Merciful, Merciful And Gracious Series

Fifth Sunday of Lent 2025

On this Fifth Sunday of Lent, which some of us grew up knowing as “Passion Sunday” or the first Sunday of the Passion, the Church is getting really serious about the identity and mission of Jesus as Christ/Messiah. Isaiah speaks for God, declaring “Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing. . .” For those of us who have been praying—it seems for years now—for rain to turn our dry land again fertile, the promise to Israel for waters in the desert seems miraculous. And indeed, for the Holy Land rainwater is rare. Much of the agriculture uses water from the Jordan River and the upland snowmelt in Syria. But God promises this to His chosen people, who were rescued from Egypt and all their surrounding enemies so that “they might declare my praise.”

Remember that God is not an egomaniac who needs our praise. God defines Himself in the Book of Exodus as “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands. . .” The Hebrew word translated “steadfast love” in the RSV is ????? chesed and this appears twice. That is the defining quality of God. He is merciful and gracious to his weak human family. Recall Psalm 103 from two weeks ago: “Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the Pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy.” There is that wonderful word again, ????? chesed, and it shows itself as forgiveness of all our iniquities. We confess our sins with true repentance and determination not to sin again, and we are forgiven. Freely. That is God’s self-definition. He needs nothing from us, no. His love for us is constantly being thrown back in His Holy Face by us sinners, but He keeps summoning us to be loved. When we sinners give Him praise, we are giving to Him the only action He truly desires from us. He wants it because He knows the best thing for us is to worship only Him. By doing this we draw closer to our end, our goal, eternal union with God.

St. Paul learned those truths when He saw Truth Himself on the road to Damascus. He realized Jesus is Lord and God and Messiah, and that His cross was His throne. Thus Paul told the Christians at Philippi that He has given up everything to carry his own cross in beatings and shipwrecks and floggings and being left more than once for dead. Why? So that he might know Christ, sharing in His sufferings, and attain “the power of His resurrection.” That must be our goal, our prize, as well. We can’t omit the suffering any more than Christ could.

After all that, we can’t be surprised or shocked when the scribes and Pharisees drag out a woman caught “in the act of adultery.” (Yes, and where was the man? See Deut 22:24). They were ready to stone her to death, as Moses prescribed for Israel. “Ah, we’ve got this Jesus imposter now,” they thought. “He’s got to either abandon His merciful reputation or confute the Law of Moses.” But Jesus calmly wrote on the ground, we know not what. They kept on Him, and He arose to stare them down and spoke not as Moses, but as the Lord of mercy: “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone.” They all slunk away one by one, beginning with the oldest guy. Jesus then asked the condemned woman who was left to accuse her. “Nobody, Lord.” (She used Kyrios here, the Greek equivalent of God.) And then the only sinless one in the vicinity told her, “I don’t do that either; go and sin no more.” And she left feeling just like we all do when we make a good confession and receive absolution.

Lent is drawing near to the finish line, our Pascua, our Three-Day marathon with the Redeemer Jesus. But Easter is not the end, although for some of us it might be our last one on earth. Easter is a promise of our hoped true end, in Christ with God. That’s worth any price, but it is free because of the price paid by our Lord and Savior.