Bright Tuesday

COLLECT OF THE DAY

Almighty God, through the resurrection of Your Son You have secured peace for our troubled consciences. Grant us this peace evermore that trusting in the merit of Your Son we may come at last to the perfect peace of heaven; through the same Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

READINGS: Daniel 3:8-28 Psalm 2 Acts 13:26-33 St. Luke 24:36-49

From Today’s Gospel Reading, Luke 24: “Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, ⁴⁶and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, ⁴⁷and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.”

Continuous Distribution

Jesus sends out the disciples to bring the message of the Cross and Resurrection to “all nations” for “repentance and forgiveness of sin”. We do not go back to the Cross. We do not “take it to the Cross”. The Lord has given us the very means, as written in Scripture and taught by the Lord, to give us the very much needed fruit of the Cross today: Word and Sacraments. Martin Luther taught this Scripture truth:

“If now I seek the forgiveness of sins, I do not run to the cross, for I will not find it given there. Nor must I hold to suffering of Christ…in knowledge or remembrance, for I will not find it there either. But I will find it in the Sacrament or the Gospel the Word which distributes, presents, offers, and gives to me tat forgiveness which was son on the cross…whoever has a bad conscience from his sins should go to the Sacrament and obtain, comfort, not because of the bread and the wine, not because of the body and blood of Christ, but because of the Word which in the Sacrament offers, presents, and gives the body and blood of Christ, given and shed for me. Is that clear enough?”

When we distribute the Holy Communion, there are a couple ways of doing such, and one way is “continuous distribution“. People come forth in a line(s) to receive the Body and Blood while standing: continuous distribution. The Lord calls His Church to the continuous distribution of His Word for our repentance, strengthening and growth in faith, and encouragement for service to one another.

As the Lord Himself said in the Luke Gospel for today that the Key to the Scripture is His death and resurrection and with His deed, the greatest in the history mankind, He gives us true repentance and forgiveness of sins.  As the father of John the Baptist, Zechariah prayed, we are given, “…knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins” (Luke 1: 77). We need His Word as Israel did manna. We cannot time travel back to Golgotha, as this is impossible. Instead, the risen Lord in the power of the Holy Spirit gives us His Word today as today is the day of salvation because Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!