The Hour Has Come

The Hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. For He glorifies the Father by His death, and the Father glorifies Him in His Resurrection.

Would you see Him in this way, according to the Glory of His Cross, and know Him and love Him and understand these things?

Then come up to worship at His Feast; for His Passover is at hand.

Go out to meet Him, as He comes into His holy city, and follow Him to the Cross. Hail Him as your true King, your Lord and God and Savior, and call upon His holy Name.

Would you worship Him and serve Him? It is meet and right that you should. But you cannot make a supper for Him, nor does He need your money. The poor you have with you always; therefore, help them and feed them, as you can.

And, so also, as for you, recline at the Table with Jesus, that He may serve you and feed you; that He may fill up your poverty with His wealth. For He has raised you from the dead, He has called you to and from the tomb, through the waters of your Baptism: Out of sin and death into forgiveness and life; out of darkness into light.

You are His disciple; if you would understand these things, learn from Him. Follow in His footsteps. And do not be dismayed, though all may seek to kill you for the sake of Jesus’ Name.

It is a dangerous business to be raised from the dead by Jesus, and to eat and drink with Him at His Table. Envy and jealousy, fear and anger, pride and desperation, greed and paranoia, all rear their ugly heads against you, from within and without. Though you live, yet shall you die, or so it seems, because of Jesus.

But learn to bear His Cross in the light of His Resurrection. The Father shall raise you from death, vindicate and glorify you. Your confidence and boast before both God and man are the same as Christ’s, for His Righteousness and His Resurrection are yours, by His grace.

Nothing at all can hurt you forever, nor can anything destroy you, in Christ Jesus.

Those who recline at His Table with Him are those who have died, whose life is hidden with Christ in God; whom He has raised from the dead, and He shall raise again in Glory. For by His Voice of the Gospel He calls you by name out of the tomb into the life everlasting.

The sweet perfume of His costly sacrifice fills this house where you are gathered with His Peace, and rises like incense with your prayers to Our Father in heaven, who remembers you forever and always, and hears and answers in Love.

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