Holy Thursday
(29 March 2018)
Ex 24:3–11 or Ex 12:1–14; Ps 116:12–19; 1 Cor 10:16–17 or 1 Cor 11:23–32; Mk 14:12–26 or Jn 13:1–17, 31–35
Entrance: LSB 563 Jesus, Thy Blood and Righteousness
Of the Day: LSB 630 Now, My Tongue, the Mystery Telling
Offertory: LSB 574 Before the Throne of God Above
Distribution: LSB 617 O Lord, We Praise Thee;
LSB 445 When You Woke That Thursday Morning
Closing: LSB None
Let Us Love One Another, as Christ Has Loved Us and Loves Us to the End
“The Lord’s Passover” (Ex. 12:11) and “the blood of the covenant” at Mount Sinai (Ex. 24:8) are preeminent types of the Lord’s Supper. The blood of Christ, the Lamb of God, now covers us, and we keep His Supper “as a feast to the Lord” (Ex. 12:13–14). In Him, we see “the God of Israel” (Ex. 24:10), and yet He does not lay His hand on us to punish us. As disciples of Jesus, we recline at the table with Him to eat and drink in peace (Mark 14:18). The apostles, who received the New Testament in His blood “on the night when he was betrayed,” delivered the same to His Church, which we also now receive in remembrance of Him (1 Cor. 11:23–26; Mark 14:22–25). So He has “loved his own who were in the world,” and He loves us “to the end” (John 13:1). As He thus feeds us in love, let us love one another, just as He has loved us (John 13:34). For “we who are many are one body” because “we all partake of the one bread,” which is the body of Christ (1 Cor. 10:17).
Good Friday
(30 March 2018)
Isaiah 52:13—53:12; Ps. 22:1-31 or 31:1-24; Hebrews 4:14–16; 5:7–9; John 18:1—19:42 or John 19:17–30
Entrance: LSB None
Of the Day: LSB 454 Sing, My Tongue, the Glorious Battle
Distribution: LSB None
Closing: LSB None
Behold the Lamb of God, Who Takes Away the Sin of the World
Jesus, the Lamb of God, is led to the slaughter of His cross as the Sacrifice of Atonement for the sin of the world. “Despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief” (Is. 53:3), He is the righteous Servant who justifies many by His innocent suffering and death. He bears our griefs and sorrows; He is wounded for our transgressions; He is crushed for our iniquities; He suffers our chastisement; “and with his wounds we are healed” (Is. 53:4–5). As the Son of God, He fulfills the Law for us in human flesh, and so fulfills the Scriptures (John 19:7, 24). In perfect faith and faithfulness, He shares all our weaknesses and temptations, “yet without sin” (Heb. 4:15). As our merciful High Priest, He brings us to the Father in peace, “makes intercession for the transgressors” (Is. 53:12) and joins our prayers to His own, so that we are heard “because of his reverence” (Heb. 5:7). From His cross, He gives us His Spirit (John 19:30), washes us with water from His side and covers us with His blood (John 19:34).
Easter Sunrise
(01 April 2018)
Exodus 15:1–11; Ps. 118:15–29; 1 Corinthians 5:6b–8; John 20:1–18
Of the Day: LSB 467 Awake My Heart with Gladness
The Risen Lord Jesus Is Our Strength and Our Song, for He Has Become Our Salvation
O come, let us “sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously” (Ex. 15:1). By His cross, He has shattered the enemy, crushing sin and death beneath His feet; and in His resurrection, He has brought us out of Egypt into the freedom of the Gospel. He has called us out of darkness into light, and led us from confusion, fear and weeping into the joy and gladness of His resurrection. He is our strength and our song, and He has become our salvation (Ex. 15:2). Thus do we hear and respond to His voice of the Gospel, as He calls each of us by name. We enter His tomb by our Baptism into His death, and just as surely as He has risen, so we also “must rise from the dead” (John 20:9). “Let us therefore celebrate the festival” (1 Cor. 5:8), not in the revelry of self-indulgence, nor in the debauchery of lust, but in sincere faith and genuine love. For “Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed” (1 Cor. 5:7). He has thereby set us free from sin and death, and now He feeds us with Himself unto life everlasting.
Easter Sunday
(01 April 2018)
Isaiah 25:6–9; Ps. 16:1-11; 1 Corinthians 15:1–11; Mark 16:1–8
Entrance: LSB 457 Jesus Christ Is Risen Today
Of the Day: LSB 458 Christ Jesus Lay in Death’s Strong Bands
Offertory: LSB 459/460 Christ Is Arisen/Christians, to the Paschal Victim (Victimae Paschali)
Distribution: LSB 467 Awake, My Heart, with Gladness;
LSB 474 Alleluia! Jesus Is Risen;
LSB 633 At the Lamb’s High Feast We Sing
Closing: LSB 462 All the Earth with Joy Is Sounding
The Risen Christ Has Swallowed Up Death Forever!
The entire fallen world is veiled in a funeral shroud “that is spread over all nations” and “cast over all peoples” (Is. 25:7). But the Lord of hosts, in the Person of the incarnate Son, Jesus Christ, has removed that terrible pall and swallowed up death forever. By submitting Himself to death, He burst it apart from the inside out. Now He wipes away all tears from our faces, and He invites us to “be glad and rejoice in his salvation” (Is. 25:9). His body and His blood, crucified and risen, are given and poured out for us as a feast “of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined” (Is. 25:6). We enter that feast through Holy Baptism, whereby our old man is buried with Jesus Christ, and we are raised up in Him, “dressed in a white robe” of His perfect righteousness (Mark 16:5). What St. Paul and the other apostles received “by the grace of God” is also “delivered to you” by the preaching of Christ, “in which you stand, and by which you are being saved” (1 Cor. 15:1–11).
Easter Evening/Monday
(01/02 April 2018)
Exodus 15:1–18 or Daniel 12:1–3; Ps. 100; Acts 10:34–43 or 1 Corinthians 5:6b–8; Luke 24:13–35, 36–49
Of the Day: LSB 463 Christ the Lord is Risen Today
The Passover Lamb of God Is Known in the Breaking of the Bread
The celebration of Easter is a never-ending feast, because “Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed” (1 Cor. 5:7). “Let us therefore celebrate the festival” (1 Cor. 5:8), and let us “sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously” (Ex. 15:1). He is our strength and our song because He has become our salvation. “They put him to death by hanging him on a tree, but God raised him on the third day” (Acts 10:39). His chosen witnesses, “who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead” (Acts 10:41), now preach “forgiveness of sins through his name” (Acts 10:43). By this preaching, Jesus draws near and leads us to His holy abode. He opens the Scriptures to us, and He opens our minds to understand “the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:27). He opens our eyes to recognize His wounds and to know Him “in the breaking of the bread” (Luke 24:35). At His Table, He pours out the Spirit of His Father upon us, so that we shall be delivered; we shall be awakened from the dust of the earth, not to shame and everlasting contempt, but “to everlasting life” (Dan. 12:2).