March 23, 2024 

Today's Reading: Psalm 24 

Daily Lectionary: Exodus 7:1-25, Mark 16:1-20

Lift up your heads, O gates!  And lift them up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.   (Psalm 24:9)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. God comes to us.  That is what He does.  Time and time again, He comes to His lost and fallen creation.  He comes to people.  He communes with them.  He bestows grace and favor.  He comes down from heaven, to this earth.  He comes.  …  For David this happened in a tangible sort of way.  The Ark of the Covenant, the mercy seat of God, was now being brought into the city of Jerusalem.  For the first time the Ark was there.  For the first time, God located Himself in the holy city, the hill of the LORD, Mount Zion.

Thousands of years later He comes in the strangest glory, in beaten, bloody, stripped, and naked glory.  He ascends the hill of the Lord, the hill of Calvary; right there in the city of David where He had entered all those years ago.  His clean hands clinging to the shame of your cross.  His pure heart bearing the weight of your sin.  There is the glory of your Lord, O Jerusalem.  There, despised, rejected, dismissed by all the world.  Up there on that tree is the strength and might of your God in all of His weakness.  Fighting tooth and nail in a battle with sin and death and Satan.  …  Lift up your heads, O Jerusalem, and gaze upon your King of glory!

Be lifted up, O ancient doors, because your King comes to you.  He in His glory, He with His cross, He comes to you!  In a flood which washes your filthy hands and impure hearts. He comes, bringing His death so that you might be buried within, bringing His resurrection so that you might have life eternal.  In a Word He comes:  Absolution spoken from the lips of a pastor which brings to you the sureness that, “It is finished!”  In a meal, body and blood given to you, He comes.  Communion with God, fellowship with your Savior, unity with those who kneel next to you.

In all of this He comes, bringing in tow the gift of the cross, making your hands clean and your hearts pure.  He comes blessing you with His righteousness that allows you to stand in the holy place of God and ascend the hill of the Lord.  Jesus is your God of salvation, and He comes to you. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

Who may ascend Mount Zion’s holy hill To do God’s will?  The One whose unstained hands Can meet the Law’s demands, Whose purity within Reveals One free from  sin.  Come, praise this King who claims the cross as throne– Praise Him alone!  (LSB 339:3)

-Pastor Eli Lietzau is pastor of Wheat Ridge Evangelical Lutheran Church in Wheat Ridge, Colorado.

Audio Reflections Speaker: Pastor Jonathan Lackey is the pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Vine Grove, Ky.

Unforgivable? Unforgiveness is a prison—mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. In a world full of turmoil, many use forgiveness as a coping mechanism without understanding what true forgiveness is. Learn what forgiveness from Christ looks like, and how He forgives His people.