MARCH MESSAGE FROM 

PASTOR RICK

A warm welcome to March 2013.  This year, Easter is early, on Sunday, March 31. We as God’s people have the blessing and benefit of, “Journeying with Jesus.”  We do this in our daily life and in the Church Year. Also, it is Jesus who journeys with us.

During the Season of Epiphany, we began by celebrating the Baptism of Jesus.  We are Baptized into Christ. His Baptism is also our Baptism. When Jesus stepped into His Baptismal waters in the Jordan, He also stepped into our Baptismal waters.  It was then that Jesus took upon Himself all our sins. So, also, it was at our Baptism, that we were cleansed of all our sins, our unbelief, which was replace by saving faith, and our eternal condemnation, replaced by eternal salvation. It was also for this reason, that the waters of the Baptism of Jesus led Him to the cross on Good Friday and to the empty tomb on Easter Sunday of Holy Week.

Holy Week begins with the Triumphant Entry of Jesus on Palm Sunday. March 24. His people celebrated as they laid down Palm Branches. They also sang, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.”  We sing these same words as we sing the “Sanctus” in the Service of the Sacrament.  We then look forward to the Triumphant King coming into our presence, and us into His, as we partake of Holy Communion, and the blessing of having our sins, and the sins committed against us, removed and washed away.

The next big Day of Holy Week is Maundy Thursday. Now we remember that God had commanded His holy people to celebrate the Passover Meal each year as a family unit.  The yearly Passover celebration was to remind the faithful of how God had delivered them from their enemies of: slavery, Pharaoh, and death, on the night their forefathers ate the first Passover lamb, and painted the lamb’s blood over the doorpost of their house. Now, we as Christians celebrate the Institution of the Lord’s Supper, which replaced the Passover Meal. As we partake of this Holy Meal, we celebrate being united to Christ as we eat of His body and drink of His blood for the forgiveness of our sins, and the sins committed against us, and our deliverance from our enemies of: sin, Satan, and death.

This leads to Good Friday. Now, we celebrate Jesus as the Great Passover Lamb. In order to deliver us from our enemies, Jesus would have to allow Himself, to be attacked by them, overcome by them, and let them kill Him.

This brings us to Easter Sunday. Our God has promised us, “that all things shall work together for our good.” (Romans 8:28)  So, Jesus is bodily resurrected from the dead. In His resurrection, all of sin, all of Satan, and all of death are conquered, defeated, and crushed. All of this, so that when we die, we shall continue our journey with Jesus, and walk with Him, through the valley of the shadow of death, and into paradise.

There are a multitude of footsteps we can walk in, in this life and world. The best of the best, are those of Jesus.

Have a great March    Pastor Brad Rick