Lenten Devotionals
Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5| Week 6 | Holy Week
Monday, March 17
John l2:1-11
Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. 2There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. 3Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them* with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. 4But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, 5‘Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii* and the money given to the poor?’ 6(He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) 7Jesus said, ‘Leave her alone. She bought it* so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. 8 You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.’
9 When the great crowd of the Jews learned that he was there, they came not only because of Jesus but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. 10So the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death as well, 11since it was on account of him that many of the Jews were deserting and were believing in Jesus.
Mary and Judas represent two opposite responses to the life and ministry of Jesus. In this passage the differences are striking. The drama is intense, even six days before the Passover. Judas raises questions about the use of such costly anointing perfume, but we are told that his questions are not pure. Mary says nothing but acts extravagantly toward Jesus in love and devotion. Jesus lets all those who have watched the drama unfold know that Mary’s act is accepted and is in fact preparation for his death and burial. Her act of love and devotion overflows with meaning and effect. Just as the aroma of the anointing oil used in services of healing remains with those who have been anointed, reminding them of their prayers and God’s ongoing intention to heal and make whole long after the act of anointing, Jesus and Mary and Martha, and Lazarus, and Judas took with them into the week the aroma of that costly perfume.
“To walk in the presence of the Lord means to move forward in life in such a way that all our desires, thoughts, and actions are constantly guided by him. When we walk in the Lord’s presence, everything we see, hear, touch, or taste reminds us of him. This is what is meant by a prayerful life. It is not a life in which we say many prayers, but a life in which nothing, absolutely nothing, is done, said, or understood independently of him who is the origin and purpose of our existence.” Henri Nouwen’s The Living Reminder
Prayer
Holy and loving God, may we be mindful of the journey that Jesus took. May we ponder the meaning of the events and his response. Open our hearts to more fully receive the gift of his love for us. Grant us the courage to be faithful, moment by moment. Amen.
Tuesday, March 18
John 12:20-36
20 Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. 21They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, ‘Sir, we wish to see Jesus.’ 22Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. 23Jesus answered them, ‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honour. 27 ‘Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say—“Father, save me from this hour”? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. 28Father, glorify your name.’ Then a voice came from heaven, ‘I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.’ 29The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, ‘An angel has spoken to him.’ 30Jesus answered, ‘This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. 31Now is the judgement of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. 32And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people* to myself.’ 33He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die. 34The crowd answered him, ‘We have heard from the law that the Messiah* remains for ever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?’ 35Jesus said to them, ‘The light is with you for a little longer. Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you. If you walk in the darkness, you do not know where you are going. 36While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of light.’
Jesus is talking about his approaching death and the deaths we are invited to share so that we might have life, eternal life, here and now. “Whoever loves their lives will lose them....whoever serves me must follow me.”
“The heart is given and the price is paid. When we fall in love (with God in Christ), we risk pain and we will always suffer for it. The cross is not the price that Jesus had to pay to talk God into love us. It is simply where love will lead us. Jesus names the agenda. If we love, if we give ourselves to feel the pain of the world, it will crucify us. (This understanding of the crucifixion is much better than thinking of Jesus as paying some debt to an alienated God, who needs to be talked into loving us.)” Richard Rohr, Everything Belongs
Prayer
Holy and loving God, we seek to be children of the light. Today may we be willing to let go of those things that keep us from following the Light, those things that keep us in the darkness. You know better than we, O God, what those things are. Remove them so that we may follow Jesus. Amen.
Wednesday, March 19
John 13:21-32
21 After saying this Jesus was troubled in spirit, and declared, ‘Very truly, I tell you, one of you will betray me.’ 22The disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom he was speaking. 23One of his disciples—the one whom Jesus loved—was reclining next to him; 24Simon Peter therefore motioned to him to ask Jesus of whom he was speaking. 25So while reclining next to Jesus, he asked him, ‘Lord, who is it?’ 26Jesus answered, ‘It is the one to whom I give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.’* So when he had dipped the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas son of Simon Iscariot.* 27 After he received the piece of bread,* Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, ‘Do quickly what you are going to do.’ 28Now no one at the table knew why he said this to him. 29Some thought that, because Judas had the common purse, Jesus was telling him, ‘Buy what we need for the festival’; or, that he should give something to the poor. 30So, after receiving the piece of bread, he immediately went out. And it was night.31 When he had gone out, Jesus said, ‘Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. 32If God has been glorified in him,* God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once.
It is as if the drama is happening in different dimensions, at different levels. The disciples are watching the behavior of Jesus and listening to his words but there is something else happening that escapes them or is hidden from them. What started out as a holy re-enactment of the Passover feast, holy but steeped in tradition, with the same words spoken each year...holy but predictable....that symbolic act took a strange turn when Jesus spoke of betrayal. And then Jesus began to speak of the Son of Man being glorified, at once! What is happening? What does Jesus mean?
“The love of Christ manifested itself in his sheer vulnerability....This sheer vulnerability made him wide open both to suffering and to joy....Vulnerability means to be hurt over and over again without seeking to love less, but more. Divine love is sheer vulnerability--sheer openness to giving. Hence, when it enters the world, either in the person of Jesus or in one of his disciples, it is certain to encounter persecution--death many times over. But
it will also encounter the joy of ever rising again....The best way to receive divine love is to give it away, and the more we pass on, the more we increase our capacity to receive.” Thomas Keating, The Heart of the World
Prayer
And now, holy God, setting our wisdom, our will, our worlds aside, emptying our hearts, and bringing nothing in our hands, we hearn for the healing, the holding, the accepting, the forgiving which Christ alone can offer. Convert us from the pattern of this passing world until we conform to the shape of the One who saves us and love us. Amen.
Maundy Thursday, March 20
John 13:1-35
Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. 2The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him. And during supper 3Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, 4got up from the table,* took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. 5Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. 6He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, ‘Lord, are you going to wash my feet?’ 7Jesus answered, ‘You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.’ 8Peter said to him, ‘You will never wash my feet.’ Jesus answered, ‘Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.’ 9Simon Peter said to him, ‘Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!’ 10Jesus said to him, ‘One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet,* but is entirely clean. And you* are clean, though not all of you.’ 11For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, ‘Not all of you are clean.’ 12 After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, ‘Do you know what I have done to you? 13You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. 14So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. 16Very truly, I tell you, servants* are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. 17If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them.
31 When he had gone out, Jesus said, ‘Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. 32If God has been glorified in him,* God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. 33Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, “Where I am going, you cannot come.” 34I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. 35By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.’
Divine hospitality is offered to the disciples on that special night. A symbolic act that portrays God’s deep and abiding love for those particular people in that room and all that would partake of the gift of bread and wine, his body and his blood, after that. And not only the master washing their feet but giving them a new commandment, to love one another. “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
The sign that demonstrates that we follow Jesus is that we love each other! Consistent with his other messages but profound in its placement here in their last time together as a community before his death! What a fragile symbol of their discipleship! How difficult to obey! God’s hospitality is shared with those at that Passover feast and they are told to pass that hospitality on to each other. “By this....by this....by this.....everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” How are we doing? In 2008 are others able to see it in us, watch us, hear it in us?
We have been welcomed at the Table of our Lord with radical hospitality, divine hospitality, and we have are asked to love one another. Beyond our judgments, our likes and our dislikes, are we expressing that radical, divine hospitality? “Freely, freely, we have received.” Have we freely given?
Prayer
Loving God, open our hearts so that we may fel the breath and play of your Spirit. Unclench our hands so that we may reach out to one another, and touch and be healed. Open our lips that we may drink in the delight and wonder of life. Open our eyes so that we may see Christ in friend and stranger. Breathe your Spirit into us and touch our lives with the life of Christ. Amen. from Aotearoa, New Zealand
Friday, March 21
John 19:28-30
28 After this, when Jesus knew that all was now finished, he said (in order to fulfil the scripture), ‘I am thirsty.’ 29A jar full of sour wine was standing there. So they put a sponge full of the wine on a branch of hyssop and held it to his mouth. 30When Jesus hadreceived the wine, he said, ‘It is finished.’ Then he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
“When Jesus suffered and died on the cross, God bore the sin and suffering of the world. By giving his life to the bitter end, Jesus shared the fate of all innocent victims of inhumanity. He took the suffering of the world upon himself. He absorbed the agony of broken hearts and twisted lives. Moreover, he carried that suffering into his eternal relationship with the One he called Abba. The definitive response to the question of suffering in our world is the response that Jesus lived out....God in Christ ‘suffers with’ the world. This is the actual meaning of the word compassion. Nothing expresses the central truth of God’s essence more fully than compassion,the outworking of God’s self-giving love. We see compassion in the cross. Compassion is the fertile suffering of love that births a new creation.” Paul Wesley Chilcote, Changed from Glory into Glory
Saturday, March 22
Romans 6:3-11
3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. 7For whoever has died is freed from sin. 8But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10The death he died, he died to sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Holy Saturday is the day that we wait and watch. We know that the transformation of Jesus the Christ into the Risen Lord is happening. We know the ‘end’ of the story, but we are not able to go there quickly after Good Friday. We wait. Our waiting offers us an invitation to ponder our own need for transformation from death to life. Transformation is the only thing
left to be done. And so we ask God to transform us in large or small ways. Maybe over these days of Lent 2008 we have discovered that we are able to make changes in our lives so that we are more disciplined followers of Jesus. Maybe we haven’t been ‘successful’ in any way that we intended on Ash Wednesday, February 6, 2008. The Good News is that our transformations are not dependent on our own abilities or accomplishments. We can work with God or work against God, but finally we come face to face with the reality that it is only by the grace of God that we get a glimpse of transformation in our lives. It is only by the grace of God that transformation happens at all.
So, today, as we wait with Jesus, we let ourselves become aware of our need for God’s loving, healing power and in that awareness we give thanks.
Prayer
Holy God, You raised Jesus from the dead as the sign of your forgiveness of everything and everyone. As we wait with him this day we ask for the gift of boundless confidence in your infinite love and mercy. And we give you thanks for the transformations that we experience in our Risen Lord. Amen.
Easter Sunday, March 23
John 20:1-18
Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. 2 So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.’ 3Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went towards the tomb. 4The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. 6Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, 7and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. 8Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; 9for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. 10Then the disciples returned to their homes.
11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look* into the tomb; 12and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. 13 They said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping?’ She said to them, ‘They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.’ 14 When she had said this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? For whom are you looking?’ Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, ‘Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.’ 16Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’ She turned and said to him in Hebrew,* ‘Rabbouni!’ (which means Teacher). 17Jesus said to her, ‘Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” ’ 18Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord’; and she told them that he had said these things to her.
“In Christ the reconciliation of the world with God took place. The world will be overcome not by destruction but by reconciliation. Not ideals or programs, not conscience, duty, responsibility, or virtue, but only the consummate love of God can meet and overcome reality. Again, this is accomplished not by a general idea of love, but by the love of God really lived in Jesus Christ. This love of God for the world does not withdraw from reality into noble souls detached from the world, but experienes and suffers the reality of the world at its worst. The world exhausts its rage on the body of Jesus Christ. But the martyred one forgives the world its sins Thus reconciliation takes place. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Ethics 82-83
Bonhoeffer was a Christian minister, seminary professor, and theologian who was imprisoned and later executed by the Nazis for his resistance to Hitler. His most popular books are The Cost of Discipleship, Life Together, and Letters and Papers from Prison. (1906-1945)
Prayer
Lord Christ, enable me to place my trust in you and so to live in the present moment. So often I forget tht you long for peace and healing in my mind and heart. Your song pierces even my darkest days, and your hands are always, and everywhere, the source of my journey into wholeness and that inner springtime which is your gift alone, Jesus, the Risen One. Amen.
