April 15, 2026

Today's Reading: Exodus 24:1-18

Daily Lectionary: Exodus 24:1-18; Luke 5:1-16

“And Moses took the blood and threw it on the people and said, ‘Behold the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words.’” (Exodus 24:8)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Why talk about the blood of the covenant during Easter? That’s how the people of Israel could approach God. They were sinners, and God is holy. God cannot dwell where unholy sin is. So He instructed Moses to cover them in the blood of the covenant that their sins would be covered. And all God’s people said, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.” Amen.

The sacrifice must not have taken. Those sinners did not do all that the Lord has spoken, and they were not obedient. Neither have we. We deal with the same rebellious streak that the people of Israel did. God is still holy, and we are still sinners. God cannot dwell where unholy sin is.

So God provides the sacrifice, His Son, His only Son, whom He loved, Jesus of Nazareth.

Jesus takes the sins of our sinful, rebellious idolatry, becomes that sinful rebellious idolatry, and covers them in His blood of the New covenant poured out on the cross as the once and final sacrifice. The people of Israel received the blood, heard the words and promises of God, and, while imperfectly trusting in them, God is merciful. He forgives, He gives life, and He saves them from themselves, their enemies, death, all of it. God does it all by the blood, and proclaims in the life-giving promise of the One who would shed His blood for the sins of the whole world.

The Blood of Jesus satisfies the Law's demands, and God’s wrath dies with Jesus the crucified. Where all sin dies. God raises His Son from the dead, bearing the marks of His once for all sacrifice that all would believe and be made sons and daughters of the King who took His throne of the cross, rose from the dead, and ascended into heaven to His Father’s right hand. That His blood would be on us and all the people, and that by it we would have life in the One who died.

Christ is Risen! Alleluia!

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Sin, disturb my soul no longer: I am baptized into Christ! I have comfort even stronger: Jesus’ cleansing sacrifice. Should a guilty conscience seize me Since my Baptism did release me In a dear forgiving flood, Sprinkling me with Jesus’ blood? (LSB 594:2)

April 14, 2026

Today's Reading: 1 John 5:4-10

Daily Lectionary: Exodus 23:14-33; Luke 4:31-44

“For there are three that testify: the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree.” (1 John 5:7-8)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

What testimony is this that John writes? What testimony are the three, the Spirit, the water, and the blood, in agreement? This is not concerning manifesting faith within us, or that we accept the Lord Jesus into our hearts.

Rather it is this, “The holy Evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke, and St. Paul write: Our Lord Jesus Christ, on the night when He was betrayed, took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it and gave it to the disciples and said: “Take, eat; this is My body, which is given for you. This do in remembrance of Me.” In the same way also He took the cup after supper, and when He had given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, “Drink of it, all of you; this cup is the new testament in My blood, which is shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”

The Spirit points to the One who died, whose side poured out water and blood that brings life for all who receive them. You receive this life-giving testimony in your Baptism and are given a new identity through the washing of the water and the Word. In Baptism, you receive the Holy Spirit, who brings you who were dead to faith in the testimony concerning your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Through water and the Spirit, you are given new life and a Savior who is with you through all weakness, pain, and even death. There with you, leading you from this life, through death, to eternity.

He gives you His Body and Blood, which is given to you through His Word, and bread and wine. To strengthen and keep you all the days of your life. That’s what these three are for. Because it is not by your reason or strength that you are saved, that you have faith, or that you endure. Rather, it is by these three that unite you to the One who endured and has overcome death and the grave, and so shall you. These three testify, and these three agree. By them, you are united with your Lord Jesus now, and just as He died and rose again, so will you. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Water, blood, and Spirit crying, By their witness testifying To the One whose death-defying Life has come, with life for all. (LSB 597:1)

April 13, 2026

Today's Reading: Ezekiel 37:1-14

Daily Lectionary: Exodus 22:20-23:13; Luke 4:16-30

“Then he said to me, ‘Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.” (Ezekiel 37:4)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

We cannot imagine the horror Ezekiel felt in the valley of dry bones. God dropped Ezekiel there in that valley of despair, well past being clean among all that death. Ezekiel followed God, listened, and proclaimed the Word of God to those dry bones.

Jesus still does this today.

He takes a son of man and drops him where the church has called him to serve. Some in the valley, some on a mountain or hilltop, some in the city, suburbs, or country. Different scenery, yet as the son of man is led around, he notices all the dead, dry bones. In fact, he feels this dryness in his own bones as he dwells among them.

This son of man, horrified at the death within him and with the death witnessed around him, is led by God to care for and serve those who are at that place. These sons of men are God’s pastors and preachers, just like Ezekiel, and they listen and proclaim the Word of God to those dry bones.

“The Lord says…so I prophesied as I was commanded.” The preachers see bone to its bone, and flesh and skin come upon them. Word preached, water poured, Body and Blood given under bread and wine. Breath prophesied, and the breath came into them, and they lived.

The son of man God sent into that valley of dry bones does this work week in and week out, that God would raise these dry bones and strengthen them to stand and live according to the Word of their God, who gives them breath and life. This is the life of the church. This is your life, how God kills and makes alive. God preaches through His man called to you, and through that proclamation, through the Gospel joined to simple means, you have life and salvation. “And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it, declares the Lord.”

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Alleluia, alleluia! Oh, to breathe the Spirit’s grace! Alleluia, alleluia! Oh, to see the Father’s face!
Alleluia, alleluia! Oh, to feel the Son’s embrace! (LSB 491:4)

Today's Reading: John 20:19-31

Daily Lectionary: Exodus 20:1-24; Luke 4:1-15

“but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” (John 20:31)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

The eleven have seen the Lord. Thomas doubted, witnessed, confessed, and believed. Peace be with you, the disciples are ordained into ministry, the crucified and risen Word made flesh breathes on them the Holy Spirit. That Holy breath that gives life to God’s creation.

The ministry these eleven disciples will enter in is not about being a good person or making sure everyone goes along to get along. This ministry will deal with life and death. So Jesus breathes on them and charges them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.” Men, sent by God in His place to forgive sins. That’s the ministry these disciples would enter into.

They would not be alone. God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit would be with them and with the church. God the Father would care for them as He always has, God the Son would intercede at His right hand, and the Holy Spirit, the comforter, would proceed from the Father and the Son to point the bride, the church, to her Bridegroom, Christ Jesus. That by the marks from His hands and His side, she would be made whole to endure all the world throws at her.

Those disciples saw and bore witness, Thomas doubted, witnessed His resurrected Lord and His God, and believed. Blessed are you who have not seen and yet have believed, as our Lord says. Who have received the Holy Spirit in the waters of your Baptism, who have been united to the one whom they have pierced, with nails and spear, and are nourished with the blood that flowed from His very side and strengthened by His body, given and shed for you. For the forgiveness of sins.

Of course, Jesus did many other signs that are not written by John, but these things are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing in Him you may have life in His Name. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Almighty God, grant that we who have celebrated the Lord’s resurrection may by Your grace confess in our life and conversation that Jesus is Lord and God; through the same Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. (Collect for the Second Sunday of Easter)

Today's Reading: Introit for Easter 2 - Psalm 81:1, 7a, 10, 16b; antiphon: 1 Peter 2:2a

Daily Lectionary: Exodus 19:1-25; Hebrews 13:1-21

“I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.” (Psalm 81:10)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

“Sing aloud to God our strength; shout for joy to the God of Jacob! Raise a song; sound the tambourine, the sweet lyre with the harp. Blow the trumpet at the new moon, at the full moon, on our feast day.” For Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Asaph was a Levite, a member of David’s court. The words of this psalm open to us the scriptures, giving us certainty of who God is, what He has done, and continues to do for His people. The people of Israel are described as stubborn, as those who do not listen or submit to God. Yet God conquers their enemies, delivers them from the land of Egypt. Despite their unfaithfulness and constant idolatry, God continues to care and deliver them.

The same is true for us. We have seen all that God has done for us, and yet we still sin much and deserve nothing but God’s wrath and punishment. We cannot, by our own reason or strength, believe in Jesus Christ as our God and Lord, or even come to Him. So God becomes the doer, the rescuer, the redeemer of us His people.

God comes down, that ancient Word that gave life to all flesh, puts on human flesh. The Word made flesh comes down, begotten of His Father, born of woman, to subdue our enemies of sin, death, and the devil. He does this not with gold or silver, but with His holy and precious blood by His innocent suffering and death. What is left for us to do then? Die. That’s all we can do.

God sees our stubbornness, our stopped-up ears, our sin and brokenness, and He overcomes them. His holy Law adjusts our stiff necks, and opens our ears, it kills our sinfulness, our very broken bodies, and kills all free will and go-getter attitude we might bring to the table. All we can do in history towards God is die.

That’s exactly what God does. He comes, and He dies to the Law in our place, bearing our sin that He might raise us the dead up and declare us His holy people. There’s nothing we contribute. We die to sin, and are raised to new life. This is a daily reality we live in, that we would remember the God who brought His people out of Egypt, who fed them, and delivered them. God does the same for us. He does the redeeming, the saving, the life-giving, the absolving. We die to sin in our baptisms daily, and emerge in the daily resurrection to receive our daily bread. That we might receive the bread of life to fill us with the life that we will know fully on the Last Day. We are stubborn and unworthy, so we do all we can do is die. Yet united to our Lord and Savior Jesus, who came down, bore the cross, and rose again. We too shall rise.

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Help us to serve you evermore with hearts both pure and lowly; and may your Word, that light divine, shine on in splendor holy that we repentance show, in faith ever grow; the pow'r of sin destroy and evils that annoy. O make us faithful Christians. (LSB 647:3)

Today's Reading: 1 Corinthians 5:6-8 or 1 Corinthians 15:51-57

Daily Lectionary: Exodus 18:5-27; Hebrews 12:1-24

“The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Corinthians 15:56-57)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Behold! Jesus Christ is risen from the dead! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Paul tells of a mystery. A mystery that will unfold at the fullness of time, at the sound of the trumpet. The perishable will put on the imperishable. Your mortal body must put on immortality. On the Last Day, Christ will return and raise you and me, and all the dead, and the words of the prophet Hosea that Paul writes to them will be fulfilled.

A timeless truth, the promise Hosea proclaimed was as good as fulfilled when God spoke it to His prophet. In Jesus, that promise is fulfilled. In Jesus, death is swallowed up by His death; in Christ’s victory over the grave, death is overcome. Death’s sting is no more.

In Jesus, God’s promises are fulfilled. In Jesus, the Law of God is satisfied. Death is swallowed up forever, sin has no power over you, and the Law is silent towards you. In Jesus, the victory is won; God’s timeless truths foretold by His prophets of old, by His apostles, and to you by His preachers are true and effective for you still today.

In Holy Baptism are united to this truth, and the reality of the perishable putting on the unperishable, your mortal body puts on the immortality of Christ Jesus your Savior who you are united as baptized children of God through the water that washed you and claimed you from the sting of death, In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Nothing for you to do according to the Law, truly a mystery that is proclaimed to us by God’s mouthpieces from this time forth and forevermore. Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

“Laugh to scorn the gloomy grave And at death no longer tremble; He, the Lord, who came to save Will at last His own assemble. They will go their Lord to meet, Treading death beneath their feet.” (LSB 741:7)

Today's Reading: Job 19:23-27

Daily Lectionary: Exodus 17:1-16; Hebrews 11:1-29

“For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.” (Job 19:25)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Job endured the cross God had laid on him. That sure didn’t seem fair. Yet Job is not without hope; he knows that God has not abandoned him. Job had everything taken away from him. Lives of his children and wife, his own health, and his fortune. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness had died and left Job for dead. Yet sitting down in the midst of such darkness, Job bears his cross and knows God is with him. His God is with him, even through the worst of times, through the worst of friends, through the darkness; God is there.

Job’s words were written; they were inscribed in a book. That by reading Job’s words, you would believe that Jesus is the Christ, and that by believing in Him, you, as Job did, would have life in His Name. Job’s words—written with iron, or lead, engraved in rock, or ink engraved on paper, forever.

It is in Job’s suffering that He sees how much he has lost, and yet it is in that suffering that he makes that great confession, “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.” Job knew he was a sinner, deserving nothing. Yet, despite losing everything, he had not lost God. “And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!”

So it was for Job, and it still remains true for us today. Though we suffer and bear crosses laid on us by God, though we live in an unfair world, we are not without hope. We who deserve nothing better than Job, who no man was like, who feared God and turned away from evil cling to the God who lays the cross, and at the proper time when my skin has been destroyed we may see the God who also took on flesh, who suffered, who wept, who cried out, took up His cross and died.

The God who suffers and dies is Jesus of Nazareth, your Redeemer who rose again, and lives and reigns at the right hand of His Father. He will stand upon the earth at the last, and you who suffer, who have conquered as a baptized child of God, joined to your Redeemer, will rise, live, and serve Him in His Kingdom for all eternity. It’s not fair, yet it is glorious. Christ is risen, He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Jesus, my Redeemer, lives; Likewise I to life shall waken. He will bring me where He is; Shall my courage then be shaken? Shall I fear, or could the Head Rise and leave His members dead? (LSB 741:2)

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)