Daily Devotions

Friday of Holy Week

Friday of Holy Week
 

What is power? How would you define that simple and yet complex word? And after you define it, then tell me how does a person obtain it? Many would assume that power is the ability to control the actions of others. Power is seen in positions and titles. To have power there must be some sort of structure which has a hierarchy in place of who is over whom. We see this play out every day of our lives – the person taking your order at McDonald’s does not have as much power as the person who owns the place; the salesmen can’t tell his manager what to do; the general makes the command, the lieutenant obeys. This power can be used either positively or negatively. You’ve probably had good bosses and terrible bosses in your work career. Power used for the benefit of others will often result in the whole hierarchy succeeding.

But if that’s our working definition (and by the way, there are many more valid definitions), then who has the power on Good Friday?

Jesus stands before the Sanhedrin. He is bound and beaten; the council does the beating. Who has the power? The council does. They send Jesus to Pilate. Only he has the power to put someone to death. He commands his soldiers to flog Jesus. Who has the power? Pilate does. Pilate finds Jesus innocent of any crime, but he can’t let Jesus go because he is afraid of being called a traitor against Caesar by the crowd. Who has the power? The crowd does.

What does this teach us about power? It’s fickle. It’s temporary. It’s unwieldy. Everyone must answer to someone else. Nobody has all the power.

Except… look at this exchange between Jesus and Pilate: So Pilate asked him, “Are you not talking to me? Don’t you know that I have the authority to release you or to crucify you?” Jesus answered, “You would have no authority over me at all if it had not been given to you from above.” (John 19:10,11)

Who was really in control? Who had the power? God.

Jesus, true God, was in control. But his power was hidden. He didn’t make it known as most would have in his position. When arrested the night before, Jesus says that he could call down a legion of angels to protect, but he won’t. Jesus tells Pilate that he could leave at any moment, but he is a different type of king.

Jesus had the power, but he didn’t use it to control others. Jesus used his power to drink the cup of judgment that God the Father had given him. Jesus used his power not to control but to serve. He used his power to bring victory over sin, death, and the power of the devil by allowing himself to be hung on a tree, to be judged for our sins, and to be killed even though he was innocent. That is true power. The King of the world died by the world’s hand to save mankind from its sins.

On Good Friday we see Jesus in control. We see in his power Jesus cry out, “It is finished.” And after winning our salvation, he was still in control. John tells us, “Then, bowing his head, he gave up his spirit.” Death didn’t take his spirit. He didn’t succumb to his wounds. Jesus gave up his spirit. Death had no power over him. Of course, we see this greater still a few days later, when Jesus is raised from the dead, proving that he has power over it.

In his victory, Jesus doesn’t use his power to glorify himself. He uses it for you. St. Paul writes, “For we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will also raise us with Jesus and bring us (together with you) into his presence. In fact, all this is for your benefit, so that as grace increases, it will overflow to the glory of God, as more and more people give thanks.” (2 Corinthians 4:14,15 EHV)

May your Good Friday observance be one filled with blessing as you see the power of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

 

 

 


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Thursday of Holy Week

Thursday of Holy Week

We call it Maundy Thursday. “Maundy” means “command” and comes from the words of Jesus: “A new command I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another” (John 13:34).  By the next day, the disciples would see in Jesus a higher standard of love than the old commandment offered, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” (Leviticus 19:18)

Maundy Thursday shows us the faithful love of God in contrast to the failing love of man.  This is the day of the Passover celebration- that religious festival that commemorated that great act of merciful deliverance when the Lord delivered his people from slavery in Egypt and spared them from death on that night when all the firstborn in Egypt perished.  The blood of an innocent lamb on the doorposts of their homes had saved their ancestors.  Now it was time for the blood of the innocent Lamb of God to save all mankind.

So Jesus shares the Passover meal with his disciples.  God intended the Passover meal to be eaten with one’s family.  Here we see the faithful love of Jesus.  He considers these men his family.  He knows (and actually says so this night) that Judas is betraying him, that Peter will deny him, and that the rest of the disciples will abandon him.  Yet Jesus hosts them for this meal.  He washes their dirty feet before the meal, performing servant work for them knowing that, before the night is over, they will be arguing over who will be the greatest when Jesus rises to power as the earthly king they hope he will be.  He gives them his own body and blood as he institutes the Lord’s Supper, knowing that, later that night when he is arrested, they will flee into the shadows to save their own skin.  He remains committed to his Father’s will to die for them even in the agony of Gethsemane, while they show the depth of their commitment to Jesus there by taking a nap when he asks them to watch and pray with him.

Jesus has a lot to say to them that night (John 14-16). I recommend you read it.  If I were Jesus, I would have been able to think only of myself and what I was about to endure.  My mood would have been self-pitying.  But Jesus is thinking about his disciples’ needs.  They have no idea what heartache, grief, fear, and doubt is waiting for them beginning this night. But Jesus knows what they will need, as he is aware of your needs even before you are and always gives you what you need.  So in faithful love, he gives them words of comfort to get them through the next difficult days:

John 14:1-3 Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.

John 14:18-20 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.

John 14:27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.

John 16:22  Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.

John 16:33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

More than that, in faithful love he gives them his body and his blood (“poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins”- Matt. 26:28), so that the guilt of their failure to show committed love to Jesus this night does not drive them to despair.  It’s why he gives his body and blood to us too.  He knows our love for him often falters and fails in the most shameful ways, just as the disciples’ love did that night. But in faithful love he keeps coming to us in his supper to assure that his love, his mercy, and his forgiveness are unfailing. 

One more thing, Jesus spells out for them this night how the world will hate them as much as it hates him, and he goes into specifics about how they will be persecuted by people who think killing them is doing God a favor.  (John 15:18-16:4)  “All this I have told you so that you will not go astray,” Jesus explains (John 16:1)  How we need to hear those words.  It is tempting to go astray, to dismiss those teachings of Jesus that are unpopular in our culture, or to live a covert Christian life so we can avoid being potential targets of ridicule or hate for Jesus’ sake.  But distancing ourselves from Jesus and his truth is not the answer.  This is: “If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit. If you remain in me, and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be given to you.  This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. ” (John 15:5,8)

Remain in the Savior whose love remains faithful even when ours falters and fails.  Assured of his love and forgiveness over and over in his gospel in word and sacrament, you and I will find always find the comfort and strength we need to keep following him and bearing our crosses on the path he has blazed to eternal glory.


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Wednesday Of Holy Week

Wednesday Of Holy Week

Wednesday of Holy Week is a quiet day.  Jesus stays away from Jerusalem.  The big event of this day is Judas, one of Jesus’ own disciples, meeting with the religious leaders in Jerusalem to arrange for Jesus to be seized under the cover of darkness on Thursday evening.  For this reason, this day has been called “Spy Wednesday.”

In Matthew’s gospel, he places this meeting after the account of Mary anointing Jesus in Bethany- an event that actually happened the night before Palm Sunday.  Matthew intends to contrast Mary’s actions with that of Judas.  So in his account, Matthew 26:1-16, it goes like this:

1 When Jesus had finished saying all these things, he said to his disciples, 2 “As you know, the Passover is two days away– and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.” 3 Then the chief priests and the elders of the people assembled in the palace of the high priest, whose name was Caiaphas, 4 and they plotted to arrest Jesus in some sly way and kill him. 5 “But not during the Feast,” they said, “or there may be a riot among the people.” 6 While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of a man known as Simon the Leper, 7 a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on his head as he was reclining at the table.

8 When the disciples saw this, they were indignant. “Why this waste?” they asked. 9 “This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor.” 10 Aware of this, Jesus said to them, “Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me. 11 The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me. 12 When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial. 13 I tell you the truth, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”

14 Then one of the Twelve– the one called Judas Iscariot– went to the chief priests 15 and asked, “What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?” So they counted out for him thirty silver coins. 16 From then on Judas watched for an opportunity to hand him over.

Mary got it.  She understood that Jesus’ purpose was to die for the sins of the world.  That is why she honored him while she could, anointing his body with a perfume so expensive that it cost what a common laborer would make in a year, probably tens of thousands of dollars today.  But Jesus was worth that much to her.  For he was the sinless Son of God, willing to give up his life for a sinner like her, in order to give her the priceless blessings of being certain, through his sacrifice, that God loved her, that her sins were forgiven, that she was reconciled to God, that heaven was her home.

Judas got it too.  He heard Jesus say that Mary had anointed him for his burial.  Judas realized, maybe much more clearly than the other disciples, that Jesus was actually going to go through with what he had been talking about for weeks- letting himself be killed by the religious leaders in Jerusalem.  So in that moment Judas made the decision to cut and run, to cash in while he still had the chance, to betray Jesus for what he could get out of it. 

Money was really Judas’ god.  For in John’s account of the anointing of Jesus in Bethany, it is Judas who objects to what Mary is doing, ranting about how that perfume could have been sold and the money given to the poor.  John tells us that this objection was just a front, for the truth is that Judas had the habit of stealing money from the communal funds of the group.  Judas was mad that night, not because the poor were being neglected, but because he was going to have less money to steal. 

Wednesday of Holy Week, therefore, is a good day to ask ourselves, “What do I really value?  Is Jesus my greatest treasure?  Is he worth so much to me that I eagerly give him lavish love for his love for me, lavish thanks for my salvation, lavish worship for his grace, lavish obedience to his word, lavish offerings for his mission, lavish trust that he will take care of me?  Or do my attitudes and actions often reveal that I love and trust what money can give me or do for me too much?”  

Though Jesus knows what Judas is doing on Wednesday of Holy Week, Jesus washes Judas’ feet the next night.  He hosts Judas and the others disciples at the Passover meal that is meant to be enjoyed by those you consider your family.  Jesus receives Judas’ kiss of betrayal later that night.  And the next day Jesus dies for Judas and his sins.  That is what Judas was worth to Jesus. 

That is what you are worth to Jesus too, despite the ways you have valued him too little.  Remember that today.  Rejoice in the value you have in Jesus’ willing death for you, and in the value you have as a forgiven sinner today because of his death for you.  And in all the opportunities to show how much you value him as your Savior today, let thankfulness and love guide your response. 


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