THE WEEK OF EASTER  - MONDAY

LESSON: REVELATION 1:4-8

He is not ashamed to call them brethren. Hebrews 2:11

The fact that Christ receives such abandoned wretches as you and me and calls us brethren is a fact full of all consolation for us. If Christ is our brother, I would like to know what we still lack?

The situation in which we find ourselves is very much like that which exists among earthly brothers. Earthly brothers have common possessions, as well as one father and one inheritance, otherwise they would not be brothers.

In Christ, we also share common possessions and have one Father and one inheritance. But this inheritance never becomes less by being shared like an earthly inheritance. It becomes even greater and greater. For it is a spiritual inheritance.

The earthly inheritance is dissipated when it is divided into many parts, but in the spiritual inheritance which is ours in Christ, he who has a part of it has all of it.

What is this inheritance which makes us Christ’s brothers? In His hands are all times of life and death, sin and grace, and all that is in heaven and on earth, eternal truth, might, wisdom, and righteousness. He rules and reigns over everything—hunger, thirst, good fortune, misfortune, over everything that is conceivable, whether it be in heaven or on earth, not only spiritual matters, but also earthly matters.

In short, He has all things in His hands, whether they are eternal or temporal. My faith in Christ, then, full covers all my needs.

SL 11:604 (4-5)

PRAYER: Keep us ever mindful, O Lord, of all that we have for time and eternity in our relationships with You, the beginning and ending of all our faith and hope, as Your privileged brethren, for Your love’s sake. Amen.

Editor’s note: No American Edition (AE) equivalent for today’s sermon excerpt exists at the time of this publication. For an alternate English translation of this sermon, see Lenker, Church Postil—Gospels, 2:215-221.