understand Who Jesus is– as never before.
The month before Jesus spoke those words, He and His disciples were in Jerusalem where the opposition toward Jesus was growing steadily more violent. Each day, they crossed the Kidron Valley and entered the Temple where His opponents were at their strongest. Each evening, they went back across the Kidron Valley and over the Mount of Olives to stay at the home of Mary, Martha, and Lazarus in Bethany of Judea. Staying in their home — so close to the Holy City — did little to calm the growing fear the disciples had for Jesus.
They were so happy when - after yet another attempt on His life - Jesus led them back across the wilderness, past ancient Jericho, and across the Jordan River to the far safer confines of Bethany of Perea.
Their joy was short-lived. The sisters sent a messenger to tell Jesus, “Lord, Your close friend is sick” Would Jesus not drop everything to rush to that family so near Jerusalem no matter what the personal danger? From so many stays in their home the disciples truly knew and loved Lazarus and his two sisters, but their love for Lazarus and his sisters was overshadowed by their love for Jesus and their fear for His safety.
Then to the disciples’ amazement and relief, when Jesus heard the message, He said, “Lazarus’ sickness won’t result in death. Instead, this sickness will bring glory to God so that The Son of God will receive glory through it.” His disciples breathed a sigh of relief.
On a clear day – though it takes more than half a day to travel between the two Bethanys – you can see from one to the other. Mary and Martha must have taken turns sitting on the hillside awaiting Jesus return with words of comfort.
Then, after two days, Jesus said, “Let’s go back to Judea.”
His disciples pleaded with Him not to go back where His life was in such jeopardy. “Rabbi, not long ago the Judeans wanted to stone You to death. Do you really want to go back there?”
Jesus answered, “Aren’t there twelve hours of daylight? Those who walk during the day don’t stumble, because they see the light of the world. However, those who walk at night stumble because they have no light in themselves. ….. Our friend Lazarus is sleeping and I am going to Bethany to wake him.”
The disciples knew what every Judean believed – a patient falling into a peaceful sleep means the crisis is past and the patient is recovering. The disciples protested why go now when Lazarus has finally fallen asleep and the crisis is passed? “Lord, if he’s sleeping, he’ll get well.” Why tempt Your enemies and their violent plans by going to Lazarus now.
Then Jesus spoke plainly, “Lazarus has died, but I’m glad that I wasn’t there so that you can grow in faith, let’s go to Lazarus.”
It was Thomas who said what all the disciples were thinking — but with more sarcasm than the rest of them would utter — “Let’s go so that we, too, can die with Jesus.”
Then, as Jesus and His disciples approached Bethany of Judea, when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet Him. … Martha told Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here my brother would not have died.”
It was so easy to know her thoughts —wondering what He Who had healed so many others could have done for Lazarus had He come right away - thinking of that special relationship they had. How much comfort and strength she and her brother and sister had always received from His love —until now when they needed Him most. And, yet, with that glimmer of faith in Him and trust in His love, she said, “But even now I know that God will give You whatever You ask Him.”
Jesus told Martha, “Your brother will come back to life.”
Martha answered Jesus, “I know that he’ll come back to life on the last day, when everyone will come back to life.”
Jesus said to her, “I am The Resurrection and The Life. Those who believe in Me will live even if they die. Everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die." And Jesus asked Martha, "Do you believe that?"
She said she did. “Yes, Lord, I believe that You are The Messiah, The Son of God, The One Who was expected to come into the world.”
She said she believed — and the disciples, silently in their hearts, echoed that confession – the one Simon Peter had proclaimed so powerfully at Caesarea Philippi – the one Martha so confidently spoke now. But did Martha – or even Simon Peter and the other disciples – fully understand what they were confessing as their faith.
Jesus wept. All the mourners – including His disciples - thought Jesus’ tears were for Lazarus, but they were for Jesus’ followers - for how much growing their understanding and faith still needed to do. They truly believed in Jesus, but were still failing to put everything in His Hands without question.
Deeply moved again, Jesus went to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone covering the entrance. Jesus said, “Take the stone away.”
The disciples were shocked. Mary and Martha were shocked. All the mourners were shocked. Shocked speechless! It was Martha who finally gave words to what everyone was thinking. “Lord, there must already be a stench. He’s been dead for four days.”
“Lord,” they all thought, “what can be gained now by opening that tomb after Lazarus has been four days in an airtight tomb? Cannot Your prayers for Lazarus’ soul and the mourners’ comfort be said in the porch in front of the tomb?”
And Jesus did pray — this time more for everyone’s hearing than for His heavenly Father’s. “Father, I thank You for hearing Me. I’ve known that You always hear Me. However, I’ve said this so that the crowd standing around Me will believe that You sent Me.”
After Jesus had said this, He shouted as loudly as He could, “Lazarus, come out!”
The dead man came out. Strips of cloth were wound around his feet and hands, and his face was wrapped with a handkerchief. Jesus told them, “Free Lazarus, and let him go.”
Now Mary and Martha and the disciples and many of the mourners understood what it means that Jesus is The Resurrection and The Life — with Absolute Power and Authority over life and death. Now they knew what it means to put all things in His loving hands – a lesson they would not have learned had Jesus come to heal a sick man before Lazarus died.
Now they knew the perfection of Jesus’ love - willing to suffer through those days with those He loves that they might truly know victory over death in His Divine Presence.
As we view this most powerful of texts, the season of Lent is drawing to a close. Next Sunday is Palm Sunday and the beginning of Holy Week when we focus on the way Jesus suffered and died for us – and then comes Easter
when The Resurrection and The Life Who raised Lazarus from the dead on his fourth day in an air-tight tomb Himself rises from the dead to boldly proclaim the eternal victory He has won for us all.
There are few – if any – more comforting words than those Jesus spoke at Bethany of Judea - “I am The Resurrection and The Life. Those who believe in Me will live even if they die. Everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die." From the moment we believe in Jesus Christ and are baptized – whether asleep or awake, whether physically dead or alive – we live in Christ – our Resurrection, our Life,
THE PEACE OF GOD WHICH PASSES ALL HUMAN UNDERSTANDING KEEP YOUR HEARTS AND YOUR MINDS IN JESUS CHRIST — THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE OF ALL WHO BELIEVE IN HIM. AMEN.
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Fifth Sunday of Lent
April 7, 2019
Dr. Kurt Borows
Pastor, Resurrection Lutheran Church, Catawba Island, Port Clinton, Ohio
Branches in the Lord's Vineyard
Branches In the Lord’s Vineyard
Text – JOHN 15:1--11
GRACE BE UNTO YOU AND PEACE FROM GOD THE FATHER AND FROM OUR CRUCIFIED AND RISEN LORD AND SAVIOUR - JESUS THE CHRIST.
Living in a land with no rainy season and only a brief month when any rain falls at all, the people prayed for and then thanked God for the morning dew which often provided the only real source of moisture for their grape plants growing along the otherwise bone-dry ground. It took great care to produce this cherished crop – but it was worth it. No plant was more cherished in Judea than the grape – because every other part of the plant could be used in so many essential ways.
That night in the upper room, Jesus, describing His relationship with us, said "I am The True Vine”. The vine is the plant. In our relationship with Jesus, He is The True Vine - The True Vine through Whom all life comes.
Jesus describes our role in the relationship God came to earth as the vulnerable flesh and blood Christ to establish with us. When Jesus says "I am The True Vine”, He says He is everything. He did not come to make us vines – Jesus is The True Vine and we are what The True Vine produces – “the branches”.
Jesus said, “I am the Vine, you are the branches” upon which the life of the grape plant is most clearly visible and upon which the fruit appears — but only if the branch remains firmly attached to the Vine.
As The True Vine of the precious grape plant, Jesus, obviously, is talking about life. A vine is a living thing - a plant created and brought to life and sustained in life by God. The living vine carries nourishment and seeds of life to the branches which cling to the vine for that nourishment and for life itself. The vine carries the life to the branches. Without the vine, there is no life for the branches. Jesus says, "I am The Vine, you are the branches."
In this abandoned field only a watchtower stood – there were no longer any grapes to guard. As I looked at this tragic sight, I thought how much more tragic is the human life that does not grow in Christ?
Jesus said, "Every branch of Mine that bears no fruit God removes, and every branch that does bear fruit God prunes." The more we use the life and the faith God has given us, the more God increases and strengthens our life and faith. The more we do in God's Name, the more God enables us to do. The branch that accepts no nourishment from The True Vine and bears no fruit eventually wilts and falls from The Vine -- falls from the life which only comes through The True Vine. God prunes away the things that lead to sin and death in our lives.
God comes among us as the vulnerable flesh and blood Christ - The True Vine Who brings nourishment and life to the branches.
THE PEACE OF GOD WHICH PASSES ALL HUMAN UNDERSTANDING KEEP YOUR HEARTS AND YOUR MINDS IN CHRIST JESUS OUR PERSONAL LORD AND SAVIOUR. AMEN.
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Fourth Sunday In Season of Lent
March 31, 2019
Dr. Kurt Borows
Pastor, Resurrection Lutheran Church, Catawba Island, Port Clinton, Ohio
Living Water - The Most Radical Gift
LIVING WATER – THE MOST RADICAL GIFT
Text -- JOHN 4:5--26
GRACE BE UNTO YOU AND PEACE FROM GOD THE FATHER AND FROM OUR CRUCIFIED AND RISEN LORD AND SAVIOUR … JESUS THE CHRIST.
In Holy Land villages, each morning before the sun has much chance to bake the earth and each evening as the sun begins to set, the women come to the village well to get the family’s supply of water and to take part in their most basic daily social event.
Jesus left Judea and departed again to Galilee. But He needed to go through Samaria. – Though the route is far shorter, Judeans traveling to Galilee only pass through Samaria in the summer when the wilderness on the alternate route is too hot to enter.
Jesus therefore, being wearied with His journey, sat thus on the well. The sunrise to noon walk along dusty, stone-filled roads under a sun which by late morning had pushed the temperature to over ninety degrees had taken its toll on Jesus and so He crouched on the ground by Jacob's well.
It was about the sixth hour and there came a woman of Samaria to draw water. The very fact that this woman came to the well at high noon when the sun was at its hottest and no other village women would be there tells us something about her standing in the community. She was a shunned outcast who knew better than to come to the well when the "respectable" women came.
The Samaritan woman didn’t speak to the Judean Man. The hatred which existed between His people and hers was at least as intense as the animosity which exists today between Israelis and Palestinians. It was unthinkable for a Judean and a Samaritan to talk to each other or drink from the same leather bucket or even from the same well.
Furthermore, in the Holy Land villages to this day, there are rigid restrictions against unrelated men and women talking to each other in public. I have seen older women throw stones at male tourists asking directions from younger women at village wells.
It was Jesus Who spoke - "Give Me a drink."
The Samaritan woman said to Jesus, "How is it that You, a Judean, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria? Judeans have no dealings with Samaritans."
Jesus answered her, "If you knew The Gift of God, and Who it is that is saying to you, 'Give Me a drink', you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water."
I guess all water is living in the sense that it gives and sustains life. We cannot live without water. Water obviously also cleanses. Can't you just picture Jesus having that drink and then using a little of that water to pour over His head, face, and feet to cleanse and invigorate.
The woman's response to Jesus is what we would expect it to be-- "Sir, You have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep; where do You get that Living Water?”
To get water from most Holy Land wells, you had to roll away the stone used to keep small animals and some of the dust out of the well and then lower a leather bucket to the water below. In this dry land, it takes a long rope to reach the water. Jesus did not have a long rope - or even a short rope - or a leather bucket. Jesus crouched by the well - without a bucket - in a land of people who, without knowing Him, nevertheless hated Him.
Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again …" The women of Sychar will come for their evening supply of water as the sun sets this evening and for the day's supply when the sun rises in the morning. And this woman plans to come again tomorrow at noon. "… but whoever drinks of the water that I will give will never thirst: the water that I give will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
The woman said to Him, "Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw water. I want some of that water so I'll never have to feel the discomfort of thirst again - so I'll never again have to walk alone to this well in the noon heat or have people stare as I carry my water jugs through the village when only an outcast would."
Well, Jesus is even more concerned about our physical needs than we are - He loves us that much - but Jesus has an even greater concern for those things which are far more essential to our lives - He loves us that much.
Jesus said to the woman, "Go call your husband and come back."
The woman answered Him, "I have no husband."
Jesus said to her, "You are right in saying 'I have no husband'; for you have had five husbands, and he whom you now have is not your husband; this you said truly."
Jesus' words were blunt … but not hurtful. Rather they were the words of Someone Who truly cared and lovingly understood. Jesus' words were the living water of understanding and truth which cleanses the soul and gives all of life a fresh clean beginning.
She knew Jesus' lifestyle had been radically different from her own, but she knew it did not matter to her - or to Jesus Who was able to speak directly to her hurts and pain - to her sins and the guilt she carried for them. He was speaking to her as no one else had - or could. He spoke with a love which she had never experienced before.
The woman said to Jesus, "I know that The Messiah is coming (He Who is called Christ); when He comes, He will show us all things."
Jesus said to her, "I Who speak to you am He.” And she knew with certainty He is.
Not far from where Jesus met the Samaritan woman, there is a beautiful park with a spring and picnic area. Each summer John the Baptist preached and baptized people there in Einon Spring as he prepared the way for Jesus coming to Samaria -- even as he had prepared the way in the Jordan River for Jesus coming to Judea.
Baptism - Jesus' living water - washes away the sins which separate us from God and from each other – gives us eternal life and eternal relationship with God and fellow believers in Christ - and provides us with a new view of ourselves as beloved redeemed children of God.
"Just as I am, without one plea,
but that Thy Blood was shed for me,
and that Thou bidd'st me come to Thee,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.”
As we came to receive that living water of Holy Baptism which only Jesus Christ can give -- and thereafter to be regularly strengthened by His Body and His Blood as in just a few moments we commune together with Jesus.
THE PEACE OF GOD WHICH PASSES ALL HUMAN UNDERSTANDING KEEP YOUR HEARTS AND YOUR MINDS IN CHRIST JESUS - OUR CRUCIFIED AND RISEN LORD AND SAVIOUR. AMEN.
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March 17, 2019
Second Sunday In Lent
Dr. Kurt Borows
Pastor, Resurrection Lutheran Church, Catawba Island, Port Clinton, Ohio
Was Blind, But Now I See
WAS BLIND, BUT NOW I SEE
Text -- JOHN 9:1--41
GRACE BE UNTO YOU AND PEACE FROM GOD THE FATHER AND FROM OUR LORD AND SAVIOUR … JESUS THE CHRIST.
"Just as I am, without one plea,
but that Thy Blood was shed for me,
and that Thou bidd'st me come to Thee,
O Lamb of God, I come, I come.”
Last Sunday, that beloved hymn sprung to life as we saw Jesus bring living water and new temporal and eternal life to a woman scorned by every member of her society – and we remembered how we ourselves received that living water of Holy Baptism which only Jesus Christ can give -- and thereafter have been regularly strengthened by His Body and His Blood whenever we commune together with Jesus.
In our text this morning, we see Jesus bring His living water of healing to remind us and a man born blind of God’s amazing Grace.
"We once worshiped the sun.
Now we look to God for all things."
On a Sabbath day in October, Jesus and His disciples came to the Temple to celebrate Judea's most joyous, hope-filled festival -- the Succoth Festival.
Each of the eight Succoth mornings, as the people rose from their few hours of sleep in their succoth tents, they gathered west of the Mount of Olives to watch the sun rise -- something like our own Easter sunrise services. As the sun rose, the sound of the shofar horn echoed from the temple and the people shouted, "We once worshiped the sun. Now we look to God for all things." The people celebrated the Life and the Enlightenment only God Himself can and does give.
"Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
Beneath the huge steps leading into the Temple complex, Jesus and His disciples were greeted by a sight which contrasted dramatically with the joy and hope so evident in the Succoth celebration of Life and Enlightenment. They saw a man blind from birth.
The disciples asked Jesus, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” There must be a reason why a seemingly innocent person suffers.
Jesus answered, "It was not that this man sinned, or his parents.” God lovingly created a world that was perfect in every way - a world in which every human being was perfect spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and physically - a world in which everyone lived in perfect harmony with God and within themselves and even with their environment.
Through Adam and Eve, sin came into the world and with sin came death. The wages of sin is death (ROMANS 6:23a). With death comes its unavoidable companions - illness, injury, fatigue, stress, tension - and a man blind from birth. In the perfect world God created, none of this existed. In our world of fallen humanity, we all suffer together.
But as Jesus points out, God is not balancing the books here and now -- so much adversity for so much sin. This man's blindness is not directly related to any specific sin committed by this man or his parents.
But Jesus says that this man's suffering is about to be put to good purpose by God. An ironic intrusion on the day's joy and hopefulness was about to became the day's most dramatic Sign of Hope and Enlightenment. Jesus said “I must work the works of Him Who sent Me, while it is day; night comes, when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am The Light of the world." While visibly in the world, with the same power Jesus uses to heal physical blindness, Jesus' suffering and death on the cross will pay the price for our sin and alienation from God. His forgiveness will wash away our sins and guilt and His resurrection will assure us of eternal life with Him.
As He spoke, Jesus spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle and anointed the man's eyes with the clay, saying to him, "Go, wash in the Pool of Siloam."
Jesus put mud on a blind man's eyes and sent him to wash in the Pool of Siloam which was playing a dramatic symbolic role in the Succoth Festival. From the pool, the priests led the people with their pitchers of water up to the temple where the water was poured onto the altar to celebrate God’s gift of water and ability to make even the desert bloom.
The blind man went and washed in the Pool of Siloam as Jesus had commanded and he came back seeing. It was an act of faith when this blind man obeyed Jesus' instructions. It was an act of Divine Power and Love when Jesus enabled him, for the first time in his life, to see. Jesus turned on the lights for a man who physically had been in the dark all his life.
But there was a far greater miracle taking place than the healing of a man physically blind from birth. With this sign, Jesus revealed far more of Himself than as a physical miracle worker. Jesus asked the man, "Do you believe in The Son of Man?" – the Name everyone knew referred to The Christ – and only to The Christ.
The man answered, "And Who is He, Sir, that I may believe in Him?" Jesus said to him, "You have seen Him, and It is He Who speaks to you." The man said, "Lord, I believe"; and fell down and worshiped Jesus.
Jesus Who gave the blind man a view of the physical world which he had previously only imagined came to give all of us a view of life as God created us to live it. God came as The vulnerable flesh and blood Christ, walked the earth, healed and helped, suffered and died, was buried and rose -- for no other reason than to enlighten us about the Love and faithful life-giving Power of God and to bring us back into eternal communion with God.
"We once worshiped the sun.
Now we look to God for all things."
As the Succoth pilgrims watched the sun rise over the Mount of Olives and declared, "We once worshiped the sun. Now we look to God for all things", The true Light of the world was in the Temple area bringing the light of physical sight to a man blind from birth and reminding a formerly physically blind man, The Lord’s first disciples and us of the greater miracle of His amazing Grace.
"Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound,
that saves a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found;
was blind, but now I see."
THE PEACE OF GOD WHICH PASSES ALL HUMAN UNDERSTANDING KEEP YOUR HEARTS AND YOUR MINDS IN CHRIST JESUS … THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD … AND OUR LIFE NOW AND ETERNALLY. AMEN.
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Third Sunday In Lent
March 24, 2019
Dr. Kurt Borows
Pastor, Resurrection Lutheran Church, Catawba Island, Port Clinton, Ohio
Who is the Real High Priest?
“Who Is The Real High Priest?”
Text - JOHN 2:13—22
GRACE BE UNTO YOU AND PEACE FROM GOD THE FATHER AND FROM OUR CRUCIFIED AND RISEN LORD AND SAVIOR – JESUS THE CHRIST.
On this First Sunday of the Season of Lent we see Jesus and His disciples joining the people of Capernaum on a pilgrimage. As their journey ends, we discover Who The Real High Priest is and to Whom does God’s Church belong?
Passover - the most important holy days - of the Judeans was at hand and Jesus went up to Jerusalem – beginning with an inspiring walk from Capernaum to the east side of the Mount of Olives with His neighbors. Traveling together in groups, they sang Psalms befitting the season, spoke of dreams being fulfilled by their pilgrimage to Jerusalem and asked questions of the Rabbi. At the top of the Mount, they drank in the splendor of the temple across the valley.
Jesus, His disciples and neighbors went down the west slope and across the Kidron Valley moving ever closer to the huge stone steps that would take them to the portico entrances. And there the mood that had been so spiritual and uplifting changed abruptly.
Appearing more like entrances to a Cleveland Indians game than the entryway to the holiest spot on earth, their path was cluttered with merchants at makeshift tables or carrying their wares in baskets - miniature temple models as reminders of this visit to the holy city – prayer shawls with temple labels – the newest spices and incense for sale in Jerusalem before becoming available elsewhere. Today we would call it a tourist trap. It was.
Lining the valley, there was a score of pagan temples offering miracle cures for all manner of illnesses to pilgrims willing to test a little pagan remedy for their ills making the proper contribution.
In the temple, Jesus found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the money-changers at their business. There was wall to wall livestock for sale. All purchases had to be paid with temple currency and the temple agents at their tables set the exchange rate for each of the world’s currencies and their commission as well.
The sellers of souvenirs, prayer shawls and spices were by law restricted to the valley below and the pagan miracle cure priests were in their own temples nearby – all replaced by the temple officials’ cadre of merchants and money changers. It was the sounds, the smells and the refuse of a farmer’s livestock sale in the narthex of a cathedral in the midst of moneychangers seeking their piece of the action. Animal smells permeated the air and the noise level in the portico was deafening. What Jesus saw and heard in God’s magnificent temple broke His heart.
And making a whip of cords, Jesus drove them all, with sheep and oxen, out of the temple, and He poured out the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables.
Jesus took the cords being used to tether the larger animals and braided them into a whip with which He herded the livestock out of the porticoes. Then He threw over the tables of the money-changers – scattering the coins in every direction. And He told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; You shall not make My Father’s House a house of trade.”
In the magnificent temple built to be the holiest place on earth, the sound God sought to hear was the sound of His Word being proclaimed, of Psalms and hymns being sung, of praise and thanksgiving in prayers and creeds. The fragrance God most cherishes is the incense of prayer. The sight God cherishes is the joyful expression on the faces of people celebrating the wonderful relationship God has given each of us.
The temple merchants challenged Jesus, “What sign do You have for doing this?” How do you claim this Moral Authority? We are part of the organization that runs this place and are authorized to conduct this business by the high priest himself – by the CEO of the temple. Who are You to interfere in our work?
Jesus attacked an obvious abuse in the practices of temple leaders – but Jesus – in His words and actions – is talking about something as basic as “Who does the temple belong to? What is The Church?”
“Destroy This Temple, and in three days I will raise It up.”
Jesus answered them, “Destroy This Temple, and in three days I will raise It up.” The Judeans then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?” Jesus knew the temple authorities did not understand – they rarely did.
A temple is “a place that is occupied by God where people worship Him”. That certainly would include the Jerusalem temple and other modern and ancient edifices throughout the world. And certainly the body of every believer in Jesus Christ is “a place that is occupied by God where people worship Him”. The ultimate Temple - the One Jesus was speaking of - is Jesus Christ Himself.
God is everywhere – no place could possibly exist without the Presence of God – but nowhere is the Presence of God more meaningful to our own relationship with God than in Jesus Christ – God as The vulnerable flesh and blood Christ is the ultimate place occupied by God. Jesus is God’s Ultimate Temple.
Jesus said, “Destroy This Temple, and in three days I will raise It Up.” On the cross as The Lamb of God, Jesus is The Perfect Sacrifice for our sins and alienation from God. As Jesus breathed His last, the veil between the Holy and the Holy of Holies where only the high priest could enter and only on the Day of Atonement was ripped open from the top down. On the cross, Jesus is The Ultimate High Priest offering the only Possible Sacrifice for our Salvation.
When therefore Jesus was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this and they believed The Scripture and The Word Jesus had spoken.
At no time in my half a century as a Christian pastor have I seen groups like the ones today that seek – and too often receive – the endorsement of Christ’s Church for their own sinful behavior. “Tourist trap” theologies seeking converts by promoting sinful and faithless lifestyles - regardless of what God’s Word says - offer no salvation. Truth cannot be traded for politically correct falsehood.
On the cross, all of the world’s evil was unleashed upon The Christ, The Son of The Living God and The Temple of His Body was destroyed – but in three days Jesus rose from the dead and raised The Temple that is His Body with the proclamation of Victory for us all. In 70A.D. the temple in Jerusalem was totally destroyed and the high priest and other temple priests were no more and the ritual sacrifices were no more. Jesus The Ultimate High Priest had offered Himself as God’s Perfect Sacrifice. No other is needed or ever will be.
THE PEACE OF GOD WHICH PASSES ALL HUMAN UNDERSTANDING KEEP YOUR HEARTS AND YOUR MINDS IN CHRIST JESUS – OUR CRUCIFIED AND RISEN LORD AND SAVIOR. AMEN.
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First Sunday In Lent
March 10, 2019
Dr. Kurt Borows
Pastor, Resurrection Lutheran Church, Catawba Island, Port Clinton, Ohio