Reading: Matthew 26:47-56 And he came up to Jesus at once and said, “Greetings, Rabbi!” And he kissed him. Jesus said to him, “Friend, do what you came to do.” Then they came up and laid hands on Jesus and seized him. Under any other circumstance this scene looks like
Reading: Luke 22:39-46 He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done.” Jesus and his friends were often tired or hungry. As a former child refugee, Jesus must have
Reading: Matthew 26:4-16; 27:1-10 Then one of the twelve, whose name was Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said, “What will you give me if I deliver him over to you?” And they paid him thirty pieces of silver. And from that moment he sought an opportunity to betray him. We don’t know much
I don’t know what challenges your faith most. Maybe it’s the problem of suffering. There is plenty of it in the world and each time violence creeps onto your radar screen, you wonder anew whether God cares. Or maybe it isn’t so much evil out there as failure within. In
Reading: Luke 23:26 – 49 As he walked to the cross, Jesus particularly noticed the “daughters of Jerusalem” who were weeping for him. Rather than focusing on his own beaten body and troubled heart, he prophesied about their future fate. A few decades later, these women and their children would
Reading: Mark 15:16-20 It’s so early in the morning, so early that all those awake consider it late at night. Jesus has been arrested by his enemies and abandoned by his friends. He’s been convicted by his opponents and condemned to execution when the sun comes up. His official flogging
Reading: Mark 15:1-15 “Can’t we all just get along?” Pontius Pilate was probably thinking something along those lines as Jesus and Barabbas stood in front of a wrathful crowd. He was worried about losing his job, and rightly so. Angry priests had been accusing a homeless man of rebelling against
The Prediction: Matthew 26:31-35 The Denial: Matthew 26:69-75 Obviously, fear for his life was the motivational factor that caused Peter to lie and deny his Lord, whom he loved, so soon after vowing he would be true to Christ to the point of death. I haven’t yet been called upon
