Tender King

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your King is coming to you;
He is just and endowed with salvation,
Humble, and mounted on a donkey,
Even on a colt, the foal of a donkey. -Zecharaiah 9:9

This Man on a donkey is just and endowed with salvation, because the flesh of Christ is The Light that encompasses all of creation as it was made in, through, and for Him, out of purest Love for you.

He has taken you up, dear Christian, and has brought you tenderly into His body, the Church, which also is a body of flesh, yet flesh that is raised from the dead and seated in the highest places. This He did in your baptism, this He does for you in His Supper, and this is how He keeps you in the paths of righteousness for His Name's sake.

Yes, cast off the works of darkness. Walk in the Light. Flee immorality by the grace of God in Christ Jesus. Run the race. You are free. Where you are weak, He bears your weakness and deals with you in tender mercy, for He is the Creator Who makes all things new.

This is not some new, special, mystical knowledge that makes you greater than others, dear reader. You sin. He, taking your place, does not. You die. He, taking your place, does not.

You who are baptized into Christ Jesus have His body and are joined to Him. You who believe on His name are greater than he who is in the world, who goads ceaselessly with a pomp and glory that may glitter like gold, but rots like the manure of death.

Yes, even you who come late to the feast with a whole life full of sin and death, for you He has conquered in His body and life.

O LORD Jesus, bless Your pastors and hearers as they abide in Your mercy. O LORD, have mercy upon us. Amen.
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