SUNDAY 4 (March 31, 2019)

Psalm 95: A call to true worship

1 O come, let us sing to the Lord; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! 2 Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!

3 For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods. 4 In his hand are the depths of the earth; the heights of the mountains are his also. 5 The sea is his, for he made it, and the dry land, which his hands have formed.

6 O come, let us worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker! 7 For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.

O that today you would hear his voice! 8 Harden not your hearts, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, 9 when your fathers tested me, and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work. 10 For forty years I loathed that generation and said, “They are a people who err in heart, and they do not regard my ways.” 11 Therefore I swore in my anger that they should not enter my rest.

Day 22 (Saturday, March 30, 2019)

Read

John 11:32-44


32 Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” 33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. 34 And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Jesus wept. 36 So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” 37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?”

38 Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. 39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.” 40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” 41 So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.” 43 When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” 44 The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”*

Reflect

Jesus wept. The word wept describes a deep anguished cry of grief, the cry of heartfelt loss. Why did Jesus react this way? He knew he was going to bring Lazarus out of the tomb. I suggest he wasn’t grieving so much for the passing of his friend but for our human plight. No matter how successful we are, how good and compassionate we are, death awaits us all.

Men and women who had been created in God’s image are now broken images and broken images cannot endure the pure light of God’s perfection and glory. Jesus was grieving for what we as men and women had lost. As in Adam all die. At Lazarus’s graveside, Jesus felt the full impact of this and wept. But there is a sense in which Jesus grieved at what our loss would mean for him. It would mean that he himself would have to die. Only through his death could he conquer death and raise to life anyone who turned to him and believed in him. For as in Adam all die, wrote Paul, so in Christ shall all be made alive (1 Cor. 15:22).

One of our greatest comforts when we lose a loved one and when we face the reality of our own mortality are Jesus’ words: I am the resurrection and the life. His imperative, “Lazarus, come out” foreshadowed the greatest of all days when he will say, “Unbind them, and let them go” to all who have died in him. We live with this great comfort and this great hope and it’s our privilege to share this with others.

Prayer

Almighty God, you have given your only Son to be for us both a sacrifice for sin and also an example of godly living; give us grace so that we may always thankfully receive the immeasurable benefit of his sacrifice, and also daily endeavor to follow in the blessed steps of his most holy life; who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for evermore. Amen. (BCP, Easter 2)

Daily Reading Plan

Read John 11:28-57


(* Today’s selected passage is from the ESV).

Day 21 (Friday, March 29, 2019)

Read

John 11:17-27


17 When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. 18 Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, 19 and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. 20 When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. 21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.” 23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” 25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” 27 She said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.”

Reflect

It is said that there are two certainties in life: death and taxes. We are happy to talk about the latter, but not discuss the former. Imagine asking a hostess at a dinner party if she had thought about her death recently…! It is the one remaining subject that is simply taboo. Yet it is the one ultimate certainty we all face. And there is only one person who claims he can do anything about it.

John has been telling us that life had been heating up for Jesus in Jerusalem. The Jewish leaders had attempted to stone him (John 10:31) for his apparent blasphemy. So Jesus left the city and went to the region east of the Jordan River. There he learned that his friend Lazarus, brother of Martha and Mary, was dying in the village of Bethany near Jerusalem. Hearing that Lazarus had died, and against the advice of his disciples who feared the Jewish leaders, Jesus returned to Bethany, where he was first met by Martha.

In the course of talking with her he made the amazing assertion: “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.” He didn’t say, ‘I promise resurrection and life;’ or ‘I procure,’ or, ‘I bring’ but ‘I am.’ Unless he is one with God his words are nothing but blasphemy.

C.S. Lewis commented that Jesus was a liar or a lunatic, or he was telling the truth. The witness of the New Testament, the evidence of history, the existence of the Christian church, all point to the conclusion that Jesus’ words are the truth. As he asked Martha that day, so he asks us today, “Do you believe this?” If you do believe this, how will it effect your conversations with people you meet?

Prayer

Almighty God, you have conquered death through your dearly beloved Son Jesus Christ and have opened to us the gate of everlasting life: grant us by your grace to set our mind on things above, so that by your continual help our whole life may be transformed; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit in everlasting glory. Amen. (BCP, Easter Day)

Daily Reading Plan

Read John 11:1-27

Day 20 (Thursday, March 28, 2019)

Read

John 10:16-18, 27-30

16 “…I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. 17 For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father…”

27 My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. 29 What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father’s hand. 30 The Father and I are one.”

Reflect

We often forget that Jesus’ first followers were ordinary people from Galilee. They were not well known, highly educated or widely respected. They were no one in particular. Yet Jesus, the celebrity teacher or rabbi who was commanding everyone’s attention through his extraordinary miracles and powerful, controversial teaching, had invited them into his team. In turn, he had awakened in them increasing respect, awe and ultimately, devotion. They came to see him not just as a prophet, but as more than a prophet. They saw that he was the good shepherd, God in human form. We have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth, John testified (1:14).

Jesus took his first followers into his confidence, taught them, and gave them the privilege of being his emissaries to the world. For Jesus has a big mission: to reach the world. And from the first he intended to involve his people in this task. His plan is a reflection of the nature of the relationship he has with God the Father and a relationship he wants us to enjoy and participate in. He did everything necessary to lay the foundation for this work. He announced who he was and what he had come to do; he gave plenty of evidence (signs) that he was who he said he was; he even laid down his life so that he could give them eternal life (10:28).

In John 20 and 21 we will see that Jesus commissioned his first followers (the Twelve) to introduce people from all races and nations to him as the one true Lord and God, to know and love him as the true shepherd, the giver of eternal life.

Prayer

Lord Jesus Christ, at your first coming you sent your messenger to prepare the way before you: grant that the ministers and stewards of your mysteries may likewise make ready your way, by turning the hearts of the disobedient to the ways of the righteous, so that at your second coming to judge the world, we may be found an acceptable people in your sight; for you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and for ever. Amen. (BCP, Advent 3)

Daily Reading Plan

Read John 10:22-42