What are the opening hours?

Tuesday 12:30pm - 3:30pm Thursday 12:30pm - 3:30pm Sunday 9am - 12pm

http://theforgivenessplace.org/

Our Redeemer Lutheran Church - Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, 904 Bluff Street, Cedar Falls, IA (2026)

06/06/2026

Join Us for VBS!

By Jennifer Thornton

As we approach the end of spring and beginning of summer, so comes the season for
VBS! This year's theme will be Office of the Keys.

We will be having a 5-day program from June 22nd-June 26th from 9am-12pm. Each
day will include an opening with a Matins service and a lesson. Then, we’ll get to break
out into other activities like music, crafts, and games!

During the week, students will learn about various stories, such as the “Thief on the
Cross” and “Peter’s Pentecost Sermon.” They will also spend time studying their
Catechism and will have memory verses. All of this will be tied in with their hymn of the
week, “Baptismal Waters Cover Me” (LSB 616), which reminds them that they can come
to God with any sin and be forgiven.

VBS is such a great opportunity for our young members to get extra religious instruction
and practice their catechism and worship life together. It allows them to get extra
exposure to important parts of our Christian life and helps them to build strong Christian
habits while also having a little fun!

Please join us this year as we host VBS 2026: Office of the Keys! If you have a child
between the ages of 3-11, you can register them with a paper form (that will be made
available in the parish hall) or by filling out the Google Form (accessible through the QR
Code below)!

If you’d like to volunteer or have any questions, you can contact me (Jennifer Thornton)
by phone at 217-412-1642 or email me at [email protected]. There is no
cost associated with VBS, but donations to help facilitate it would be appreciated.

VBS 2026: Office of the Keys

When: June 22nd-26th, 9am-12pm

Where: Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, 904 Buff St, Cedar Falls, IA

 CHECK IN STARTS AT 8:45 AM.
 Family Members: Please stay on Friday for the closing.
 Kids wear VBS shirts on Friday.

Image Source: https://photo.lcms.org/search/result/I0000pnl6S1ClTfE?terms=keys&

05/31/2026

Shepherd’s Speak

By Pastor Brian Saunders

As we bask in the joyous glow of Easter Resurrection through the months of April and May, I look forward to the festival of Ascension on May 14th. It is so easy to look past this historic day since spring has so many activities to occupy our time. The Ascension of our Lord is the capstone of the 40 days after Jesus’ resurrection. On that day, Jesus left the Apostles with a promising word that He would be with them always, just in a
different way than previously. He is with us in His Word, the same Word that is preached, taught, and administered today. God the Father received Jesus’ return to heaven where He sits at the Father’s right hand. That is the hand of authority and power. Jesus cannot be overcome; He cannot be subject to death or defeat. He is Christus Victus, the victorious Christ whom we worship and adore.

On Ascension Day, we not only celebrate His victory, but we also celebrate the victory He has given us in the regenerative waters of baptism. Because of Jesus’ victory, nothing can thwart Him and His mission. You are of His mission. He came to you when
you did not deserve it. He brought to you His forgiving and life-giving blood of redemption. He adopted you into His family; you are His child by grace. Jesus has calmed His Father’s wrath and stilled the storm. He overcame Satan so that Satan has no claim on you. Jesus carries all authority in heaven and on earth. This authority is your certainty that eternal life and blessed bliss are yours without doubt. Ascension Day is a wonderful day for us to gather around His Throne of Grace and bask in Easter joy.

May will also be a time of the year that the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod prepares for this summer’s convention. Floor committees will have received hundreds of overtures to be presented to the assembly for adoption as resolutions. I will be chairing Floor Committee 5, Commission on Theology and Church Relations. This floor committee has the absolute pleasure of recognizing Church Bodies from around the world who have demonstrated a faithful commitment to the Word of God and the
Lutheran Confessions. Each of those overtures, when passed, are followed by singing the Doxology (“Praise God from whom all blessings flow”).

Floor Committee 5 also must work with overtures on doctrinal questions and practices. These are the overtures for which I ask your help. While you won’t be sitting with the floor committee working through the issues, you can join me by lifting me and the entire floor committee through prayer. We will be meeting the weekend of May 29-June 1. Pray that we may address each overture with the authority of the Word of God. It is all too easy to get sidetracked with overtures. Please support us with ardent prayer that we remain faithful to God’s Word and its correct exposition, the Lutheran Confessions. With these treasures as our overarching guide, we will bring worthy documents to the
convention for ratification.

We are a blessed Church Body. Thousands of Lutherans around the world desire fellowship with us because we have remained faithful. God is adding to the Kingdom souls who are finding comfort in the pure Gospel. It is vital we remain the teachers of
this Truth and carriers of the Gospel through which the Holy Spirit seeks and saves the lost, while feeding the found. I repeat, we are a blessed Church Body as long as we remain faithful to the Scriptures given us through the Holy Spirit’s infallible inspiration of the Apostles and the Prophets.

Conventions can be arduous and time consuming. But, when the fruit born from it is a stronger proclamation of the Holy Truth, it is all worth it. To join with me by praying those days the floor committee meets is an exercise in the authority we celebrate on
Ascension Day. It is the Lord’s church; He purchased her with His precious blood. He promised His presence with her always, even in floor committee meetings and conventions. God watch over this dear Synod and bless our gatherings with much prayer.

—Pastor Saunders

05/17/2026

Reverend’s Reflections: “He taught us how to die well.”

By Pastor Michael Knox

Not long ago, I attended the funeral of Ernest Theodore Lams. While none of you to whom I’m writing knew Ernest, most people who knew him simply called him Ted. To me, he is, and will for the rest of my life remain, Mr. Lams. He was my teacher and principal at St. Paul Lutheran Elementary School in Brookfield, Illinois. He was the organist for the St. Paul congregation. He was my coach in softball, basketball, and track. He gave me my first coaching job while I was a student at Concordia in River Forest. He encouraged me as I studied first to become a teacher, and then a pastor, and. he played the organ at my Ordination service.

Mr. Lams and his wife, Nancy, were close friends of my parents. He taught all three of my sisters to play organ and led them into service in the Church. My parents and my three sisters were all able to attend the funeral and sit together. As the family of my
childhood sat there together in the pews we filled many years ago, it was at times hard to sing as tears came to my eyes, blurring my vision. They were tears of joy and thanksgiving – for the Church in which I was raised, for the pastor who shepherded me, and for the teachers at the school who taught me. My sisters and I, along with my parents, have all been nurtured in the faith by those whom God brought to St. Paul Church and School. Pastor Otten, Mr. Lams, Miss Kruse, Mr. Stuenkel, and other
teachers my younger sisters had, all taught and modeled the Christian faith and life.

The funeral was not “a celebration of life.” It was all about Christ, our salvation, and our hope in the resurrection. The pastor who now serves St. Paul, Rev. Edward Naumann, preached a wonderful sermon and the hymns in the service were truly Christ-centered. We sang “Behold A Host, Arrayed in White,” “For All The Saints,” and “Lord, Thee I Love, With All My Heart.” The children of the school sang “God’s Own Child, I Gladly Say It.”

Pastor Naumann began his sermon by reminding those gathered in an overflowing church that many of us who knew Mr. Lams were students of his and called him teacher. Mr. Lams loved giving “pop” quizzes in class so, fittingly, Pastor Nauman began his sermon by giving us a quiz:

 Who led the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt?
 Who led the Israelites into the promised land?
 Who confronted King David for his sin with Bathsheba and led David to repentance?

If you were a student of Mr. Lams, you should know the answer to these questions. If nothing else, we learned the Bible at St. Paul.

But Pastor Nauman had tricked us. He knew that the immediate answer we would give to those questions would be: Moses, Joshua, and Nathan. Pastor Naumann reminded us that the correct answer to those questions, the answer which Mr. Lams would have taught us, was God. God led the people of Israel out of slavery. God led the Israelites into the promised land. God convicted David of his sin and led him to repentance.

Just as God used Moses, Joshua, and Nathan to accomplish His work, so God uses people like Mr. Lams to bring people to faith, to teach them the truth of salvation in Christ, and guide them in the life of righteousness and purity.

A funeral is certainly a time for mourning. After all, even Jesus mourned at the death of Lazarus. But funerals are also a time of joy and thanksgiving as we recall what Christ our Lord did for the believer who died in Christ and what He has done for us as well. It is also a time to reflect on one’s own life. It should be a time of repentance as well as a time of joy and thanksgiving.

Pastor Naumann pointed all of us to Christ. He reminded us that Mr. Lams, though a well-loved and faithful husband, father, teacher, principal, and organist, was of all things a sinner redeemed in the precious blood of Jesus. Mr. Lams believed this, he confessed this, he lived this.

Pastor Nauman also reminded us that, even as we gathered for Mr. Lams’ funeral, he had one last lesson to teach – he taught us how to die well – as a lamb of Jesus’ flock.

We have just come through the season of Lent and Holy Week. We are now living in the season of Easter. During Holy Week we sang the hymn “O Sacred Head Now Wounded.” The final stanza of the hymn speaks of how the Christian faces death:

Be Thou my consolation, my shield, when I must die;
Remind me of Thy passion when my last hour draws nigh.
Mine eyes shall then behold Thee, upon Thy cross shall dwell,
My heart by faith enfold Thee. Who dieth thus dies well.

For the remainder of my life, each time I sing this hymn, the final stanza will remind me of the many lessons Mr. Lams taught me and so many others: he taught us the Bible, he taught us about Jesus, he taught us how to die well.

—Pastor Knox

Image Source: https://matttullos.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/words.jpg

05/10/2026

Join Us for VBS!

By Jennifer Thornton

As we approach the end of spring and beginning of summer, so comes the season for VBS! This year's theme will be Office of the Keys.

We will be having a 5-day program from June 22nd-June 26th from 9am-12pm. Each day will include an opening with a Matins service and a lesson. Then, we’ll get to break out into other activities like music, crafts, and games!

During the week, students will learn about various stories, such as the “Thief on the Cross” and “Peter’s Pentecost Sermon.” They will also spend time studying their Catechism and will have memory verses. All of this will be tied in with their hymn of the
week, “Baptismal Waters Cover Me” (LSB 616), which reminds them that they can come to God with any sin and be forgiven.

VBS is such a great opportunity for our young members to get extra religious instruction and practice their catechism and worship life together. It allows them to get extra exposure to important parts of our Christian life and helps them to build strong Christian habits while also having a little fun!

Please join us this year as we host VBS 2026: Office of the Keys! If you have a child between the ages of 3-11, you can register them with a paper form (that will be made available in the parish hall) or by filling out the Google Form (accessible through the QR
Code below)!

If you’d like to volunteer or have any questions, you can contact me (Jennifer Thornton) by phone at 217-412-1642 or email me at [email protected]. There is no cost associated with VBS, but donations to help facilitate it would be appreciated.

VBS 2026: Office of the Keys

When: June 22nd-26th, 9am-12pm

Where: Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, 904 Buff St, Cedar Falls, IA

 CHECK IN STARTS AT 8:45 AM.
 Family Members: Please stay on Friday for the closing.
 Kids wear VBS shirts on Friday.

Image Source: https://photo.lcms.org/search/result/I0000pnl6S1ClTfE?terms=keys&

05/08/2026

Pastor’s Post: Hospitality Revisited

By Pastor Matthew Baker

In my Vicar’s Voice article for the November–December 2023 RepORter, I wrote about the concept of Christian community and encouraged our members to think about how they could try to help someone feel incorporated into that community. Among my
suggestions at that time were initiating a conversation with someone new or visiting one of our homebound members. We might call that showing hospitality.

Hospitality has been on my mind quite a bit lately, as it’s come up in several conversations. Some of my seminary classmates and I—now approaching a year at our parishes—have discussed how to utilize hospitality to get to know our members on a more personal level. Especially considering the number of new members we’ve had join Our Redeemer in the past year, there’s been talk about how to leverage hospitality to better integrate them into our congregation. As the Long-Range Planning Committee has begun to develop a set of goals for Our Redeemer, multiple ideas related to hospitality have come up for consideration.

I’ll come back to that in a moment, but first, I want to remind you that hospitality is very Biblical in nature. One of the earliest and most illustrative Scriptural examples we have is Abraham setting bread, curds, milk, and a prepared calf before three visitors
(personifications of the triune God) as they passed by his tent (Gn. 18:1–8). The Gospels record various instances of Jesus being invited to dine at the homes of others (Mt. 9:10; [Mk. 2:15]; Lk. 7:36; 10:38; 11:37; 24:28–29; Jn. 12:2) and one case in which
He invited Himself to the home of Zacchaeus (Lk. 19:5–6). Elsewhere, we not only read descriptive passages about hospitality shown to the apostles (Ac. 10:23; 16:15; 21:17;
28:7), but also prescriptive ones which confirm that hospitality should be exercised among Christians:

Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. (Rm. 12:10–13, emphasis added)

Let brotherly love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. (Heb. 13:1–2, emphasis added) (see also 1 Tm. 3:2; Ti. 1:8; 1 Pt. 4:8–11)

The Greek word for “hospitality” in these verses is φιλοξενία (philoxenia). Closely related are the words φιλέω (phileo), which means “to consider someone a friend,” and φιλαδελφία (philadelphia), “brotherly affection,” as mentioned in both texts above. Although most of the examples I cited revolved around food, that’s not a requirement. Hospitality can be anything we do to show brotherly affection (i.e., kindness) to others.

After all, we most certainly do plenty of things with friends that don’t involve eating. As I urged in 2023, our demonstrations of hospitality should include not just those closest to us—our immediate family and favorite friends—but anyone who walks in our doors.

If you’re compelled to act but need specific ideas, here are some recently discussed at Our Redeemer:

 Volunteer to be a Divine Service greeter.
 Encourage others to come downstairs on Sundays for socializing and education hour.
 Get to know our new members and those working toward membership.
 Visit one or more of our homebound members.
 Invite your pastors to your home.
 Host or attend Wednesday evening meals during Advent and Lent.
 Organize and participate in congregational events such as potlucks, picnics, and game nights.
 Assist with planning community outreach/service/entertainment events. (Speak with the Board of Communication and Outreach for more information.)
 Suggest having a group (e.g., mothers, men, singles) gather at the church for simple time together.

As you can see, the options are wide-ranging. Everyone can have a part to play in exhibiting hospitality to members and non-members alike. It doesn’t have to be elaborate or time-consuming or expensive. Don’t let unrealistic expectations hinder you from doing something. In many cases, hospitality just involves offering a friendly welcome.

We think hospitality is so vital in the life of the Church that several of the above proposals will eventually be encompassed in the work of a new committee under consideration at Our Redeemer—the Community and Culture Committee. Stay tuned
for details to come about that. In the meantime, don’t wait for someone else to take the lead. Abraham didn’t agonize over planning a formal banquet for his guests. Zacchaeus didn’t say to Jesus, “I’m not really the social type.” They were each presented with a need and they responded. Let’s cultivate the same mindset in our congregation. Identify an opportunity and take action. Extend an invitation. I’m confident that, in doing so, you’ll discover how rewarding being hospitable can be.

—Pastor Baker

Image Source: https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4034/4670939397_0160f9c382_b.jpg

04/04/2026

Reverend’s Reflections: “Your bill has already been paid.”

By Pastor Michael Knox

Not long ago, my family and I went out for lunch after church. That’s what we do most Sundays. Each week we have a discussion about what kind of food everybody wants, and whether we have to go to grandpa’s favorite restaurant. When it’s someone’s birthday that week, he or she gets to pick the restaurant.

This particular week, we went to one of our regular places and ordered our food. The
food was served. We enjoyed our meal and the table conversation. The waitress came
by as she saw us finishing our meal. I asked her for the “check.” She quietly said to me
and Tammy, “Your bill has already been paid.” I responded, “How’s that?” to which she
answered, “An anonymous guest took care of it.” “How about the tip?” I asked. “Yes,
even the tip,” she said with a smile.

Paid in full! Of course, Tammy and I were thankful and pleasantly surprised.

But what would you think if the waitress hadn’t told us about the anonymous guest?
What if she had just let us pay the bill and kept the other payment for herself? You know that wouldn’t have been right. It would have been stealing from the anonymous guest and from us, too.

While Tammy and I were quite ready and able to pay our bill at the restaurant, the same cannot be said of our “bill” or “debt” with God. The Word of God makes it clear that our good works, our cries for mercy, our begging for time, our promises to do better, even our own physical death, won’t set things right between us and God. In Titus chapter 3, the Apostle Paul makes it clear that this is done for us only by Christ. “But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his
grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life” (Titus 3:4-7).

In the Epistle to the Colossians, Paul further reminds us that the bill is “paid in full.”
“And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross” (Colossians 2:13-14).

In these clear words, the Apostle proclaims this great truth: the sin you have inherited
from Adam (you know that from confirmation class as “original sin”), as well as the sins you have committed since (all of them), Jesus took this sin upon Himself and paid the bill in full.

That’s why in the confession of sins we normally use at the beginning of the Divine
Service includes this cry,

Almighty God, our maker and redeemer, we poor sinners confess unto You that
we are by nature sinful and unclean and that we have sinned against You by
thought, word, and deed. Wherefore we flee for refuge to Your infinite mercy,
seeking and imploring Your grace for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ.

There are false teachers in the world.

* Some tell their hearers that Christ paid some of the debt, the rest is up to you.
* Some tell their hearers that Christ paid the bill for some people but not for others.
* Some tell their hearers that Christ died as an example of love and now only
forgives you as you love others.

These false teachers, and others like them, steal from God and from those who listen to their lies. These false teachers rob their hearers of the true comfort and joy of knowing that, in Christ alone, their debt is paid and their sins are forgiven.

When my family went out to eat that Sunday afternoon, our meal was paid for by
someone else. We didn’t ask for it, we didn’t seek it, we didn’t earn it. A generous
individual just paid for it in full. For that we are thankful. As we in the Church move
through the Lenten season and anticipate the events of Holy Week, remembering the
bloody passion of Christ our Lord, and His glorious resurrection and triumph over sin,
death, and the grave, it is my privilege as your pastor to tell you again and again, your
debt is paid, your sins forgiven. Together may we be thankful.

—Pastor Knox

03/28/2026

Shepherd’s Speak: The Problem of Sin

By Pastor Brian Saunders

The title of my article is supposed to invoke head scratching. As a whole, all of us agree that sin is a problem. But what I want to write about in this article is that there is a problem with the problem of sin.

We are now in the penitential season of Lent. The color purple for the paraments as well as the Scripture readings and hymns all reflect the fact we are in the midst of a season of examination for repentance. But here is the problem with sin: it is tempting to think of repentance as being sorry for a specific act, thought, or word. Recalling the sin to mind, our broken heart is contrite, and we confess it before our Lord who knows all things. Our confession opens our ears that we may hear how God has addressed our problem of sin by escorting His Son to the Cross of redemption.

Repentance is that, and more. Repentance is not only over the things we can recall that have violated the Law of God. It is also a confession of who and what we are. Individual sins are only a manifestation of a larger problem. The problem is the nature of our Old Adam. We are by nature, because of original sin, sinners who exemplify that nature in our deeds or lack thereof.

Let me use an illustration that might explain my point. In upper northwest Iowa, the soil is rich with nutrients and produces marvelous harvests. Yet, before the seed can be planted, the soil must be tilled for stones. There are actually farm implements designed to pick up the stones (most are quite large and would damage a disk or plow blade) before anything else is done. Now, one might think that picking them up should take care of the problem and one would not have to worry about it again. However, those stones were at one time part of a massive bedrock many feet below the soil. Each year, with freeze and thaw, portions of that bedrock break off and work their way to the surface. Thus, the need to comb the fields every year. The bedrock is so deep and vast that there will never be an exhaustion of stones breaking off and creating the necessity to gather them before any planting can be done.

The bedrock in the analogy is our Original Sin. Each and every day, Original Sin is
manifested in one way or another by specific words, actions, thoughts, and misdeeds
that violate God’s Holy Law. During Lent, we are drawn to this fact and acknowledge
that is the state of being handed to us from our Original Parents, Adam and Eve. We
cannot escape it. We also cannot escape the fact that Original Sin raises its ugly head
to the surface through visible and invisible sins throughout our lives.

I don’t mean this to be a downer article. I write this for the benefit of the purpose of Lent. For 40 days we are reminded of the absolute necessity of “He who knew no sin,
became sin for us, so that we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians
5:21). Lent drives us to Good Friday and parks its hope in the empty tomb. Because of
Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, our indebtedness to God is as empty as the tomb
that could not hold He who is the Lord of Life and forgiveness.

So next time you see a stone, remember that it came from a bedrock beneath the
surface. So also, it should remind you that our actual sins are because of our original
sin. Then remember that Christ Jesus came from above all surfaces to join Himself to
us that He may deliver us from the headstone that will cover us. Because one day that
stone will give way to the Resurrection of Eternal Life.

Blessed stoney Lententide.

—Pastor Saunders

03/14/2026

Pontius Pilate

By Gerry Peterson

When we confess the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed, we mention the personal names of three people. Jesus and Mary are the easy ones. They are clearly in a special category. But the third person is also quite memorable: Pontius Pilate. We are all familiar with Pilate’s interrogation and then his condemnation of Jesus shortly before the Crucifixion. Jesus and Pilate were men from very different worlds, literally and figuratively. Pilate was the Roman governor of Judaea. Jesus was the Son of God, but in Pilate’s eyes, Jesus was likely just another troublesome, maybe even revolutionary, Judaean. They spoke different languages. However, translation aside, they seemed to be speaking past, rather than to, one another. Pilate wanted an annoying civic and political matter sorted out quickly. Jesus wished to speak the divine truth of God.

Our pastors give us depth and understanding about what Jesus and Pilate said that day. They provide good context about what led to and then what resulted from that scene. But I think that it might be interesting to learn a bit more about Pilate, a man who thought that he could win an argument with Jesus Christ.

Scholars and church historians have speculated widely for almost two thousand years
about Pontius Pilate, but little factual evidence has emerged. Pilate might have been
born in central Italy in about 10 B.C. If so, he was about ten years older than Jesus. He
was likely born into the equestrian order, a middle rank of Roman nobility. He probably had a certain amount of education and political influence. He also likely had military experience. In about 27 A.D., the Roman Emperor Tiberius appointed Pilate to the post of governor, or prefect, of Judaea.

As governor, Pilate had broad military, civic, political, and religious authority in Judaea. His military authority probably was more like strict policing. He did not engage in battles against foreign enemies. Rather, his troops kept order in the sometimes-restive province of Judaea. He lived in Caesarea, not in Jerusalem, but he traveled around the province at his own pleasure and when his personal presence seemed necessary. He could issue coins, hold court, and administer justice. He spoke for Caesar in Judaea.

One especially interesting aspect of Pilate’s authority extended to religious matters.
Pilate often went to Jerusalem for Jewish holy days, such as Passover. No, he did not
go there to worship. Rather, he and his military/police forces went there to keep an eye on things. There would be large numbers of visitors to the city; trouble might well erupt. Pilate and his troops could watch cautiously from the Roman fortress Antonia, close to the Temple.

Pilate also had authority to make the annual appointment of the Jewish High Priest.
That seems odd, but perhaps it simply recognized the multilevel importance of the High Priest in Jewish religion, society, and culture. Pilate appointed the same man, Joseph ben Caiaphas, as High Priest every year during his tenure as governor. Pilate and Caiaphas apparently worked well together. Pilate also seemed to have good relations with the Sadducees, but not with the Pharisees. This is understandable. The Sadducees seemed to consist primarily of Jewish civic-minded businessmen, politicians, and local citizens who got along with Romans and Greeks. The Pharisees were more inclined to strict observance and study of the Law of God. They did not easily associate with outsiders or even other Jewish factions.

The trial of Jesus is a critical matter for Christians. We must leave it to our pastors to
explain it to us and to put it into its proper perspective. Both Christian and secular
historians have quarreled for centuries about what happened that day. Was it a special, notable, and unusual event in the secular Roman world? Or, in Roman eyes, was it just another day of work for Pilate? In an interesting sidelight, the Evangelist Matthew notes that the unnamed wife of Pilate had troubling dreams and warned him to stay away from the whole matter involving Jesus that arose at the Passover (Matthew 27:19).

Apparently, Pilate thought it wiser to be a friend of the Emperor Tiberius than to take his wife’s advice. He held court and condemned Jesus. After this, Pilate continued to serve as governor of Judaea for about five or six more years. However, in 37 A.D., the Roman governor of Syria, who had authority over Pilate, dismissed him on unknown charges and sent him to Rome to face trial by Emperor Tiberius. Pilate’s ten-year term of service in Judaea was exceptionally long. It is hard now to know what his failings in governance had been. We do not know if the charges were acute or longstanding. In any case, Pilate departed from Judaea in 37 A.D., but by the time he reached Rome, Tiberius had died. And that is the last of what we know for certain about Pilate.

Our Redeemer Lutheran Church - Lutheran Church Missouri Synod

06/06/2026

05/31/2026

05/17/2026

05/10/2026

05/08/2026

04/04/2026

03/28/2026

03/14/2026

Address

Opening Hours

Telephone

Website

Alerts

Shortcuts

Share

Category

Tuesday	12:30pm - 3:30pm
Thursday	12:30pm - 3:30pm
Sunday	9am - 12pm