85 I Thirst
89 Father, into Your Hands I Commit My Spirit
91 The Consequences of Jesus’ Death
Preface
JOHANN ERNST VON HOLST (1828–1898) was a Lutheran pastor in the Baltic country of Latvia. In the 1800s Latvia had a strong German population that dated to the thirteenth century. These Germans were for the most part upright, community-minded citizens, deeply grounded in their Lutheran faith. Riga, the capital, was part of the Hanseatic League; its citizens were merchants. (Around 1890, Russia took over Latvia, forcing the Germans to emigrate to Germany or to accept “Russification” of their schools and public institutions.)
Von Holst served as pastor in Wenden (today Cesis). He was remembered for his lively narrations of Bible stories and detailed descriptions, particularly in his children’s sermons and confirmation classes. In 1877 he became senior pastor in the St. James Church in Riga. He was president of the board of Riga’s Magdalene Asylum – a home that gave women who had nowhere else to go work and accommodation.1 He retired as pastor at Pentecost 1890 and died July 26, 1898.
Von Holst published a history and character sketch of the prophet Elijah in 1893, Der Prophet Elias: Ein alt-testamentliches Geschichts- und Charakterbild. A review of a collection of his sermons in 1876 described them as “fresh and spirit-filled,” “a real treasure, indisputably among the best homiletic literature of the Lutheran church.” “The sermons embrace all aspects of our inner life and vary in their tone. Sometimes it is the inviting love of the Savior, sometimes the dead seriousness of God’s prophets that moves the heart. The biblical interpretation is spiritual, the language noble and simple.”2
The Lenten devotions in this book were published in 1895, and the author gave a copy of the book to Elise Otto, a member of his congregation at New Year’s 1896 (my great-great-grandmother and the grandmother of Bruderhof founders Emmy Arnold and Else von Hollander). It has been passed down and cherished by the family, pulled out and read every Lent. Around 1980 Kathleen Hasenberg, a family friend, translated it into English.
In the original German, each devotion begins with a hymn, followed by the scripture text, the interpretation, a prayer, and a final hymn. In this English edition the hymns and prayers have been omitted. Von Holst’s expositions with their vivid detail – sometimes imaginative and sometimes based on historic research – will draw readers into a deep contemplation of Christ’s suffering and urge them to accept Jesus into their hearts.
Emmy Barth Maendel
1 see Rigasche Stadtblätter 1895.
2 Rigasche Zeitung, September 23, 1876.
The Days of Preparation
Ash Wednesday to Saturday
1
Ash Wednesday Morning
The Lamb of God
The next day [John the Baptist] saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!”
John 1:29
“BEHOLD, THE FIRE AND THE WOOD, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” Isaac asked his father, Abraham, on that strange journey (Gen. 22:7). His father answered, deeply moved, “God will provide for himself the lamb.” But the lamb that God the Lord would in fact provide as a sacrifice for the lost world was described in this way by the prophet Isaiah: “He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth” (Isa. 53:7).
Now John the Baptist stands in the fertile Jordan Valley. Light glows in his eyes, and lightning flashes from his preaching. His disciples surround him and very mixed throngs of people listen to his words.
Suddenly he is silent. Jesus of Nazareth, at that time still an unknown man, walks into the crowd’s sight. John looks at him. The Spirit of God comes over him, and he recognizes in the simple wanderer the Messiah, promised and looked for with longing hearts for thousands of years, the servant of Jehovah, the Lamb of God.
Overwhelmed by this recognition, John points to the approaching man and calls out the momentous words, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” This utterance has made him the greatest of the prophets. What depth there is in these words! John grasps the divine mission of Jesus and his innermost nature, will, and work. He looks into the heart of God and into the opened heavens, but he also sees the curse of humankind’s sin. He sees this burden laid upon the shoulders of this one man, who bears it and takes it away by his atoning death – and so sets the lost world free and founds a new, transfigured world.
Yes, this Jesus is the pure lamb. No one can accuse him of any sin, and the Father himself bears witness, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased” (Matt. 3:17). He is also the patient lamb, for he was obedient unto death, even to death on the cross. He is the gentle lamb, for while bleeding on the cross, he prays that his enemies may be forgiven. In everything he is the Lamb of God, the holy sacrificial lamb, through whom all who believe in him will be perfected in eternity.
This Lamb of God is our Jesus Christ, our Redeemer and Savior, who loves us too with his eternal love. He suffered and died for us too, in order to make us blessed. Shouldn’t we love him in return? Shouldn’t we be grateful to him and faithfully follow him?
Today the time of celebrating the memory of his suffering and death begins. Will this Lenten season be a blessing to us? How often have we already lived through it, and how often has it passed by! Perhaps it now comes to us for the last time. Shall we die without taking the Lamb of God into our hearts? May God in his grace preserve us from that. May he overcome all the resistance of our old nature and bless this time of Lent for our eternal salvation.
2
Ash Wednesday Evening
Who Takes Away the Sin of the World
Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
John
