Many churches throughout the world use a Bible reading schedule called a "lectionary." It's just a fancy word meaning "selected readings." Posts like this reflect on the readings for an upcoming Sunday or other Church holiday, as found in the three-year lectionary.
Our Psalm passage for Sunday of the Passion has us entering Jerusalem with the Savior, expectant of the sacrifice to be made to God. We start with a gate, the gate of righteousness. We have the metaphor of a building stone and we immediately thing that we are talking about constructing something. What is being built here? A gate of righteousness? What kind of special stone do we use for that? For the gate of the Lord, the building stone is one which has been rejected by man. We find, only later, that Jesus is the stone rejected by the builders, but selected by the Father. How does he construct this gate of righteousness? Not as we would expect. In verse 27 it is built from a sacrifice, one which will atone for our sin.
The foreshadowing of the narratives surrounding Christ’s death is amazing here. He enters into Jerusalem and people quote verse 26. He is rejected by man and selected by God. He is the one who saves all who call on his name. Jesus, the light of the world has shone on his people, even when he is fastened to the horns of the altar as the sacrifice - the altar called a cross. He is the one who was lifted up for us, due to the hatred of mankind and the love of God. By his death, burial, and resurrection, Jesus has opened the gates of righteousness. The empty tomb with the stone rolled away, the temple with the veil ripped in two, both are signs that the way has been opened for all who believe on Jesus to enter into God’s presence, through the gate of righteousness.
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