Category Archives: Lent Devotional

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 been tempted to use his…

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 about Judas Iscariot. He was…

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 work, family or community life,…

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 suffer terribly in a war…

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 finished, and his sentence sealed,…

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 Emperor Tiberias. Poor Pilate probably…

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 to deny Christ to the…

Reading: Luke 22:47-54 The evening was ending badly, very badly. The week began in triumph as Jesus rode a donkey into the city where thousands were shouting his praise. Now Jesus is about to face punishment for something he did not do. He was accused by the establishment to be a rebel, an agitator, an…