Service for Lent 5 Midweek
Rev. Gregory Mech, pastor | April 6, 2022 | Lenten Midweek Service | Immanuel Lutheran Church – Joplin, Missouri | 4:00 or 7:00 pm
We hope to see you back for an In-Person Service! Learn more at immanueljoplin.com/COVID
Special thanks to all who helped to make this broadcast possible today:
Rev. Gregory Mech, DCE Jason Glaskey, organist Betty Lingenfelter, Altar Guild, Board of Elders, and all of our volunteers!
Be a witness to the Resurrection.
Watch Christ’s resurrection through the Gospel of John and each biblical figure’s point of view. As you move through each account, you, too, can begin to understand the full picture of Christ’s sacrifice for all.
Please join us on the evenings of Holy Week of Lent 2022 for the powerful conclusion of Pastor Mech’s sermon series — Witnesses to Christ: People from His Passion.
Midweek of Lent 5
Wednesday, April 6, 2022
Witnesses to Christ: Pontius Pilate
Pontius Pilate, a witness to Christ, consented to order Jesus’ execution. Pilate may wash his hands and proclaim his own innocence in the death of Jesus, but Pilate is guilty. Pilate is caught between a rock and a hard place. Instead of doing what is right, Pilate has Jesus’ flesh ripped, shredded, dressed in purple, and crowned with thorns. His hard heart is complicit in the death of Christ. While it may be an uncomfortable thought, Pilate’s failures make us examine our own complicity in the evil of others. How have we deceived ourselves in proclaiming innocence? How have we been pressured into allowing evil to occur? Thanks be to God that our journey to the cross shows us Jesus’ forgiveness.
PSALMODY Psalm 109:1-7, 20-31; antiphon: v. 26
Peter quoted verse 8 of this psalm in Acts 1:26, saying that it was fulfilled when Judas, the betrayer of Jesus, hanged himself. That verse, not included in our recitation of the psalm, reads: “Let his days be few / Let another take his office.” Both the ancient Church and the Reformers saw this as an example of David providing a prophetic psalm about Christ’s betrayal.
Help me, O LORD my God!
Save me according to Your steadfast love!
Be not silent, O God of my praise!
For wicked and deceitful mouths are opened against me,
speaking against me with lying tongues.
They encircle me with words of hate,
and attack me without cause.
In return for my love they accuse me,
but I give myself to prayer.
So they reward me evil for good,
and hatred for my love.
Appoint a wicked man against him;
let an accuser stand at his right hand.
When he is tried, let him come forth guilty;
let his prayer be counted as sin!
May this be the reward of my accusers from the LORD,
of those who speak evil against my life!
But You, O GOD my Lord,
deal on my behalf for Your name’s sake;
because Your steadfast love is good, deliver me!
For I am poor and needy,
and my heart is stricken within me.
I am gone like a shadow at evening;
I am shaken off like a locust.
My knees are weak through fasting;
my body has become gaunt, with no fat.
I am an object of scorn to my accusers;
when they see me, they wag their heads.
Help me, O LORD my God!
Save me according to Your steadfast love!
Let them know that this is Your hand;
You, O LORD, have done it!
Let them curse, but You will bless!
They arise and are put to shame, but Your servant will be glad!
May my accusers be clothed with dishonor;
may they be wrapped in their own shame as in a cloak!
With my mouth I will give great thanks to the LORD;
I will praise Him in the midst of the throng.
For He stands at the right hand of the needy,
to save him from those who condemn his soul to death.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen.
Help me, O LORD my God!
Save me according to Your steadfast love!
PRAYERS for Midweek of Lent 5
O Lord, hear my prayer.
And let my cry come to You.
O Lord God, by the example of Your blessed Son, grant us grace to accept patiently the suffering of this present time. Until we receive the full revelation of Your glory and full relief from all our afflictions, sustain us by Your healing grace through every trial. Hear us for all in need; through Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Amen.
Lord Jesus, though ruthless Pontius Pilate declared Your innocence before the crowds, You who knew no sin became sin for us. Grant that the shame You bore for us on the cross give us the greatest honor so that we might always see that only in suffering can we behold who You truly are, our glorious King and Savior; for You live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Amen.
O God, from whom come all holy desires, all good counsels, and all just works, give to us, Your servants, that peace which the world cannot give, that our hearts may be set to obey Your commandments and also that we, being defended from the fear of our enemies, may live in peace and quietness; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
Amen.
HOLY GOSPEL John 19:1-16
A reading from St. John, the nineteenth chapter.
Then Pilate took Jesus and flogged Him. And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on His head and arrayed Him in a purple robe. They came up to Him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and struck Him with their hands. Pilate went out again and said to them, “See, I am bringing Him out to you that you may know that I find no guilt in Him.” So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Behold the man!” When the chief priests and the officers saw Him, they cried out, “Crucify Him, crucify Him!” Pilate said to them, “Take Him yourselves and crucify Him, for I find no guilt in Him.” The Jews answered him, “We have a law, and according to that law He ought to die because He has made Himself the Son of God.” When Pilate heard this statement, he was even more afraid. He entered his headquarters again and said to Jesus, “Where are You from?” But Jesus gave him no answer. So Pilate said to Him, “You will not speak to me? Do You not know that I have authority to release You and authority to crucify You?” Jesus answered him, “You would have no authority over Me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore he who delivered Me over to you has the greater sin.”
From then on Pilate sought to release Him, but the Jews cried out, “If you release this man, you are not Caesar’s friend. Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.” So when Pilate heard these words, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called The Stone Pavement, and in Aramaic Gabbatha. Now it was the day of Preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. He said to the Jews, “Behold your King!” They cried out, “Away with Him, away with Him, crucify Him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, “We have no king but Caesar.” So he delivered Him over to them to be crucified.
O Lord, have mercy on us.
Thanks be to God.
HYMN “Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted”451
Stricken, smitten, and afflicted,
See Him dying on the tree!
‘Tis the Christ, by man rejected,
Yes, my soul, ‘tis He, ‘tis He!
‘Tis the long expected Prophet,
David’s Son, yet David’s Lord;
Proofs I see sufficient of it;
‘Tis the true and faithful Word.
Tell me, ye who hear Him groaning,
Was there ever grief like His?
Friends through fear His cause disowning,
Foes insulting His distress;
Many hands were raised to wound Him,
None would intervene to save;
But the deepest stroke that pierced Him
Was the stroke that justice gave.
Ye who think of sin but lightly
Nor suppose the evil great
Here may view its nature rightly,
Here its guilt may estimate.
Mark the sacrifice appointed,
See who bears the awful load;
‘Tis the Word, the Lord’s anointed,
Son of Man and Son of God.
Here we have a firm foundation,
Here the refuge of the lost:
Christ, the rock of our salvation,
Is the name of which we boast;
Lamb of God, for sinners wounded,
Sacrifice to cancel guilt!
None shall ever be confounded
Who on Him their hope have built.
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