Beloved in the Lord,
Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
It will be good to be back with you tomorrow after being gone last Sunday. As you know, we had to cancel our Midweek Service this week because of weather, so I am looking forward to resuming normal worship tomorrow as we continue our journey through this Lenten season.
And as we find ourselves now deep in the quiet solemnity of Lent, we are reminded that this season invites us into a time of quiet reflection, examining our hearts, our struggles, and our great need for the mercy of God. As we have said so many times, Lent isn’t just about giving up trivial comforts, fasting from coffee or putting away the candy or giving up television. Rather it’s a journey that confronts us with the reality of sin, sorrow, and death, and that ultimately points us to our one and only true hope.
We hear, don’t we? It’s the urgent call of the prophet Joel crying out to the people: “Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love.” (Jl. 2:13)
These words of the prophet are a comfort, precisely because they acknowledge that we often find ourselves wandering, we often find ourselves caught up in fears, overwhelmed by our grief, burdened by guilt and doubt. They remind us that none of us stands righteous before God by our own efforts or merits. Each of us, like sheep, has turned away in our own direction. (Is. 53:6) And yet, even amid the sorrow of our wandering and the weight of our sin, our faithful Shepherd searches for us.
Our Good Shepherd calls gently and patiently, urging us to return. His voice is unwavering even when we stumble and struggle to believe. He assures us that of His love and His compassion as He gently calls to us, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matt. 11:28). In these simple words, holding so much meaning, Jesus invites us not to deny our burdens, but to bring them openly to Him, to lay them at His feet, knowing that He has the strength we do not, the strength to bear all of them.
And that invitation, the invitation to bring our burdens to Him, is not offered by someone who is unfamiliar with suffering.
In these days of Lent, we remember Jesus’ own experience of sorrow. Scripture describes Him as “a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.” (Is. 53:3) As we journey towards Holy Week, we do not follow a distant God, unaware of our pain, a thought and an experience that is far from Him. Instead, we have a Savior who knows it all intimately and deeply, and bore it all for us, willingly taking it all upon Himself as He experienced the deepest suffering, rejection, and anguish, carrying our sins and sorrows to the cross.
This season profoundly and vividly reminds us of the cross. It reminds us of God’s stark yet beautiful declaration of how deep His love is and how far it will go. In the cross, we see both the seriousness of our sin and the immeasurable grace of our God. Here, sorrow and hope meet. Here, death gives way to life.
And, because of that, you can bring all of the burdens you carry today, whether deep heartaches, doubts about tomorrow, or heavy grief, to the foot of Christ’s cross. You can lay them there. For in His sacrifice, we find forgiveness, healing, and strength to face each new day.
So let’s commit in these remaining weeks of Lent to earnest prayer, asking God to search our hearts (Ps.139:23-24), clearly showing us our need for Him as He draw us ever nearer to the comfort of His holy presence. And, as we do, may we also grow in our compassion, seeing the burdens others bear and seeking ways to gently lighten their load, just as Christ has done for us. (Gal. 6:2)
Remember Lent is not an end in itself, but a path. It is a path that always leads to Easter morning. And Easter proclaims loudly and joyfully that grief and darkness do not have the final say or the last word. Christ has conquered, and in Him, we too shall overcome.
Now may the peace of the Lord that surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus even unto life everlasting.
In Him,
Pastor Wyatt
