Easter: 1. (English) Eostre Spring Goddess whom they made sacrifices to. 2. Germanic for vernal equinox the springtime when the Sun is lined up with the equator and day and night are of equal times. 3. (Hebrew) pesech and (Greek) pascha the word for Passover the time after 14 nisan the celibration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Note: Nison is the 7th month of the civil calendar, and the first month of the ecclesiastical Jewish Calendar.
“Come, Lord Jesus!”
Revelation 22:1–6, 12–20 6And he said to me, “These words are trustworthy and true. And the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent his angel to show his servants what must soon take place.”
12Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay everyone for what he has done.
13I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”
Revelation 22:20 20He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!
This is the last Sunday of the celebration of the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The last Sunday of Easter. We now wait for the second coming of Jesus Christ, but the question is what are the motif, design, and image of our waiting.
Christ says He is coming soon with His recompense, His reward or His repayment for all that we have done. What then have we done?
C Most merciful God, we confess that we are by nature sinful and unclean. We have sinned against God in thought word and deed, by what we have done and by what we have not done. We have not loved You with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. We justly deserve your present and eternal punishment. (From Devine Service Setting One)
Do we deserve the reward or should we be repaid for our deeds or lack of deeds? We confess every Sunday the image that we portray everyday of our lives, but do those words get caught in our throats, and linger in our hearts as we speak them. After all, we are confessing that we are by nature sinful and unclean. As the book of Leviticus says if you have sinned you are unclean.
Revelation 22:14–15 14Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates. 15Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.
This is the image of our robe, this is what we confess to whether we think we do or not, that we deserve repayment for our actions. There is no reward for doing what is right in the eyes of mankind yet wrong in the eyes of God. The truth is that we are all sinners and all deserve to be repaid for our sins, and the payment is eternal death.
Our robe is dirty with our soiled image of sin, but Christ came to wash it clean through His blood. We celebrate from Ash Wednesday to the Ascension of our Lord the journey our sins forced Jesus to take to the cross. Let’s remember the journey Christ took was also forced through the love of God for us.
We celebrate the nails driven into the hands and feet of our Lord, God the Son. We then celebrate His death as He gave up His life for our sins and as He cries out the words, “Forgive them Father for they know not what they do”. And we celebrate our Lord Jesus Christ buried in the Tomb, the very picture of our death imprisoned and inescapable.
Then we celebrate what Jesus Christ willingly did for all of us and for love of His Father, and His and our Father’s love for all of us. Then we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who came back from the dead defeating death, the punishment we all deserve. Then we celebrate the Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ as He ascends to be with His and our Father in Heaven. And, then… We celebrate the coming of our Lord who does not come to repay us for our sins but to reward us for the forgiveness that He Himself paid for with His own body and blood, washing our soiled robe to be white as His own. We celebrate the life of eternal relationship with our Lord Christ Jesus through eternal life given to us from a God who loves us dearly.
John172:25–26 25O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. 26I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
Come Lord Jesus, be our Guest, and let these gifts to us be blessed. Amen.
Written by: Pastor Curtis A. May
Let us go forth in the Peace of our Lord and Serve the Lord who loved us first.
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