Christ Lutheran Church
Cleveland, Ohio
April 6, 2025
by: Rev. Dean Kavouras
Lent 5C
That I might know him and the power of his resurrection, and the communion of his sufferings, and be conformed to his death that by any means possible I might attain to the resurrection of the dead. (Philippians 3:10-11 ESV)
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The worm is slowly turning. The night is almost over, and the Day at hand. And so let us throw off the works of darkness and put on the armor of Light, which is Christ.
On this the Fifth Sunday of Lent there is still judgment in the air with today’s appointed gospel. In it the Lord makes clear to both Old Testament and New Testament church alike that: faith without works is dead. In St. Matthew where He says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” The keepers of the Lord’s Vineyard were big on talk, but it ended there.
That must not be the case with us, O Christians! Keepers of Real Vineyard. Lovers of Jesus who IS the true Vine, and we the branches.
We must give our God his due as the owner of the Vineyard, the LORD of the church. And that due is: the fruit of the Spirit: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
And this is what we learned anew this Lent so far and will learn in spades during Holy Week as we learn to die with Christ, bury the flesh with Christ, and rise to newness of life on Easter.
Yes, the worm is slowly turning. While today’s gospel is still somber, all the other the Propers for the day (which includes the Psalm, the Readings, the Introit, Collect and Gradual) fill the church’s mouth with gladness – so that those who sow in tears, will reap with shouts of joy.
And so let us hear the magnificence of the 5th Sunday in Lent, as the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ descends upon us. First the Introit coming from Psalm 3.
Salvation comes from (belongs to) the Lord;
your blessing be on your people!
But you, O Lord, are a shield about me,
my glory, and the lifter of my head.
I cried aloud to the Lord,
and he answered me from his holy hill.
I lay down and slept;
I woke again, for the Lord sustained me.
I will not be afraid of many thousands of people
who have set themselves against me all around.
Next the Collect, also full of grace: “Almighty God, by Your great goodness mercifully look upon Your people that we may be governed and preserved evermore in body and soul.”
Next the Gradual which comes between the Old Testament and Epistle reading: “O come, let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Be sure to know, O Christians, that when the Celebrant in the Liturgy of the Hebrews says: “Fix your eyes on Jesus,” he is not speaking imaginarily. But rather asking his congregation to do what we do today. Fix our eyes upon the crucifix which empowers the altar, and the altar from which the benefits of the Cross, life and salvation, are given to all repentant sinners.s
Now let us consider today’s Old Testament lesson in which we find a double treasure. First we hear the handsome promises of salvation made to a enslaved and dejected people. People who lost everything they ever knew and ever had. Their enemy, the Babylonian army, came into Judah and flattened Judah flatter than a pancake. They killed everyone in sight, raped the women, trafficked the children and sent those remaining on a 500 mile death march to Babylon where they could cause the Babylonians no more trouble. It is into this scenario that the LORD says to his people, by His prophet, that he will utterly destroy their captors. He will extinguish them like a wick, and put them into a deep sleep from which they will never wake up again.
That’s the story. But the glory of the story is that the travails here described are yet 150 years in the future! The LORD who knows all things, and Isaiah with the eagle eye of a Prophet, sees these things coming. But not only did the LORD tell them about the future travail. He also prepared the promises of salvation long before they were ever needed. This was an act of Divine Mercy. He prepared a liturgy for His people to pray a century and a half before it was ever needed; so that when the time came they would be fortified. And though they understood the concept Isaiah spoke of, they would only realize its power when their feet were in the fire. There, even there, they would find consolation in the depths of sorrow.
Our God does the same for us. First He baptizes us into Christ. Then he makes promises that his grace and favor and power and love will see us through our whole life – come what may – and finally deliver us, and return us home to the bosom of Abraham: which is Bible speak for the Heart of God. For Heaven! Where there are pleasures forevermore.
Today’s epistle is also a gem among gems. In it Saint Paul makes his own confession of faith in Christ. This great, powerful and influential man counts everything he had ever known, or gained, or treasured in his entire life – and it was a great, great deal! He counts it all as rubbish! “Scubalon” in Greek. Which means the contents of the outhouse He says:
“But whatever gain I had I count as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, without question I count all things as loss for the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, through whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, that I might gain Christ; and be found in him not having my own righteousness proceeding from the Law, but that righteousness which comes “through the faith of Christ” whose source is God, founded on faith! That I might know him and the power of his resurrection, and the communion of his sufferings, and be conformed to his death that by any means possible I might attain to the resurrection of the dead.”
And so as we said: the worm is slowly turning. Next week will be the Splendid celebration of Palm Sunday of which we will say more at that time. And in just 14 days the church, along with all creation, will celebrate Jesus’ victory over sin and death, which is our victory over sin and death. For all that our Lord did He did, “for us men and for our salvation.”