Mutual Consideration

​Ash Wednesday – 2024                                                                      LSB #’s 419, 430:1, 440, 887
Text – Psalm 41:1-2
 
MUTUAL CONSIDERATION
 
 
“Blessed is the one who considers the poor!  In the day of trouble, the LORD delivers him; the LORD protects him & keeps him alive; he is called blessed in the land; You do not give him up to the will of his enemies.” 
Those words of the sermon text are from Psalm 41 & that psalm will be the focal point of our attention for the entire season of Lent.  It’s like David painted a portrait of his friend, & then the two switched places, & his friend painted a portrait of him.  Here’s what I mean:
1. “Blessed is the one who considers the poor!”  David’s word, “considers,” can also be translated as “pays attention, focuses upon or thinks about intently.”  If you paint someone’s portrait, you must look intently upon that person, studying his or her features closely.  
When David said, “Blessed is the one who considers,” he was talking about someone who gives careful, attentive thought to something.  He also spoke in the singular, not in the plural: “Blessed is the ONE who considers the poor [ONE]”; “Blessed is the INDIVIDUAL who considers the poor INDIVIDUAL”; “Blessed is the PERSON who considers the poor PERSON.” 
Those singular nouns are important, because someone could argue that David was making a sweeping statement that applies to everyone.  David could easily have said, “Blessed is everyone who considers anyone who is poor,” but David did NOT say that.  He wrote in the singular on purpose.  He wanted us to think in singular on purpose.  
“Blessed is the ONE who considers the poor [ONE],” boils the entire world down to only two people.  Who are those two people?  You are one of them.  Jesus is the other.  That is the entire point of tonight’s sermon.  You & Jesus are like a person who painted a portrait of a friend & then switched places so the friend could paint a portrait of the person. 
* Jesus is the poor man you shall be eternally blessed to consider, focus upon, & always bear in mind.  That is why the Book of Hebrews talks about “looking to Jesus, the founder & perfecter of our faith.”  (Hebrews 12:2) 
* You also are the poor person whom Christ Jesus, our Lord, carefully considered, bore in mind,  acted on behalf of,  & was declared blessed for it.  As Jesus said in the Book of Revelation, “I know your tribulation & your poverty.”  (Revelation 2:9) 
2.  I know it sounds strange that you & Jesus are both the poor person, & that both of you are the person who shall be blessed for considering the poor.  Here’s why that strange thing is true:
* In one way or another, all of God’s psalms – including 41 – speak about our Lord & His work of salvation on our behalf.  (Luke 24:44)   That is why God included the Psalms in His Scriptures: they “bear witness about Me,” said Jesus.  (John 5:39) 
* Because the Psalms are about Jesus, they are also about you.  After all, you are the baptized of Christ.  When you were baptized, you entered into His holy body (Romans 12:5; 1 Corinthians 1:30) just as surely as He entered yours.  (John 14:20; Galatians 2:20)   You & your Christ are now joined together as one flesh.  (Ephesians 5:31–32)  
* At your Baptism, your Lord’s perfection became yours, & your sins became His (1 Peter 2:24); His strength became yours, & your weakness became His (2 Corinthians 12:9);   His life became yours, & your death became His.  (Romans 6:4)   Luther called that the blessed exchange. 
* At your Baptism, the words of the Bible that speak about you became applicable to Jesus, & the words that speak about Jesus became applicable to you.   Because you are “partakers of the divine nature,” as Peter said in the Epistle reading (2 Peter 1:4), every Scripture passage about Jesus is also about you. 
* Your inseparable, eternal, baptismal unity with Christ is why Jesus is the poor man
whom you shall be blessed to consider AND why you are the poor person whom Jesus likewise considered.  Psalm 41 speaks of mutual consideration: “Blessed is the one who considers the poor!”  Those words are like a person who painted a portrait of a friend.  Then the two switched places, & the friend painted a portrait of the person.  You & Jesus are those friends.   
3a. Why did Jesus give Himself over to “suffer many things... be killed, & after three days rise again”?  (Mark 8:31)  Jesus did so because He always “considers the poor.”    Psalm 9:12, “He does not forget the cry of the afflicted.”   Psalm 34:15, “The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous & His ears toward their cry.”  
Psalm 34:6, “This poor man cried, & the LORD heard him & saved him out of all his troubles.”  All three passages describe our Lord’s consideration toward you, His “poor” one.  And these are key words used in the Bible to describe the nature of our Lord’s consideration toward you – pity, compassion, mercy & grace:
“We believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus” (Acts 15:11); we are “waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life” (Jude 1:21); “He will again have compassion on us; …tread our iniquities underfoot.  You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea.”  (Micah 7:19).  “Moved with pity, [Jesus] stretched out His hand.”  (Mark 1:41) 
Jesus is the blessed man who considers the poor one.  In Psalm 41, David prophesied the great blessing & reward that Jesus received precisely because He “considers the poor” one & “poured out His soul to death” (Isaiah 53:12):
“In the day of trouble the LORD delivers him; the LORD protects him & keeps him alive; he is called blessed in the land; You do not give him up to the will of his enemies.”  (Psalm 41:1b-2 ESV)   Those are words of resurrection; they are “the words of eternal life.”  (John 6:68)  Because Jesus considered our poverty – paying attention to us,   focusing upon us,   thinking intently about our needs – because Jesus considered our poverty, God “raised Him from the dead & gave Him glory.”  (1 Peter 1:21) 
* God the Father so completely & profoundly raised Jesus from the dead that David could look from afar, in the prophetic distance of history, & say, “The LORD protects him & keeps him alive.”
* The resurrection of our Lord also indicates that the heavenly Father did NOT give Jesus up “to the will of His enemies.”  Through His death & resurrection, rather, Jesus gained eternal victory over every enemy.  Thus, Jesus is indeed blessed – & is called blessed in the land of eternal life – precisely because He “considers the poor.” 
3b. Now switch places with Jesus & paint a portrait of Him, as it were: Jesus is the poor man whom you shall be eternally blessed to consider, focus upon, & always bear in mind.  “Blessed is the one who considers the poor!”  What key words do the Scriptures use to describe the nature of your consideration – your faithful paying attention – toward Jesus?  
Words like faith, hope & trust?  “Some TRUST in chariots & some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God.”  (Psalm 20:7)     “HOPE does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.  (Romans 5:5)   “The life I now live in the flesh I live by FAITH in the Son of God, who loved me & gave Himself for me.”  (Galatians 2:20) 
So you will be counted among the blessed when you consider the poverty of your Lord Jesus, just as surely as Jesus Himself was blessed because He considered your poverty.  That is the promise of God, spoken through David in Psalm 41: “Blessed are you who consider the poverty of your Christ, whose poverty has made you rich in every way.” 
How is it that you shall be blessed?  David explained: In the day of trouble the LORD
delivers you; the LORD protects you & keeps you alive; you are called blessed in the land; He does not give you up to the will of your enemies.  (Psalm 41:1–2, paraphrased)   In the resurrection of all flesh on the Last Day, the Lord your God shall make it so, & more.  Amen.
 
 
Jesus, I will ponder now on Your holy passion; with You Spirit me endow for such meditation.  Grant that I in love & faith may the image cherish of Your suffering, pain & death that I may not perish.      Grant that I Your passion view with repentant grieving.   Let me not bring shame to You by unholy living.   How could I refuse to shun every sinful pleasure since for me God’s only Son suffered without measure?      Graciously my faith renew; help me bear my crosses, learning humbleness from You, peace mid pain & losses!  Hear me, O my Savior, that I may in heaven above sing Your praise forever.  Amen.  LSB 440:1, 4, 6.