Sermon for Quinquagesima, 2025

The Disciples didn’t know that the Son of Man—the Seed of the woman, the promised Deliverer—would, Himself, die in the process of crushing the serpent’s head. They would never have considered Jesus’ death as being the bruising of His heel. On the contrary, despite witnessing Jesus’ mastery over death time and again, the Disciples could not see beyond the finality of death and the crushing loss it wreaks. And so, when these things happened to Jesus, and He was crucified on Golgotha, the Place of a Skull, they supposed that was the end, both for Him and for them. They were wrong, of course. Jesus had to suffer these things. He had to have His heel bruised in death there, upon the Cross, at The Place of a Skull, in order to crush the serpent’s head and deliver mankind from its pit—the grave—by destroying death. He had to die so that He could, as He says here, “The third day, rise again.” The Disciples didn’t understand all this until He rose again from the dead. Then, they remembered His words we are told, after which He opened their understanding, so that they might comprehend the Scriptures. The Disciples understood when He gave them understanding—and only then. And that’s the way it is with us. He gives us understanding when He wills to do it. By the working of the Holy Spirit through the Holy Gospel, and not—never—by our own reason or strength. 

Readings:

• Old Testament: Isaiah 35:3-7

• Epistle: 1 Corinthians 13:1-13

• Holy Gospel: Luke 18:31-43

Sermon: