From the Pastor’s Desk

28:18

Dear Friends in Christ,

“20:18” seems like a strange title for my Pastor’s Column this month, and yet “20:18” is the substance of my message to you. In Matthew 20:18 these words of our Lord were spoken to the disciples as they walked on the way to Jerusalem.

“See, we are going up to Jerusalem. And the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn Him to death and deliver Him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and He will be raised on the third day.” Matthew 20:18-19

There are two things that we learn from these words.

First, Jesus knew where He was going. It was the disciples that didn’t yet fully grasp it. We are also going up to Jerusalem as we enter the season of Lent. Our Lord bids us, as His disciples and followers, to see the things that He has done for us, that we, as His disciples, might live by faith in His suffering, condemnation, mocking, crucifixion, and resurrection. Even though we have been there many times before through our reading and study of His Passion, we still have much to learn. Yet this is His love, that He bids disciples who do not yet fully understand, to come and follow, to learn and see.

Second, we go on this journey so that we might be changed. Along the way we will observe the things which He went through. As we do, they will cause us grief and sorrow, and bring us to contemplation, prayer, repentance, trust, forgiveness, and renewal. It is not an easy journey, but we go also that we might learn to die and be raised also. Jesus’ life is formed in us even as what He did for us becomes our own.

How do we go up to Jerusalem? This month we go up to Jerusalem through:

• Daily Lenten devotionals that are offered for use in our homes

• A midweek sermon series at church on the book of 1 Thessalonians

• The regular Sunday services of our congregation where we receive the Holy Communion, the
fruits of His Passion for our forgiveness

• The special services of Ash Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and
Easter Sunday where we participate in Jesus’ journey to the cross and empty tomb

In this month where we begin new construction in our facility, we experience the difficult challenge of leaving our sanctuary. Yet our Lord brings us to the central things of what He endured for us and what our focus should be as a congregation: His suffering, death, and resurrection. May the Lord form His life in us, even as we live out that life in our own lives and one to another.

In Christ,

Pr. Seifferlein!