Archive for April 2019
Meditation on Jesus’ Last Words from the Cross
Pastor Carl Rockrohr, Good Friday Service, April 19, Zion Lutheran Church, Ridgeville Corners, Ohio. These meditations were in three different parts during the service, I edited them so they are altogether.
Holy Week Devotion from Luther: “if one sees that Christ’s heart and will are in these sufferings, it produces real comfort, confidence and pleasure in Christ.”
Frequently Deborah and I read Luther for our morning prayers, today Luther helps us think about our Holy Week meditations.
Hebrews 10:1-7 — 1 For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near. 2 Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? 3 But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. 4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
5 Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said,
“Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired,
but a body have you prepared for me;
6 in burnt offerings and sin offerings
you have taken no pleasure.
7 Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God,
as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’”
Luther: Christ’s sufferings are understood correctly when we do not simply regard the sufferings as such, but recognize and grasp His heart and will to suffer. For if one regards His sufferings in isolation, without recognizing His heart and will therein, one will be shocked by Christ’s. sufferings rather than rejoice in them. But if one sees that Christ’s heart and will are in these sufferings, it produces real comfort, confidence and pleasure in Christ.
The psalmist praises this will of God and Christ in suffering when he says, “In the roll of the book it is written of me; I delight to do thy will, 0 my God; thy law is within my heart.” (Psalm 40.7,8.) The epistle to the Hebrews also refers to this when it says, “By that will we have been sanctified.” (Hebrews 10.10) It does not say through the suffering and blood of Christ, which is pure enough, but through the will of God and of Christ, that they were both of one will to sanctify us through Christ’s blood.
This will to suffer He also manifests in the Gospel (Matthew 16.21-23), where He proclaims beforehand that He is going up to Jerusalem to suffer Himself to be crucified. It is as though He were saying, ” Look into my heart to see that I am doing this willingly, without compulsion, and gladly, so tha you may not be shocked or dismayed thereby when you see It come to pass, and begin to think that I am doing it unwillingly, that I must do it, that I am forsaken and that the Jews are doing it by their authority. (SL.XI.526,3)
PRAYER: Thanks be to you, loving Father, for sending us such a ready and willing Saviour, whose love for us has been manifested in His readiness and willingness to suffer and die for us and in our stead. Mercy and love are all your ways, and those of your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
[From page 156 of Luther for the Busy Man, translated by Dr. P.D. Paul, Lutheran Publishing House, Adelaide, South Australia, 1974.]
Rev. Paul Rockrohr Commissioned to be Navy Chaplain by USMC Captain James Rockrohr
Our eldest son, Rev. Paul Rockrohr, was commissioned to be a Navy Chaplain by his brother, USMC Captain James Rockrohr, this afternoon. The ceremony took place at St. Luke Lutheran Church in Golden, Colorado where Paul has been the pastor for over 3 years. James flew in from Ft. Sill, Oklahoma to swear in Paul today.
