Quinquagesima
Dear friends in Christ. Today we come to the close of the short season of pre-Lent. In it we prepared ourselves for Lent as we heard the Gospel reading of Jesus’ parable of the workers in the vineyard who were all paid the same wage, which taught us everything is by God’s grace, not by our work; we heard Jesus’ parable of the sower and were reminded that He brings us into His kingdom, the Church, by the proclamation of His holy word and were reminded to treasure the word; and today we heard Jesus announcing His upcoming suffering, death and resurrection and His healing of the blind man and His glorious words to that blind man: “Receive your sight. Your faith has saved you.”
Today we again stand at the entrance of the holy and penitential season of Lent. From the early centuries of the Church it was a time used especially to ponder Jesus’ suffering and death. Over the next few weeks, beginning Wednesday with Ash Wednesday and especially during the following Wednesday evenings, we will have Jesus’ suffering from Gethsemane to the cross before us. May none of us think that this is “old news” and something we already know it and that hearing and reflecting on it is not all that vital. That such thoughts are even found among Christians is because many—even of those regularly attending Divine Service—only seldom attend the midweek Lenten services and so rob themselves of innumerable blessings. The suffering and death of Jesus is the main part of His saving work; and, in fact, because of it the Holy Spirit through the blessed Apostle call the entire Gospel “the word of the cross” [1 Cor. 1.18]. A Christian cannot hear and consider Jesus’ suffering enough. For a blessed Lent, hear the call of Lent.
1. So what is the call of Lent? That’s what Jesus announces to His disciples in our text. Here we find out what Lent is all about. [Jesus] took the Twelve aside and said to them, “Look, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written through the prophets about the Son of Man will be accomplished. Indeed, he will be handed over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, mistreat him, spit on him, flog him, and kill him. [Notice, though, all this is in light of Easter.] On the third day, he will rise again.”
But notice the order here. [Jesus] took the Twelve aside and said to them, “Look, we are going up to Jerusalem… Jesus addresses the 12 and says we are going up to Jerusalem. For us too-- Lent is a journey we take with our Lord; we take it in fellowship with the Church, with other Christians. Jesus could very well have gone through all the events of His suffering and death and resurrection alone. But He takes the 12 with Him. Why? So they could be witnesses that yes, indeed Jesus really did endure all these things that the prophets said centuries beforehand—so yes, Jesus really is the long expected/ awaited Savior; so that they could be witnesses that Jesus really did indeed suffer and die—and this was especially vital for the apostles as they were the ones to go out and preach Jesus’ resurrection from the dead; they were eyewitnesses of Jesus death and resurrection and this is the foundation of their preaching and the preaching of the Church for 2000 years.
This Lenten season we, too, go with Jesus once again to Jerusalem and there, through the word of the holy apostles and evangelists, we again see and our faith is strengthened in the fact that Jesus is the promised Savior, that He did indeed suffer and die for my sins and the sins of all—that it was my sin that drove Him to the cross—and that He truly rose again from the dead conqueror of sin, death, devil and hell for me; He defeated my spiritual enemies. What a glorious invitation we have once again this Lent: Look, we are going up to Jerusalem.
Earlier the holy Evangelist records [9.51]: Jesus steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem. The time for Jesus to enter into the heart and core of His work had come. Although every moment of every day, beginning with His conception, Jesus was doing the work He came to do—namely, live a holy life for us to fulfill to holy Law of God—now came the time for the “next chapter,” the time He would be made the world’s sinner, all the sins of all the people ever to live would be charged to Him, and loaded down with the sins of the world—yours and mine included—He would endure the wrath and punishment of God for them. And what glorious words of our Lord: Look, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written through the prophets about the Son of Man will be accomplished. Indeed, he will be handed over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, mistreat him, spit on him, flog him, and kill him. Jesus knows exactly what is ahead of Him. Here, He just speaks about the outward things done by people but He knows what divine wrath and suffering He will endure and still He goes—or better put, precisely because He knows what is ahead of Him and what He must do for us and for our salvation He goes!
Here we see that Jesus’ suffering and death for us is voluntary; He willingly does it for us! That’s also what we see as we go with Him to Jerusalem this Lenten season. Elsewhere Jesus says [St. Jn 10.18]: No one takes [My life] from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. Not only does Jesus know all what will happen because He is the true God and so knows everything, but all this is prophesied of Jesus. And because this is prophesied about Jesus, Jesus has to go where it will happen—We are going up to Jerusalem.
As we ponder Jesus’ words here, everything that is written through the prophets about the Son of Man will be accomplished, we see another vital point. Not only is Jesus willingly carrying out the work of the salvation of the world, even as it means His suffering and death, but since it is all in accord with what the OT prophets prophesied, the Gospel of Christ is not a new doctrine. Jesus and His work, His life, suffering and death is part of God’s plan to save the world all along. The OT saints put their trust in Jesus and His saving work that He would carry out—for them in the future; and we put our trust in Jesus and His saving work that He did carry out almost 2000 years ago. There is one and the same faith in both Old Testament and in New—in the Savior, true God and true man who would suffer and die and reconcile sinners to the holy God and so rise from the dead. The Gospel of Christ is not a new teaching but one going back all the way to the very beginning.
Even though Jesus said they were going to Jerusalem so that everything the prophets wrote/ prophesied about the Savior would come to pass the disciples didn’t get it. They did not understand any of these things. What he said was hidden from them, and they did not understand what was said. They did not understand the prophecies even after being with Jesus and hearing Him preach those three years. What was the hang up? Certainly it was that the Savior would be handed over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, mistreat him, spit on him, flog him, and kill him. How could that happen to the long awaited Savior? How could that happen to Jesus? It could happen and would happen because that was the plan from the start; God announced it through the prophets. But it didn’t fit with human reasoning and reckoning? God, the Savior shouldn’t/ wouldn’t suffer so and die.
The simple fact of the matter is that there is no Christian faith, no salvation without the cross, without the suffering and death of Jesus. That’s why the call of Lent is so vital: we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is written through the prophets about the Son of Man will be accomplished. Lent places the cross central so that there is no mistaking it—there is no salvation without Jesus and His cross.
Yes, Jesus did suffer and endure all these things—he will be handed over to the Gentiles. They will mock him, mistreat him, spit on him, flog him, and kill him. And why? For us and our salvation! That Jesus was our Substitute in life—living a sinless life for us fully in accord with the Law of God—and our Substitute in death—suffering God’s wrath and punishment we earned by our sin—that’s not something we can understand or come to by our own thoughts/ thinking. That’s something God must reveal to us and teach us by His Holy Spirit. That’s why it’s vital that we heed the call of Lent and once again go with Jesus to Jerusalem and see and hear once again His saving work for us as He suffered and died for our sins. There we once again see the serious of our sin and that our sin earns us nothing but God’s wrath and condemnation. And we are driven to sorrow and repent of our sin and trust in Jesus for the forgiveness of our sin and for reconciling us to God and to open heaven to us. As we follow Jesus to Jerusalem this Lent, the Holy Spirit will teach us the way of the cross and to sorrow over our sins.
2. Right after Jesus’ announcement of His suffering, death and resurrection and the disciples’ inability to grasp it, St. Luke tells us of the blind man that Jesus healed. And here is a wonderful commentary on Jesus’ announcement of going to Jerusalem to suffer and die. As he approached Jericho, a blind man sat by the road, begging. Just like it was no coincidence that Jesus went to Jericho that day and the blind man was there, so also all of Jesus’ work including His suffering, was no coincidence. Jesus came to that man’s aid; and He came to our aid and all He did during His earthly life and ministry was to help us, was for our salvation. And the wonderful thing is that Jesus didn’t just come 2000 years ago and that was it. Instead, He continues to come to us in our sorrow and shares His goodness and mercy with us. He came to us in the waters of holy Baptism, washed away our sin and gave us the forgiveness of sin and His perfect holiness; He made us heirs of heaven. He comes to us in the word and the holy absolution giving us what we need the most—the forgiveness of sin, for we daily sin much. He comes to us in a very wonderful way in Holy Communion giving us His very body and blood, washing away our sin, uniting with us. We can be certain of His gracious presence with us in our greatest needs. That’s why for a blessed Lent we can offer our Lord Jesus our Lenten prayers for help and forgiveness, for comfort and grace. That’s what the blind man did. When he heard a crowd going by, he asked what was happening. They told him that Jesus the Nazarene was passing by. He called out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Those who were at the front of the crowd rebuked him, telling him to be quiet. But he kept calling out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”
In Lent, as we once again travel to Jerusalem with Jesus, our suffering Savior, we come to know Him once again all the more rightly as my Savior who loves me and cares for me and so we go to Him in every time of hurt and trial, loneliness and cross: “Son of David, have mercy on me!” Assured of His mercy we are bold to ask Him and what is so glorious is that He wants to hear our prayer of faith and He wants to help us: Jesus stopped and ordered the man to be brought to him. When he came near, he asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?” He said, “Lord, I want to see again.” Jesus knows what we need before we ask, but we ask so that we can learn His mercy to us in all our needs. In humble faith we receive His answer and gifts knowing in mercy and love He gives us what is best. Jesus said to him, “Receive your sight. Your faith has saved you.” Immediately he received his sight and began following Jesus, glorifying God. All the people, when they saw this, gave praise to God.
Following Lent’s call to go to Jerusalem with Jesus and coming to know Him all the more as we ponder His holy suffering and death, faith is emboldened to go to Him in prayer and always assured of His help and grace, His forgiveness and mercy—a blessed Lent indeed!