Lent Devotional - Feb 25, 2023

Hymn: “Savior, When in Dust to Thee” (LSB #419, v. 4)
By Thy deep expiring groan,
By the sad sepulchral stone,
By the vault whose dark abode
Held in vain the rising God,
O, from earth to heav’n restored,
Mighty, reascended Lord,
Bending from Thy throne on high,
Hear our penitential cry!
 
        From the resurrection of Jesus Christ we learn to view the cross properly. The resurrection does not mean we abandon the cross. Rather the resurrection of Jesus Christ shows us that the cross is vindicated. We proudly bear the image of the crucified Son of God just as Jesus still now bears the marks of those trophies.

        The cross of the Lord Jesus Christ is a taunt to all His enemies. The cross shows that all the attempts of the enemy have failed. Sin was paid. Death did its worst and lost. Satan and his reign and kingdom expired. The cross of Jesus is how He is Lord, and those who go through life will expect to look like their Lord as well. As we suffer in all of life’s sorrows, so too will we be joined with Christ in his glory. The cross of the Lord Jesus is the portal that the entire creation must go through and we join in it gladly.

        The resurrection shows us that the depth that Jesus plumbed was good for our salvation. The deep expiring groan was indeed your death. The sad sepulchral stone is the grave in which you will one day lay. Jesus has gone there ahead of you and will find you there.

        For it is in death that Jesus Christ showed just how fleeting our enemies are for Him. The dark abode of the death that all must pass through shuddered and shook when it took it in the Son of God. Its gloomy prison bars were rent asunder as it in vain carried in it the God in human flesh. Death took a body and encountered God. The rising of God from the dead restored earth to God’s presence. And now Jesus is taken there, the first-fruit of what awaits all who put their trust in this Lord Jesus.

        So now, in our sorrows, we find confidence to turn to the one who sits now in the highest heavens, but has gone through the darkest and lowest parts of earth and hell to do so. Jesus sits in heaven now, and as He promised He is with us until the end of the age. Jesus still bends down from His Throne on high, for He still seeks to find the lowly and the crushed in spirit. His Lordship brings us down with Him and then raises us up to new life.

        Jesus bends from His throne on high still today to grant you pardon, peace, and joy, especially as He comes through His Word and Sacraments. He hears your low and penitential cry.