Today's Reading: John 21:1-14

Daily Lectionary: Exodus 16:13-35; Hebrews 10:19-39

“That disciple whom Jesus loved therefore said to Peter, ‘It is the Lord!’ When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on his outer garment, for he was stripped for work, and threw himself into the sea.” (John 21:7)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

They went fishing; it was Peter’s idea. There were seven of them, and all through the night they caught nothing. As day would break, Jesus stood on the shore, though the disciples would not know Him. This man told them to cast their nets on the right side of the boat, and they obliged. What followed was a catch so numerous that they were not able to haul it in—153 fish.

John realized it first. He confessed his Lord. Peter, out of embarrassment or humility of seeing His Lord whom He denied and abandoned to the cross, hurled Himself like Jonah into the Sea of Tiberias. The other disciples bring their boat ashore, net full of fish, and as Simon Peter, son of Jonah, brings the fish to his Lord for breakfast.

This was the third time Jesus had revealed Himself to the disciples after He was raised from the dead. Peter had denied Jesus as His Lord had told him he would. Peter floundered to the Sea, bringing what came from the Sea to His Lord for their meal and the conversation that would follow. Jesus would absolve and restore Peter shortly after this meal.

None of the disciples asked, “Who are you?” They had no reason. Their Lord, who walked on water to them, calmed storms in front of them, and had worked a miraculous catch once before this was among them again. Peter throws himself into the Sea, and Jesus restores Him out of it. This is exactly what Jesus came down from heaven for: that Peter would die to his sin, die with his crucified Lord, and emerge from the waters of the Sea of Tiberias to be received by His Lord, to be absolved of His sins, and to take his place as apostle and evangelist.

The disciples see their Lord, confess their Lord, and eat with Him. Jesus, crucified, died, and was buried, stood on the shore and revealed Himself again to His disciples in this way. That just as we die to sin, thrown into the waters of our baptisms, we rise from those waters in the reality of Christ’s resurrection. Christ gives us the boat, rather the ark of His bride, the church, to keep us afloat on our baptisms. He sustains us with daily bread, nourishes us with His grace of the Gospel given through His Word joined to water, bread, and wine. That just as He has been raised from the dead, we, too, shall rise and in the reality already given in your baptisms, you will abide in His presence and rejoice with Him in eternal glory.

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Almighty God, by the glorious resurrection of Your Son, Jesus Christ, You destroyed death and brought life and immortality to light. Grant that we who have been raised with Him may abide in His presence and rejoice in the hope of eternal glory; through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. (Collect for Easter Wednesday)

Today's Reading: Luke 24:36-49

Daily Lectionary: Exodus 15:19-16:12; Hebrews 10:1-18

“As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them, and said to them, ‘Peace to you!’” (Luke 24:36)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

See Jesus. When your anxieties and doubts fill your mind. When you feel your best isn’t good enough, or you’re at your worst. When you know you’ve said hurtful things, done hurt to others, and caused yourself harm. See Jesus.

Jesus ate with tax collectors and sinners, talked with adulterers, healed the sick and the unclean, and associated with those unassociated members of society. Jesus called ordinary fishermen to be His disciples and taught them despite their unbelief and designs for the kingdom of God.

For those disciples, Jesus appeared and stood among them. What they had done had to come to mind. They abandoned Him, betrayed Him, denied Him, witnessed His death and shame before the world as He hung on the cross. Yet they see Jesus Himself, among them, and He said to them, “Peace to you!”

Then Jesus shows them His hands and His feet, inviting them to touch Him. As if a ghost stood before them to haunt them, He asks them for something to eat and ate the broiled fish they offered Him. What the women from the tomb and the men from Emmaus had said was true. He has risen!

Their master stood among them. Proclaiming peace, Absolution— they were forgiven before God and man. Then Jesus opened their minds to understand all that the scriptures had written from the Law of Moses, the prophets, and the Psalms. Jesus, the crucified, fulfilled them; Jesus, the resurrected, fulfilled and proclaimed this to them, and now they, His preachers, would go and proclaim this truth to you. That you would know in your darkness, your suffering, your time of death, God is with you. See Jesus in His Word, in your Baptism, in bread and wine. These are where He comes to you, stands among you, and through your pastor proclaims, “Peace to you!” before God and man.

Christ is risen indeed, Alleluia! He sees you, is with you, and has secured peace for you, and has proclaimed this to you in His Gospel promises, that trusting in Jesus, you may come at last to the Kingdom of your heavenly Father, and see Jesus.

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Almighty God, through the resurrection of Your Son You have secured peace for our troubled consciences. Grant us this peace evermore that trusting in the merit of Your Son we may come at last to the perfect peace of heaven; through the same Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. (Collect for Easter Tuesday)

Today's Reading: Luke 24:13-35
Daily Lectionary: Exodus 15:1-18; Hebrews 9:1-28

“And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.” (Luke 24:27)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

One can only imagine the smile Jesus might have hidden from the two men on the Emmaus road as He asked them “what things” had occurred in Jerusalem. The two men were shocked. This stranger walking with them had to be the only man who had not seen, not even heard of, the events that had happened in Jerusalem in those days.

So the men tell Him. Hiding that smile, Jesus speaks as only He can. “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” These men, who had been in the company of the astonished women, had no answer. Dead men tell no tales. Jesus of Nazareth showed promise, but in the end, He died.

Yet it is for fools like them, for fools such as us, that Christ comes. The women did not see Him, yet they proclaimed what their eyes did see, and what their ears heard from the lips of their angel preacher. The men did see, yet they did not yet believe what their ears heard from the lips of their hidden Lord.

So Jesus teaches them, opening all the Scriptures and things concerning Himself. Jesus of Nazareth, Son of God and Son of Mary, proclaims the promise of God’s mighty deeds of old fulfilled in the promise of God’s anointed one who would come, suffer, and on the third day rise.

Yet these men still did not know who was among them. Who walked with them. So Jesus finally, perhaps, lets that smile slip a bit. “So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He acted as if he were going farther…” On the night He was with those whose minds would confess their unbelief, their wonder of this man, Jesus breaks bread with them. More than that, though, He opens the scriptures to them, gives them the words of Gospel promise concerning Himself, and breaks bread and gave it to the men as He did on the night in which He was betrayed.

Jesus had revealed Himself by the breaking of the bread. This would be how the Gospel would go out, from the preachers Jesus would send to His church, to teach the scriptures concerning Himself, to preach the Gospel that opens our eyes and makes us alive, and to strengthen and sustain us in the breaking of the bread, His very body for us to eat, and His true and precious Blood for us to drink. Given and shed for you. For the forgiveness of sins.

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

O God, in the paschal feast You restore all creation. Continue to send Your heavenly gifts upon Your people that they may walk in perfect freedom and receive eternal life; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. (Collect for Easter Evening/Easter Monday)

Today's Reading: Mark 16:1-8

Daily Lectionary: Exodus 14:10-31; Hebrews 7:23-8:13

“And he said to them, ‘Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him.” (Mark 16:6)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

The Sabbath was past, and it was time to do everything as it should be according to their customs. The women bought spices to anoint the body of Jesus for his burial. They were willing to go where He had lain for three days; they were willing to make themselves unclean according to the Law of Moses to anoint their Lord’s body.

Like so many other times in Mark’s Gospel, God emphatically intervenes. Three women had no chance of rolling away the stone blocking Jesus' tomb. They were as curious as to how they would roll the stone away as they were to see an open tomb at their tomb. No more would everything be as it should be according to their customs, according to the Law of Moses.

God emphatically proclaims the Gospel through the white robed young preacher. God’s anointed Jesus of Nazareth, whom they cared for; He is risen! He is not in the tomb. The messenger of God, the angel appearing as a young man, proclaims the Gospel, the Good News of the empty tomb. No more will the stench of death claim you, nor will death’s sting have any power over you. No more will the Law declare you unclean. Jesus died to your sin, making them His own dying to the curse of the Law. Swallowing up death in His death, and emphatically crying out from the cross, from the empty tomb before His Father, and before these women who saw Him die, that death is no more.

No more doing everything as it should be, no more would everything be how it had been. “Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen; he is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you to Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.” As the women ran away, trembling, astonished at this proclamation. You also go from here free, astonished at what God has done.

The God who emphatically came down from heaven, taken on human flesh, ripped the heavens open at His Son’s Baptism and walked among us, died for us, and rose that we, too, shall rise. The life of Jesus is your life. God emphatically unites you to Him in your Baptism. That you would be free in Christ indeed, and go into your daily life, astonished at what God has done.

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Almighty God, through Your only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, You overcame death and opened to us the gate of everlasting life. We humbly pray that we may live before You in righteousness and purity forever; through the same Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. (Collect for the Resurrection of Our Lord)

Today's Reading: Matthew 27:57-66

Daily Lectionary: Exodus 13:17-14:9; Hebrews 7:1-22

"The next day, that is, after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate and said, ‘Sir, we remember how that impostor said, while he was still alive, ”After three days I will rise.” Therefore order the tomb to be made secure until the third day, lest his disciples go and steal him away and tell the people, “He has risen from the dead,” and the last fraud will be worse than the first.’” (Matthew 27:62-64)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Holy Saturday can be a difficult day to reflect on, because it is the in-between time where it seems the forces of evil have won, the Lord is dead, but we can still catch a glimpse of Sunday out of the corner of our eyes. We know what tomorrow brings, and we want to jump to that. But let’s sit on Holy Saturday. Holy Saturday is a day where we reflect on the victory of the powers of darkness as they gloat, celebrate, and mock. The Lord told us just yesterday that His kingdom is not of this world, so there will be many times when it appears that the world is governed only by malice and cruelty. Turning on the evening news on any given night can be a strain on any normal person’s assertion that the world is governed by an all-powerful, benevolent God. There is little we see with our eyes that convinces us of the Lordship of Jesus. In a world teeming with terror, genocide, fear, and brutality, it looks like the darkness has won.

This Holy Saturday we read about was no different. The chief priests and Pharisees think they’ve won, and all they need to seal their victory is for Jesus to stay dead. But here Matthew gives us a glimpse into the victors’ mindsets. Even while victorious, they are afraid. They remember Jesus' promise that after his death, he would rise in three days, and instead of finding hope in that promise, they find a threat. Frightened, they do everything they can to protect themselves from what they assume will be a mere mythologizing of Jesus. On the surface, it seems perfectly rational: wait three days, let everyone see Jesus was speaking nonsense, and move along as if nothing happened. As if nothing has changed. It's a logic that makes sense on Saturday, when Jesus is still cold in his grave.

Unlike the chief priests and Pharisees, however, we know the rest of the story. We know what’s coming. We know how foolish their logic will look in the daylight tomorrow. Armed with that knowledge, we can look at the Holy Saturdays in our own lives and world, where the Lord seems silent, absent, defeated, and know that the gloating will not last the morning.

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Oh perfect life of love! All, all, is finished now, All that He left His throne above To do for us below. (LSB 452:1)

Today's Reading: John 18:1-19:42

Daily Lectionary: Exodus 12:29-32; 13:1-16; Lamentations 5:1-22; Hebrews 6:1-20; Psalm 22

“Jesus answered, ’My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.’” (John 18:36)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

It is a remarkable declaration for God incarnate, whose Lordship extends into all creation, that his kingdom is not of this world. With this statement, he does not deny his kingship to Pilate; instead, he explains its character. I’m sure this was a baffling statement to Pilate, who certainly would have understood kingship through the lens of strength and power. If you had the power to prevent your capture and execution, of course, you would use it. What person wouldn’t? Jesus is telling Pilate that his capture and imprisonment aren’t a sign of the weakness of his kingship, but rather that earthly power is not the measure of his kingship. Most kings measure their power through armies, wealth, and raw power. Governments still operate this way today, forming alliances when possible and projecting strength against potential enemies. Survival is about strength. This is so deep in our psyche, such established common sense, that it is easy for Christians to even approach the church’s activity in the world this way. It is easy to imagine that the church must always build alliances to consolidate its strength, wield its power to ward off perceived enemies, and do all these things in the name of protecting Jesus.

Yet Jesus shows Pilate, and us, a better way. The Lord of all creation, who is about to lay down his life of his own accord, shows power in weakness. What is the cross but ultimate weakness? The Romans and religious authorities certainly looked at Jesus, dead on the cross, and felt they’d won a victory over this strange group of disciples. They had put an end to this folly by exercising their worldly power, leveraging it against a threatening teacher. They assumed Jesus’s kingdom was of this world, that it would perish with him, and that what they saw with their eyes was all there is. This is the only way the powers of this world can operate. They do not have eyes to see the kingdom that is not of this world; the kingdom that is powerful in weakness, that strengthens the downtrodden, that liberates the captives, gives sight to the blind, that raises the dead. This world’s kingdoms will always think they have the last word in death and destruction, unaware they’ve already been cast down from their thrones by the One who will always have the last word.

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Sing, my tongue, the glorious battle; Sing the ending of the fray. Now above the cross, the trophy, Sound the loud triumphant lay; Tell how Christ, the world’s redeemer, As a victim won the day. (LSB 454:1)

Today's Reading: John 13:1-15 (34-35)

Daily Lectionary: Exodus 12:1-28; Lamentations 4:1-22; Hebrews 5:1-14; Psalm 31

“He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, ‘Lord, do you wash my feet?’ Jesus answered him, ‘What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.’ Peter said to him, ‘You shall never wash my feet.’ Jesus answered him, ‘If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.’ Simon Peter said to him, ‘Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!’” (John 13:6-8)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Today is Holy Thursday, the day Jesus institutes the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. Yet, today’s reading comes from the only one of the four gospels that doesn’t record the institution of the Supper, instead highlighting Jesus washing the disciples’ feet. Many traditions, from Amish to Anglicans, take this so seriously that they also practice foot washing, symbolizing humility and service to one another, as part of their worship. It can be a beautiful and intimate practice, and there’s nothing wrong with emulating it; in fact, Jesus says in verse 15 that he has given us an example to follow. However, it would be easy to be so caught up in the action of foot-washing that you could miss what Jesus is trying to teach his disciples, and by extension, us, through this reading.

Jesus tells Peter that what he is doing now will be understood by them later, pointing through the veil of death to his eventual resurrection. In the light of the coming Sunday, all things will be made new, but first they must rest in the mystery of what is happening today. Jesus further elucidates to Peter that the action of washing is meant to demonstrate that only those Jesus has washed can have any share of Him. Surely, he does not mean only the twelve men in the room with him, those able to physically submit to his foot washing. No, he is pointing to a larger reality: the dirt of our sin must be, and can only be, washed by Him. We cannot wash away this sin with just plain water, but rather water that is included with God’s command and combined with God’s Word. Just as bread and wine alone will not forgive our sins, but combined with God’s Word and promise, they cleanse us. In faith, we can recognize this merciful Gift of God. Instead of responding defensively, as Peter initially does, declaring the lunacy of our Lord and Savior serving us in such a way, we can see our need for it, and joyously allow the Lord’s mercy to wash each corner of our lives. Not just our feet, but our heads and hands also.

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Now have I found consolation, Comfort in my tribulation, Balm to heal the troubled soul. God, my shield from ev’ry terror, Cleanses me from sin and error, Makes my wounded spirit whole. (LSB 620:6)

Today's Reading: Luke 22:1-23:56

Daily Lectionary: Exodus 10:21-11:10; Lamentations 3:1-66; Hebrews 4:1-16

“‘Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.’ Peter said to him, ‘Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death.’ Jesus said, ‘I tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crow this day, until you deny three times that you know me.’” (Luke 22:31-34)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Exorcism and possession are popular topics for media in our age, which seems to have moved from outright secularism to acceptance of all spiritualities. In the popular imagination, these possessions culminate in a violent and dramatic force of wills between a protagonist and a demonic entity. Fiction makes it seem as if we must either use our own strength to battle the darkness, or employ some secret knowledge, or sometimes invoke the name of Jesus, like an ancient protection spell. But this text shows us what is really going on behind the curtain of the spiritual world.

Here, Jesus directly tells Peter that Satan demanded possession of him, and instead of responding with fear, trembling, or even trust in Jesus, Peter makes a declarative statement about the strength of his own faith. Peter is certain he would never fail in his love for Jesus. He is certain about the strength of his own faith. Luke doesn’t tell us here how Peter responded to Jesus’s disclosure. I wonder if Peter argued with him? I suspect he did. Luke does tell us a few verses later that Jesus was, of course, correct in his prophecy, and Peter weeps bitterly as he understands his own betrayal in light of Christ's words. How foolish he must have felt, first to declare his certainty, then to be explicitly warned by Jesus, and yet still fall into denying him three separate times!

But Peter’s story here gives us hope. The Word of Christ will so often call us back from our own sin, our own failings, the temptations that we have fallen into, and have spent days, months, or years justifying. The realization of our deep failings, in light of Christ’s love and mercy, can feel like a deep betrayal of all we have been called to be in this world.

Yet we do not have to rely on the strength of our own faith, the purity of our love and devotion, or anything within us to keep us in the love of Christ. Rather, we can look to Him who thwarts the devil’s demands with His Word, His action, His Body and Blood for all who trust in him.

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

If my sins give me alarm And my conscience grieve me, Let Your cross my fear disarm; Peace of conscience give me. Help me see forgiveness won By Your holy passion If for me He slays His Son God must have compassion! (LSB 440:5)