Midweek Lent 3 – Pr. Anderson sermon
Isaiah 53:5, ELH #331 v. 5-6 “Lord, All My Life I’ll Cling to Thee”
March 11, 2026 | Christ Lutheran Church
In Nomine Iesu
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O Christ, faithful and living Savior, we thank You that You permitted Yourself to be brought before the judgment seat of men, in order that we might be free from the judgment of God. We pray, grant that we may not be offended at You and Your blessed Cross, but rather draw consolation and strength in all trials and tribulations from the precious truth that You suffered all these indignities for us, that we might be crowned with honor and glory in the sight of God, who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit, ever one God, now and forever. Amen. (The Lutheran Liturgy, companion altar book for The Lutheran Hymnal, p. 109)
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. (Rom. 1:7, etc.)
The nation is at war! Soldiers are moving across the battlefield. The sound of steel and cannon fire can be heard in the distance. From the years 1618-1648, roughly 1.3 to 1.8 million soldiers lost their lives in the Thirty Years’ War. While it is known for the battles that took place between the Romans and the Lutherans, a majority of this war can be viewed through the lens of the French-Habsburg rivalry and the Dutch Revolt. And as it is colored with men getting tossed out of a castle window and Gustavus Adolphus coming to the aide of the Protestants with maybe three dragons, there were places in Germany where their population had declined by over fifty percent! Germany was hit the hardest and as there was this great amount of devastation, it is amazing that Gerhardt could write these words we will sing, Lord, all my life I’ll cling to Thee, Thy love fore’er beholding, Thee ever, as Thou ever me, With loving arms enfolding. Yea, Thou shalt be my precious Light To guide me safe through death’s dark night, My heart in sorrow cheering; Henceforth myself and all I have To Thee, my Savior, e’er I’ll give, Into Thy cause all pouring.
The world says this is a tall order. Can you explain, even with all of the devastation happening now, how you can “cling to the Lord all your life?” Hear it one more time, Lord, all my life I’ll cling to Thee.” Is it possible to sing this? There must be some kind of change. There must be some kind of substitute. In the state of chaos and God knowing the answer to the question on if we can cling to Him, He gives Israel an image with the selecting of two goats. As one is sacrificed, the other one is let go. And Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins. And he shall put them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who is in readiness. The goat shall bear all their iniquities on itself to a remote area, and he shall let the goat go free in the wilderness (Leviticus 16:21-22). The question gets harder when we see the thoughts of God. In the midst of devastation and tragedy, the possibility of how hard we cling to God reveals Him witnessing how hard we cling to sin.
While we watch as that goat crests over the hill into the wilderness with the sins of the people, there is a little relief to witness the sins going off with it. This act was only temporary. It had to be done once a year. The people are witnessing God’s forgiveness in action. With this forgiveness, the people should have their own action, and with action, God says life will be well. “If you will diligently listen to the voice of the LORD your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, your healer” (Exodus 15:26). As God asks His people to cling to Him and the goodness He brings, we know we don’t need history to tell us this doesn’t happen. Before they ultimately fail, they were warned, then the LORD will bring on you and your offspring extraordinary afflictions, afflictions severe and lasting, and sicknesses grievous and lasting. And he will bring up on you again all the diseases of Egypt, of which you were afraid, and they shall cling to you. Every sickness also and every affliction that is not recorded in the book of this law, the LORD will bring up on you, until you are destroyed (Deuteronomy 28:59-61).
As Scripture reveals to us these punishments did cling to the people after they had continuously turned away from God, it gives us a startling view of our relationship with God. The people of the Old Testament watched as God was with them, leading them, and winning their wars for them. He dwelt in their presence and they fell away. And instead of putting their trust in His promises and vivid imagery of His forgiveness, they put their trust in the world. In a world full of trials and disasters, there is a dream that God’s almighty power would change the outcomes of people’s thoughts, wills, and desires. Power, might, and miracles, are not going to change hearts. This has already happened. Instead, when we focus on the Almighty’s power, we see the ultimate curse of Egypt, the curse of death that is clinging to us and because of our transgressions it seeks to destroy us. In our text tonight, we will soon hear the powerful Word of being pierced for transgressions. It is a piercing that is fatal. The fatal works of man deserve the judgment of the fatal works of God.
With God’s most prized creation waging a war of rejection against Him and deserving of death, God doesn’t turn His back here. He instead proclaims someone else will carry the weight of the sins of the world and unlike the goat it would be permanent. Instead of piercing His creation with a fatal blow, He had someone else be pierced for the world’s transgressions. The chief architect of all the tragedy and division would be defeated by this fatal piercing. And while this piercing is already tragic because someone has to endure it, it can further be thought of as traumatizing. Behold, the loving arms that were traumatized! Behold, the precious light that guides the world through death’s dark night. For God says to the architect of disaster, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heal” (Genesis 3:15). The promise of the Gospel is fulfilled as the people now see the completion of the goat’s purpose. The lamb has been sacrificed and, the God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you (Romans 16:20).
He is your gracious substitute. God no longer needs to be appeased by you yearly, demanding blood. The demand has been met and the debt has been paid. As the world continues to find itself with strife, the eternal strife that was hanging in the balance was given relief by none other than God Himself. St. Paul explains, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation…For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:19, 21). The fatal death mankind deserves is gone because they have now received the clothes of righteousness which sees all whose hearts who have had sorrow, now with complete trust in Christ are cheering.
This is your sweet relief because, he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brough us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. Here is the answer as to why the suffering Servant is called the suffering Servant. Christ has taken on your transgressions, your iniquities, even your chastisement. And now as you gaze on His sufferings, it is in those very wounds given to Him by you that your wounds are healed. God knew you couldn’t bear this excruciating pain. On the cross you see the work of God to save you as you witness the Father giving up His One and only Son and through prophecy says, “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn” (Zechariah 12:10). As Egypt wept for their firstborn and as you should have wept for your firstborn, the punishment of death, instead, here hangs your fatal blow. Given to another so that you may live.
The cross is why He came here and it is why you are here today. “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10). He goes into a world full of danger and unrest. He goes into a world that fears death’s dark night. No matter how heavy the steel and the cannon fire may be, your cry will sound like this. From morn till eve my theme shall be Thy mercy’s wondrous measure; To sacrifice myself for Thee Shall be my aim and pleasure. My stream of life shall ever be A current flowing ceaselessly, Thy constant praise outpouring. I’ll treasure in my memory, O Lord, all Thou hast done for me, Thy gracious love adoring. You will be strong because of where your sins, chastisement, and fatal piercing have gone. You have been clothed with the courageous work of your Savior who courageously died on the cross for you. And now to the cross you will cling, from this life until the next. Amen.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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