READINGS FOR PASSION SUNDAY 2015
Reading 1: Mark 14:1-25
Reflection:
Anyone who wishes
to receive the Holy Sacrament
to receive the Holy Sacrament
must
offer to God Almighty
an
empty, single, and hungry soul.
Therefore
it is most fitting
when the soul is least fit,
when the soul is least fit,
which
means,
when
the soul feels altogether wretched, poor, and devoid of grace,
it
is most receptive for God’s grace
and most fitted to receive it.
and most fitted to receive it.
But
then the soul must endeavor
to
come to the Sacrament with perfect faith,
or
with all the faith possible,
and
most firmly believing that one will receive grace.
For
one receives as much as one believes will be received.
Therefore
faith alone is the best and highest preparation.
Your hungry heart must build upon these words
Your hungry heart must build upon these words
and
you must trust in the promise of the divine truth,
and
in this spirit go to the Sacrament,
imploring
God and saying,
‘Lord,
it is true that I am not worthy
that
you should come under my roof,
yet
I am needy, and eager for your help and grace,
that
I too may be made godly.
Thus I come with no plea
but
that I have heard sweet words,
namely,
that you invite me to your table.
Dear
Lord, your Word is true, I do not doubt it.
In
that faith I eat and I drink with you.
May
it be done to me according to your Will and Words. Amen.
That
is to come worthily to the Sacrament.
Reading 2: Mark 14:26-42
Merciful
Father,
why does my Lord Jesus Christ shrink
(from this agony)?
Why does the Son of God shrink?
What is his agony?
He asks that the cup
be taken from him.
be taken from him.
What kind of cup is it?
It is the bitter death upon the
cross.
But why should he suffer death?
He is without sin, he is holy and
just.
It is for the sin of the world which
God has laid upon him.
That presses upon him, and alarms
him.
And is it not true
that if God has laid my sin upon
him…
I am free and rid of my sin?
Why then should I accuse myself and
my Lord Jesus?
I am a sinner.
Alas, it is true.
Sin frightens me.
That, alas, I feel deeply
and my heart ever faints within me.
I fear before God and his severe
judgment.
And yet, of what shall I accuse
myself,
and of what shall I accuse my Lord
Christ Jesus?
There, on the Mount of Olives,
he shivers and shakes
and is in such dread and alarm
that he sweats blood.
And my intolerable sin brings him to
this,
my sin which he has taken upon
himself
and which is so hard to carry.
Therefore I will let it lie there
and confidently hope that,
whenever I come before God and his
judgment,
he will find no sin in me.
Behold! The Mount of Olives is a comfort
to you,
that you may be certain,
that Christ has taken your sin upon
himself,
and paid the price for it.
If, then, your sins are laid on
Christ,
be content.
They lie in the right place,
where they belong.
Reading 3: Mark 14:43-65
Reflection:
[Jesus,
the True High Priest]
is both priest and offering,
for he offers his body and life
upon the cross.
upon the cross.
It looks very unpriestly
that he hangs there on the cross,
stripped and naked,
bruised and covered with blood,
having a crown of thorns
pressed down upon his head.
And yet, he is the true priest and
bishop
who offers himself and out of his
great love
gives his own body to be consumed,
as through fire,
as through fire,
for the redemption of all the world.
The
old priesthood
was endowed with great splendor
was endowed with great splendor
but about this High Priest
there is no splendor.
there is no splendor.
His altar is the cross and the
gallows.
That is a shameful, ghastly, and
unusual altar.
And that is why he is in the eyes of
the world
such a mean, disdained high priest.
He has such an offensive and
dishonorable altar
and is such a sacrifice as makes
people shudder.
There,
then, we have this High Priest,
Jesus Christ, with his altar and
offering,
most shamefully treated…
And yet he carries on his shoulders
the sin of us all.
There
we lie,
you and I and all people,
from the first man Adam until the
end of the world.
Reading 4: Mark 14:66-72
Reflection:
Judas
has a heavier load on his back than Peter.
Therefore he falls into despair,
thinking there is no help or
consolation forever,
and thus, for woe and sorrow,
he went away and hanged himself,
poor man!
But why?
Because he had been slothful in
hearing the Word of God.
He despised it and never bettered
himself by it.
Thus, when he needed consolation
and had the Word no longer,
it was impossible for him to find
help.
Peter also weeps bitterly.
He is anxious and worried because of
his sins,
but he had been more diligent in
listening
to the word of his Lord Jesus
Christ,
and had engraved it on his mind.
Therefore now,
in the hour of his need,
he seizes upon it and holds fast to
it,
comforts himself with it,
and hopes that God will be gracious
to him.
That is the one true help in such a
need,
and the hapless Judas lacked it.
But that Peter held firmly
to the Word and grace of God,
the Lord himself testifies when he
says,
‘I have prayed for you, that your
faith may not fail.’
Therefore learn here what is true
repentance.
Peter weeps bitterly;
that is the beginning of repentance,
that the heart acknowledges sin and
is grieved for it,
that it has no love for it or desire
to continue in it,
but is saddened that it has not kept
God’s will
and has fallen into sin.
But we cannot do that of ourselves;
the Lord must look upon us
as he looked on Peter.
Reading 5: Mark 15:1-15
Reflection:
Thus our dear Lord Jesus Christ
suffered,
not secretly at the hands of those
who had no authority,
but publicly and at the hands of
those holding public authority,
so that we should not take offense
when we see that
both
spiritual and worldly authority are against God.
Christ
suffered, as we testify in the Christian Creed when we say,
I
believe in Jesus Christ who suffered under Pontius Pilate.
In
all ages, and still today,
Christians
and true martyrs are put to death
by
public authority, both spiritual and worldly.
No
prophet has ever been treacherously murdered,
but
they have all been put to death
by
those in true official power.
All
blood which is shed in the name of Christ
is
shed by those who are kings, princes,
judges,
or counsellors in worldly jurisdiction,
or
bishops and preachers and the like, in spiritual jurisdiction.
Prophets
die by the judgment of man.
But
what will happen when once the tide turns?
Then
will God do what will grieve them,
and
leave undone what they desire.
They
stormed against God and would not let Him remain,
although
He would have let them remain.
Because
they would not let God remain,
they
must perish.
Reading 6: Mark 15:16-39
Reflection:
He sacrifices himself on the cross,
becomes a sinner and a curse;
and yet he alone is the blessed seed
through whom all the world shall be
blessed,
that is, redeemed from sin and
death.
And that he hangs on the cross
between two malefactors,
being counted equal to them,
and that he dies there a shameful
death,
all this he does for the benefit of
the whole human race,
to redeem it from the eternal curse.
Thus he is both the greatest and the
only sinner on earth,
for he bears all the world’s sin,
and the only righteous and holy One;
for no man can be made righteous and
holy before God
save through him alone.
And whosoever believes that his sin
and the sin of the world
is laid on our dear Lord,
who was baptized and nailed to the
cross for it,
and shed his precious blood
in
order that he, the only sin-bearer,
should thus cleanse us from sin,
and make us holy and blessed,
that one receives forgiveness of
sins,
and eternal life;
and Christ’s baptism, cross and
blood
become that one’s own.
Reading 7: Mark 15:40-47
Reflection:
It
is a good ministry
that they take care of the body of
Jesus
and do not fear Pilate’s power.
They go and close the tomb:
Christ is at rest, God must work.
Thus the burial takes place.
Our Lord God approves when we honor
the dead
and do not cast them out like dogs.
For if a soul has passed away by the
Word of God,
the body must rise again;
for we do not live by bread alone,
but by every Word of God.
This is the ground of the
resurrection.
Yet we must remember that all the
women,
and even the apostles,
doubted the words of Christ,
and no one believed that he would
rise from the dead,
as the two said when they were on
the way to Emmaus.
For if they had had any hope,
they would not have embalmed him and
laid him in a grave.
And if it had been the doing of man,
God would not have been the doer of it,
and this day would not have been
called in the Scriptures ‘the great day.’
This is a much greater Article (of
the creed)
than the first, that God created
heaven and earth,
for no one can be saved unless that
one believes
that God raised Christ from the
dead.
Such faith is no human work,
but is wrought by God,
as St. Paul and the Scriptures say
in many places.
And the saying about his rule must
be fulfilled.
