Ever been that weak? Physically or spiritually? Emotionally drained? It happens for a variety of reasons. Not one of us is a super human. We are weak. We grow exhausted and weary. Our bodies wear out. We are sinners. Lent is a time for us to take stock in how sinful we actually are. Listen to Paul as he cries out from the depth of that struggle, "What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?" Have you ever been that wretched to cry out like Paul? Have you every longed for someone to rescue you from the depths of despair?

Look at who that deliver is. Our deliverer is the same person whose face is in the ground in Gethsemane, the same person who cannot carry the cross. Just consider what Jesus endures because of our sin. As Jesus leaves his disciples behind him the darkness of Gethsemane, St. Matthew tells us, "Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground." The weakness that he endures Jesus himself describes when he says, "I am a worm and not a man, scorned by men and despised by the people." Later after Jesus has been sentenced to death St. Luke tells us that as the Roman soldiers "led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus." Jesus was so weak that he couldn't carry the cross any further.

Jesus plumbed the depths of our sin. Our Lord experienced the darkness of what we deserve. He knows the loneliness of our despair. He has experienced worse than our weakest moment. What does that mean for us? St. Paul says, "Thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." That's why David rejoices as well in his many psalms. One of the verses that strikes me every day is that short verse from Psalm 23: "He restores my soul". To restore my soul is why Jesus goes to the Garden. To restore my soul is why Jesus stands before Caiaphas, is mocked and abused. To restore my soul is why our Lord Jesus is crowned with thorns, nailed to the cross, and laid in a cold grave.

That's a powerful picture when we stop to think about. God restores us because we have fallen. God restores us when we continue to fall. He restores us because we cannot do it ourselves. What a precious gift it is that our Lord Jesus purchased for us by His suffering, by His blood, and by His dying.

God's forgiveness is more powerful our sin. God's love for sinners is more resilient than our many imperfections. God's strength is stronger than our weakness. That becomes very obvious in the last words of Romans 8. St. Paul writes, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?" Paul answers, "In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." That's why Paul tells the Corinthians, "When I am weak, then I am strong." Strong, because as David says, "Surely God is my help; the Lord is the one who sustains me."

God sustains me, and God sustains you. He takes a hold of us with his strength when we are weak. He surrounds us with his love when we are unlovable. He helps us when we are helpless. Where there is sin, he showers us with forgiveness. Where there is death, he gives life. When we locked in despair, he provides us with a hope that does not disappoint.

"Thousand, thousand thanks are due, dearest Jesus unto you."    

God Bless, 

Rev. John C. Wille

President South Wisconsin District - LCMS