Messiah continues its Holy Week worship schedule with the Divine Service (including the Stripping of the Altar) on Maundy Thursday, March 28th at 7:00 pm. This service is scheduled to be livestreamed at www.youtube.com/messiahgr, our website and our Facebook page.

We continue our Lenten sermon series, which is based on the ancient hymn “O Love, How Deep” (Lutheran Service Book 544), with the theme “For Many Means For You”:

For us by wickedness betrayed,

For us, in crown of thorns arrayed,

He bore the shameful cross and death;

For us He gave His dying breath.

We have been reflecting a great deal on the phrase “for us.” Tonight, though, we will hear about the phrase “for many” as Jesus gives His own body and blood for the forgiveness of sins. Jesus and the disciples are celebrating the Passover, but Jesus does something new. We hear echoes of how Moses and the elders saw God, recognizing that the sacrifices of old will not satisfy. When Jesus says the phrase “for many,” He is clearly pointing the disciples to the fact that His death was not only for them alone but for the sins of the world. Because you are a part of the many, “for us” still holds true. (Psalm 116:1-5; Exodus 24:3-11; 1 Corinthians 10:16-17; Mark 14:12-26; Psalm 22)