"There is mourning, and there is rejoicing, all the way through Lent" Wednesday of Laetare 2026

18. March 2026
Wednesday of Laetare
Ezekiel 36:23a, 23c–28; Isaiah 1:16–19; John 9:1–38

This is the Word of the Lord that came to me, so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in His + Name. AMEN.

Laetare. Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad for her, all you who love her. Rejoice greatly with her, all you who mourn over her.

There is mourning, and there is rejoicing. Both. All the way through Lent. Not mourning for six weeks and then a gasp of relief on Easter morning. Both. The question is where you are looking. Look at yourself, and you can only mourn. Look at Him — and rejoicing is already there underneath everything, because of what He is doing.

Sinners we are. God's law says so, and it is right. But that is not the whole sentence. We are the sinners He is doing it for.

"I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh" (Ezekiel 36:26).

Notice what the Lord does not say. He does not say: work on your heart. He does not say: this Lent, make a better effort. He does not say: the heart of stone is your project and here are some techniques. He says: I will take it. I will give. I will put. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean.

Every verb belongs to Him. That is the point. That is the whole point. The heart of stone does not soften itself. You cannot get there by trying harder or feeling worse about yourself or making a more serious showing of penitence. The old Adam is stone. Stone does not respond to being urged. It has to be removed and replaced. And that is what the Lord says He will do.

"I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes" (Ezekiel 36:27). Cause you…not suggest to you. Not make it available to you, if you should choose to avail yourself of the opportunity. Cause you. He does it. He does it to you. That is the only way it happens.

And the Gospel. A man born blind. From birth. The disciples want to know who sinned. Fine theological question. Keeps the man at a safe distance. Jesus does not answer the question. He answers the man.

He spits on the ground. Makes mud. Puts it on the man's eyes. "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam" (John 9:7). The man goes. Washes. Comes back seeing.

Now, everyone has a problem with this. The neighbors cannot decide if it is even the same man. The Pharisees haul him in — Jesus healed on the Sabbath, which they have already decided settles the matter. They question him. They drag in his parents. The parents are frightened. "He is of age; ask him" (John 9:23). We want no part of this. So they call him back. For the second time. They want one thing: Say this man is a sinner.

He will not say it. "Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see" (John 9:25).

Try arguing with that. They try. They call him a disciple of this nobody from nowhere. The man can barely contain himself. You don't know where He comes from — and yet He opened my eyes.

They threw him out.

Jesus heard they had thrown him out. He went looking for him. Found him. "Do you believe in the Son of Man?" (John 9:35). Who is that, so that I may believe? You have seen Him. It is the One speaking to you now. "Lord, I believe" (John 9:38). And he worshiped Him.

Now. See what happened there.

The man did not work up his faith and then receive his sight as a reward. He was sent to wash. He washed. He came back seeing. Then, when Jesus found him again, he believed and worshiped. Word first. Grace first. Sight first. Faith follows. The new heart is given, and then the walking in His statutes.

This is the order, even if it is not your order yet. You do not bring the heart to God and ask Him to improve it. He takes the heart of stone — takes it, removes it, gives you something else entirely. He sprinkles clean water. He puts His Spirit within. He causes you to walk. And He does it by stooping down, making mud, putting it on blind eyes, and saying: go, wash.

The Pharisees could not accept this. They saw sin everywhere. In Jesus. In the blind man. In each other, probably. Everywhere — except the one place it actually needed to be seen. They had stone hearts and did not know it. That was their blindness. Not the man born without sight — him. They could see perfectly well with their eyes and were utterly blind to the one thing that mattered.

"Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before My eyes" (Isaiah 1:16).

Lent says that to you. Not to the Pharisees in a story from long ago. To you. The Pharisee is not far away. He is the old Adam in you who is remarkably clear about what is wrong with everyone else and remarkably foggy about himself. That is in you. It is in me. And the Lord will not let it stand. He names it. He applies the Law and does not apologize for it. This is why confession is not a liturgical formality. It is the most honest thing you do all week — because it is the old Adam being named for what he is.

Is there any hope? Is there a Savior? Yes. Look. Follow. See Him damned in your place.

"Come now, and let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool" (Isaiah 1:18).

After the indictment, He says: come. He is the one extending the invitation. He is the one who went looking for the man everyone else threw away. He is the one who stoops into the dirt, who sprinkles clean water, who takes the heart of stone and gives a heart of flesh. All the verbs belong to Him.

"You shall be My people, and I will be your God" (Ezekiel 36:28). He says it. He does it. The nations will know that He is the LORD when He is hallowed in you — not by your achievement, but by His hallowing. He makes you what you are not. He gives you what you cannot produce. He opens eyes that were shut from birth.

That blind man came back from the pool seeing. Tonight you come from the font already washed. Already His. The water has already been sprinkled on you. The new heart has already been given. The Spirit is already within you — not because you earned it or sustained it, but because He put it there and He keeps it there.

There is mourning, and there is rejoicing. Both. We are sinners. We are the sinners He is doing it for. Look at yourself — mourn. Look at Him — rejoice. And He is here. Body and blood given and shed for you, the medicine of immortality, given into your mouth this night. And with it a heart of faith and eyes that see.

Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad for her, all you who love her. Rejoice greatly with her, all you who mourn.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Rev. Christopher R. Gillespie
St. John Ev. Lutheran Church & School - Sherman Center
Random Lake, Wisconsin