Holy Week (6)
  1. On this Maundy Thursday, in particular, let the “for you” of Christ’s gifts dominate.
  2. Simon carried the cross, but Jesus was carried by the cross to death.
  3. Out there the instincts to protect yourself from embarrassment, ridicule, and rejection can easily overcome you as they did Peter. Our only hope is in Peter’s Lord.
  4. Betrayed. It is a word which chills the soul and sickens the stomach. To be betrayed is to have a friend turn on you, treating you as an enemy.
  5. Passion Week preaching is not simply preaching about the events leading up to Jesus’ crucifixion but to announce to the world how through this single death, sins are answered for, and God is reconciled with humanity.
  6. Luther sees in the Lord’s Supper the most concentrated form of the Gospel[5] because in it the death of Christ is proclaimed and the benefits of that saving death are bestowed in His body and blood given us to eat and drink.