Eve of the Feast of the Circumcision and Name of Jesus (Three Year Lectionary—Series B)

Isaiah 30:(8–14) 15–17
Psalm 90:1-12
Romans 8:31b–39
Luke 12:35–40

The Lord Comes by Way of the Cross to Serve Us at His Table in Peace

When we despise the Lord’s Word “and trust in oppression and perverseness and rely on them” (Is. 30:12), we face catastrophe. Our idolatry “is smashed so ruthlessly” (Is. 30:14), so that we are called to repentance. The Lord calls us by the cross, “like a signal on a hill” (Is. 30:17), to return to Him and rest in His salvation. For “he who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all” graciously provides us with all good things in Him (Rom. 8:32). Since “Christ Jesus is the one who died,” who is risen from the dead and seated at God’s right hand, “interceding for us” (Rom. 8:34), “we are more than conquerors through him who loved us” (Rom. 8:37). It is in that hope that we live “like men who are waiting for their master” (Luke 12:36). He daily awakens us by His preaching of repentance, raises us by His Word of forgiveness and keeps our lamps burning by the grace of His Gospel. He comes to us by way of the cross, in order to bless us and serve us at His table in peace.