The Word for You

We have been focusing, during this season of Lent, on living, day by day, in God’s Word. Tonight God’s Word takes concrete form.

It takes concrete form as the symbols give way to the substance.

The passover lamb that they eat is supplanted by the body and blood of the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world— given to you to eat and to drink.

Tonight the symbols in God’s Word give way to the substance.

It takes concrete form as the prophecies find their fulfillment.

God’s Word, itself, is trustworthy. You can trust it because you can trust Him. But now, even the promises take the form of actions. Starting tonight it is not “God will…,” it is now “God has....” In Genesis, He promised, “I will crush the serpent’s head.” Tonight, He steps forth to crush it.

The prophet Isaiah is so confident in the truth of God’s word that he speaks in the past tense of what God is going to do, but it is all a promise: “4  Surely he [will bear y]our griefs and [carry y]our sorrows.... 5  [He will be] pierced for [y]our transgressions; he [will be] crushed for [y]our iniquities; upon him [will be] the chastisement that [brings you] peace, and with his wounds [you will be] healed” (Isaiah 53:4-5). Tonight He goes forth to be pierced; to be wounded. He goes forth to bear your griefs; to carry your sorrows as the Lord lays on Him the iniquity of us all (Is. 53:6).

Tonight the prophecies in God’s Word find their fulfillment.

If you’ll forgive my mixed metaphors, the Word takes concrete form tonight as the stone that the builders rejected becomes the cornerstone.

It takes concrete form so that it can be given to you.

God’s is not content for you to simply hear His Word. Like the farmer in the parable of the sower— who casts the seed far and wide: in the field, on the path, on the rocks, among the thorns— God doesn’t just cast the seed of His Word into your ears, He pours it on your head; He places it on your tongue.

The passions of your sinful flesh attack you. They beat upon you like a hurricane: “sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these” (Gal. 5:19-21). They threaten to drive you further and further from the Kingdom of God, causing you and those around you incredible suffering in the process. And so God joins His Word to water and literally pours it on your head in order to drown your sinful flesh, raise you to new life, and gather you into His Kingdom.

The world persecutes you; it heaps one form of suffering upon you after another— physical illness, financial hardship, injustice, oppression, one form of suffering after the next after the next— trying to drive you to despair of the hope that you are one of God’s people, that His Kingdom has come to you. So God joins His Word to bread and wine and commands you, “Take and eat… take and drink,” so that He can place in your mouth the very body and blood that suffered and died for you and, with them, gives you His Kingdom, as well.

The devil uses all his craft and cunning to deceive and mislead you into sin, then throws your sin back in your face, mocking you: “Is this what the life of a child of God looks like? How can you pretend to be one?” So God joins His Word to the pastoral office and sends you a man to say to you, “I forgive you your sins in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen,” with the assurance that it is as sure and certain as if God, Himself, were speaking to you.

Tonight, God’s Word takes concrete form. He makes it something you can see and touch and taste and smell and hear. All so that He can give you His Word again and again and again and again— until you believe it and to sustain you in that faith until you are safely home.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.