Quinguagesima Sunday, March 2, 2025

Quinguagesima Sunday, March 2, 2025

Jesus announces that God will have his way with his Son. This God… this Father… this God who hides himself takes hold of Satan and wears him as a mask. This God, using Satan as his tool… using the hands of sinful men… using the crowd as it believes Satan’s lies… this God has his way with Jesus. Jesus is flogged. Jesus is crucified. Jesus is raised from the dead. This is Jesus’ passion: he suffers the will of God to be done unto him. The twelve stand there listening uncomprehendingly to his words. They did not get it. You, too, suffer the will of God to be done unto you. God will have his way with you. It will be the passion of your Christian life. You, like Jesus, will have a flogging, being whipped from one thing to another. You, like Jesus, will have a cross to bear, not one of your own choosing but one that is inflicted upon you. You, like Jesus, will suffer your own peculiar crucifixion, your death, and go down to the dust like him. You, like Jesus, will be raised from the dead, called forth from the dust. This is the passion of your Christian life. Like those twelve standing before Jesus looking at him with the blank stares of incomprehension, you, too, stare. To use one of Luther’s favorite idioms, “You stare like a cow looking at a new gate.” Pray that the Holy Spirit drives you through it.

Prayers from those who need the Holy Spirit’s driving lest they merely stand and stare…

Father in heaven, have your way with me that I would suffer your will to be done upon me. Drive me, Holy Spirit, through the gate into eternal life.

Father in heaven, have your way with me that I would be conformed to the image of your Son in both life and in death. Drive me, Holy Spirit, through the gate into eternal life.

Father in heaven, have your way with me that, like my Lord Jesus, I would be humble beneath your work upon me. Drive me, Holy Spirit, through the gate into eternal life.

Father in heaven, have your way with me so that I would be useful to my neighbors and forgive their sin that you might have your way with them as well. Drive me, Holy Spirit, through the gate into eternal life.

Father in heaven, have your way with me so that I would be content with my duties in family, congregation, community, and nation. Drive me, Holy Spirit, through the gate into eternal life.

Father in heaven, have your way with me that I would look to the Institute of Lutheran Theology for the provision of a preacher who is duty bound to forgive my sin in the name of Christ. Drive me, Holy Spirit, through the gate into eternal life.