Thoughts that pull me closer to Jesus, and to the Cross… (and the altar)

29 Jesus answered, “The work God wants you to do is this: Believe the One he sent.”
30 So the people asked, “What miracle will you do? If we see a miracle, we will believe you. What will you do? 31 Our ancestors ate the manna in the desert. This is written in the Scriptures: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ”
32 Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, it was not Moses who gave you bread from heaven; it is my Father who is giving you the true bread from heaven. 33 God’s bread is the One who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”  Jn 6:29–33 NCV

Believers go from place to place,
With cares and griefs oppressed;
But when they’ve run their earthly race,
They’ll find a glorious rest.
When from the things of time they cease,
God brings them to the port of peace;
The seed is sown with hopes and fears,
But soon the precious fruit appears.

How happy when our race is o’er—
Our journey at an end;
Our spirits, bound to earth no more,
To glory shall ascend!

Clearly God had commanded the fathers concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices, but what Jeremiah is condemning is an idea of sacrifices that did not come from God, namely, that such worship pleased him ex opere operato. He adds that God had commanded faith. “Obey me,” that is, “Believe that I am your God and that this is the way I want you to know me when I show mercy and help you, for I do not need your sacrifices. Believe that I want to be God, the one who justifies and saves, because of my Word and promise, not because of works. Truly and wholeheartedly seek and expect help from me.”

We have just barely begun Holy Week, aka Basic Training for Disciples. and I am tired.  My faith, my ability to trust in and depend on God should be strengthened.

And yet the journey of this week is barely a speck in the journey we take, that Luther describes with so much passion–a journey into the glory of God, where He has the place for us,

The journey’s difficulty is compounded when we think the effort, physical, mental and spiritual, needs to be our responsibility. That we have to understand everything, sacrifice all the right things, at the right times, that we have to do this to earn the grace, to be worthy of it, otherwise it isn’t ours.

We then project these standards onto others, and except them to do what we cannot. This disappointment divides us from them, rather than unites us in a desire to journey in God’s grace together. All our sacrifices together are not enough, they cannot please God, they cannot erase our sins, and therefore they cannot sustain us during this Holy Week, anymore than the sacrifices of Jesus day meant anything–they had no power on their own, and because they weren’t done hearing God’s direction – they were meaningless.

There is one thing that isn’t worthless, the Bread of Heaven Himself. Jesus is our Bread Of Life. It is from Him we can expect help, it is from His His body and His blood that the promises of His sustaining presence are revealed. Jesus is the sacrifices that God the Father ordered, the one He finds acceptable, the one that eliminates our sin and saves us.

The Lord’s Supper is not merely some practice we do, as if we have to make it meaningful, as if we have to come suitably prepared. It is the meal for pilgrims, for those without resources, for those who need it provided for them, for us.

It is all that Jesus promises, all that He would give us, and what we need to be sustained on the journey. Not because it works on its own, but because of the promise that God gives us through it.

Thank you, Lord Jesus, for providing Your conduits of grace, found in scripture and the sacraments. Help us depend on You and the promises You pour out on us through these conduits of grace. AMEN!

Luther, Martin, and John Hunt. The Spiritual Songs of Martin Luther: From the German. Translated by Thomas Clark, Hamilton, Adams, and Co., 1853, p. 146.

“Apology of the Augsburg Confession: Article XXIV The Mass” Tappert, Theodore G., editor. The Book of Concord the Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Mühlenberg Press, 1959, p. 254.