Preparing for Worship - February 13, 2022

The Psalm and the Old Testament Lesson for this Sunday are very similar to each other. Psalm 1 pictures a person who delights in the Lord and in His Law, His Word, and is like a tree planted by streams of water, which prospers and bears fruit and does not wither away. In contrast, the wicked walk and stand and sit in the way of evil and sin and scoff at the Lord and His will for them. They will be like chaff, like straw that blows away with the wind in God’s judgment against them.

Jeremiah 17:5-8, the Old Testament Lesson, also pictures the one “whose trust is in the Lord” as like a tree planted by water, who does well and bears fruit in good times and even in times of heat and drought. The Lord is his Fountain of Living Water (see v. 15 and John 7:37-38), and he is blessed. In contrast, the one who turns away from the Lord and trusts in himself and other human beings and human accomplishments will be like a parched and dying shrub in the wilderness. He is under a curse, because “all flesh is like withering grass” (Isaiah 40:6-8) on its own, and the human heart, by itself, is “deceitful” and “desperately sick.” Only the Lord can “save” and “heal” (Jeremiah 17:9,14).

The Gospel Lesson, Luke 6:17-26, is a part of Jesus’ sermon on a “level place,” a plain, in contrast with His Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7), though both are similar in some of the content. Jesus helped and healed many, and He taught that those who are spiritually “poor” and “hungry” and “sorrowful,” who know that they need Him, and who are “hated” and “reviled,” because of their trust in Him, will have heavenly blessings. In contrast, there will ultimately be woes and trouble for those who are “rich” and “full” and “laugh” and are “spoken well of,” only in terms of this sinful human world and its desires.

The Epistle, 1 Corinthians 15:(1-11)12-20, continues a series of readings from this later part of 1 Corinthians. Paul speaks of the certainty of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, because hundreds of people saw Jesus alive after He rose from the dead. Without the resurrection of Jesus, forgiveness and new life and hope for the future for us and our loved ones who have died would be gone. But, “in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, as the Firstfruits,” guaranteeing our resurrection and eternal future in Him. Paul knows this because he himself also saw the risen Lord and knows His promises. (See also Paul’s own words in Romans 10:9-11.)