The Joyous Exchange: Seeing the Truth

The season of penance we call Lent is not a time by which we make ourselves holy and then, when we reach Easter, we relax.  Lent, rather, is a time during which we recognize with great clarity our sins and our need for the gift of God in Christ, a gift which comes freely at Easter, the hinge point not only of the Christian year but of the Christian life.  Martin Luther, reflecting on our lesson from 2nd Corinthians tonight, referred to God's work for us as "the joyous exchange" where in God the Son (Jesus) took on the depth of our sin and death, that we might become the righteousness of God.