Saturday of Lent 5

All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. — Isaiah 53:6

But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation. Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. — Hebrews 9:11–15

As we prepare to enter Holy Week, let us take some time to meditate on the source of our forgiveness – the suffering and death of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is because He bore our iniquity and the iniquity of the whole world that we can be forgiven. He took our sin, our guilt, our shame upon Himself, that we might be forgiven.

The forgiveness that Christ won for us on the cross is given to us through His Word and Sacrament that we might receive that forgiveness here and now.

Dear Jesus, we thank You that through Your suffering and death You obtained our eternal redemption and that You give us that forgiveness through Your Word and Sacraments. Amen.

“What punishment so strange is suffered yonder!

The Shepherd dies for sheep that loved to wander;

The Master pays the debt His servants owe Him,

Who would not know Him.

The sinless Son of God must die in sadness;

The sinful child of man may live in gladness;

Man forfeited his life and is acquitted;

God is committed” (LSB 439:4–5).