Matins Devotions: May 12-16, 2025
- Pastor Hans Fiene
- May 21
- 6 min read
MONDAY
When you consider the inexplicable joy that Peter, James, and John experienced atop the mountain of transfiguration, it makes the absolute sorrow they experienced after the crucifixion all the more interesting. They saw Christ’s glory, saw Him shining with the righteousness of God. They tasted the paradise of heaven with Him and saw Him as Lord of that paradise. And yet, when He breathed His last upon the mountain of the cross, it was as if the other mountain never existed, as if they never felt the warmth of that glory.
Now I suppose there are two reasons for this reaction. The first is that these three men were like us–fickle, easily rattled, with faith that flickered and faltered the second sorrow and hardship and misery overwhelmed them. But the second reason is that they didn’t yet have the Holy Spirit in the way they would receive Him at Pentecost. They didn’t have the indwelling of the Spirit that gave them the ability to cling to the transfiguration glory during the Good Friday sorrow.
But you do. You received that indwelling in the waters of baptism. So no matter how great the sorrows and crosses you face in this life, you have the right to see them all outlined and illuminated by the glory of the transfiguration and resurrection and ascension of your Lord. The same Lord whose face shined in glory before His disciples clothed His face in blood to forgive your sins, to make you His own. That face then rose from the grave, granting you the right to live forever with Him in the kingdom where, right now, He sits at the right hand of His Father, declaring to His Father that you are now perfect and pure, that you are now a child of God, that you are worthy to feast in His kingdom forever.
No matter how many tears you cry, no matter how many drops of blood you shed in this life, not one of them will be shed or spilled without the glory of Christ radiating around them. Be at peace. Your Lord will not abandon you. You may not be able to see the bright shining face of Jesus Christ. But it is there, smiling upon you, and preserving you until the day you see its full glory in the kingdom.
TUESDAY
In some ways, it’s easier to be haunted by the sins of your youth than the sins of yesterday. The sins of your youth may be bigger, more destructive, with more consequences than the sins you committed this morning. But they’re also easier to distance yourself from, guilt wise. “I was a stupid kid, I was young and impetuous. I was like everybody else at that age. I wouldn’t listen. That’s why I committed those sins. So Lord, I’ve grown up and become wiser. Don’t remember the sins of my youth.”
Ah, but the sins of this morning don’t have the same excuses, the same youth-related factors that make them more understandable. You’re at the age where you should have self-control and wisdom. Why should God forgive our middle-aged sins, our gray-haired transgressions?
He should, or rather He does, because, as David tells us in the psalm, when our Lord looks at us, He sees us according to His steadfast love and according to His own goodness, which is to say that the young and the old, the foolish and the wise are saved by grace. Out of love for us all, God sent His only begotten Son to be the Savior of those who didn’t know any better and those who should have. His blood forgives the sins of the foolish and the cunning, those who worked evil by not thinking and those who worked it very deliberately. No matter how young or old your sins, they’re all gone. The sins of your youth and the sins of yesterday are equally erased from God’s memory by God Himself, by the One who sent His Only begotten Son into the flesh to accomplish this very task.
WEDNESDAY
The scapegoat was, quite obviously, a type of Christ. Just as Aaron transferred the sins of the people onto the head of the goat, so God transferred the sins of mankind onto the head of His Son. Just as Aaron pressed his hands on the head of the beast, so it was the will of the Lord to crush His Son, to afflict him, to allow the Romans to press onto our Lord’s head the crown of thorns. Just as the priest would drive the goat out into the wilderness, into the land of condemnation, so Jesus was led outside the city, to the place of the skull where He would be condemned to death upon the cross.
But Jesus came out of the wilderness, while the scapegoat didn’t. The type, the shadow of the One to come, did not return from the wilderness. Jesus Christ did. He rose from the grave on the third day. Leaving the sins of the world behind, Jesus came out of the land of condemnation, back to the land of the living where He gave all who believe in Him the right to live forever, the right to live with the Slain Yet Risen Lamb in Paradise forever. Unlike the Scapegoat, the Son of God came back from the wilderness. And when He did, He brought you with Him.
THURSDAY
“A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho.” It’s a small detail at the beginning of the parable, but it’s an important one, a detail that should frame how we understand mercy and forgiveness. On the highway of salvation, Jerusalem to Jericho is the wrong way. It’s not the path from unrighteousness to righteousness, but very much the other way around. The man is departing the city of God for the city of rebellion, the city of ruin and unfaithfulness. He’s on the highway to hell, which means that, when the man is seized by robbers and left for dead, this isn’t really a matter of an innocent man being victimized by an evil that tracked him down. This is a matter of a man getting what he asked for, a man who played with fire getting burned, a man who lives by the sword nearly dying by the sword.
So, you weren’t a victim of a foreign evil that tracked you down. You went into the land of robbers and covered yourself in iniquity. You chased your lust down darkened roads and dirty alleys and received the reward for your actions. But Jesus refused to be disgusted by you, refused to abandon you to the wounds of your own making, refused to do anything but love you. He was wounded on the cross to close your wounds. He poured out the wine of His blood at Calvary to heal you. He placed you into the care of the church and is coming back to bring you home.
And so, go and do likewise. Love your neighbor as yourself. Don’t reserve your love for those who are walking from Jericho to Jerusalem, those who are already on the right path and impress you with their righteousness. Forgive those who are running away from you, running into the arms of condemnation. Forgive those who are covered in the wounds of their own choosing. Give up your own comfort to pour out the wine of salvation upon their wounds and to lead them into the care of the church. Did they deserve their half-dead state? Yes. So did you. But Jesus still came to your aid. Come to theirs.
FRIDAY
Calling God “Father” is not just a title, not just a poetic term meant to reflect your respect for the power or majesty of the One who created you. Calling God “Father” is a bold and stunning thing to do, an act of declaring that the Creator of the very universe is as close to you as a father is to his son, and is, in fact, even closer. It’s a declaration that the Creator of every atom of existence wove everything together not simply because He could, or simply because He wanted to manifest His power. Rather, He did so because He wanted to make you, and to make you His own, to draw you to His side, to claim you as His own beloved child that He will listen to, that He will love even more purely than an earthly father loves His Son.
If God were not actually your Father in this sense, then calling God “Father” would be the absolute height of arrogance, of foolishness, of insanity. And yet, God Himself has invited you to call Him “Father.” He did so when He sent His Son into the flesh and when Jesus used His human lips to give you the words of the Lord’s Prayer. Here, in these words, the One who became your Brother invites you to call His Father your Father. Here, in these words, Jesus foreshadows the adoption you will receive in holy baptism, where your sinful nature, your old self was drowned, and where a new nature came out of those waters, a new nature as a child of the Most High.
Earthquakes, volcanic explosions, lightning storms, tempests, tornadoes, hurricanes. None of these things is more planet rattling than the very Creator of the universe inviting you to call Him your loving Father. And He has. So do it always.
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