Thursday, March 24, 2016
Maundy Thursday
1 Corinthians 5:7 For indeed Christ, our Passover, was sacrificed for us.
THE LAMB
A story is told of a man traveling through a small town when he came upon a beautiful church with a steeple. To his surprise, he saw on top of that steeple a figure of a lamb. He wondered why, and was told this story: It seems that when the church was being built, a worker on top of that steeple lost his footing and fell to what seemed a certain death. But a shepherd just happened to be passing by with his flock of sheep, and the falling man just happened to land on one of the lambs. The lamb broke that worker's fall and saved his life, but the lamb died. The worker was so grateful that he climbed the steeple and placed there the figure of a lamb.
Dear reader, do we need to ask where God's Lamb is in our lives? Is He up where you and I can see and admire Him, rely on Him, thank, and serve Him every day? Or down where it's easy to forget about Him and go about business as usual each day?
Just as the Israelites applied lamb's blood to their doorposts to be rescued, so you and I desperately need to have the blood of THE LAMB applied to the doorposts of our sinful hearts and lives. That happens when we kneel at the foot of His cross and the Spirit through the word strengthens our faith in Jesus as our Savior. It happens when we contemplate what happened when we were brought to the baptismal font and God applied the blood of His Lamb to us there. It happens whenever you receive the body and blood of the Lamb shed for the forgiveness of your sins.
May God's word and sacrament keep our beloved Lamb lifted high in our hearts this Holy Week and always.
A Lamb goes uncomplaining forth,
The guilt of all men bearing;
And laden with the sins of earth,
None else the burden sharing!
(The Lutheran Hymnal, 142:1)
