Maundy Thursday
Psalm 102, 142, 143
Jeremiah 20:7-11
1 Corinthians 10:14-17; 11:27-32
John 17:1-11 (12-26)
We read in John 17 that even as Christ anticipates His sacrifice, He prays for the world He is about to leave. From the beginning of His ministry, Jesus has preached the Word of God, given of Himself - the Word - and poured Himself into the lives of His disciples. Jesus' ministry was a preparation so that the disciples could continue the work He began.
Just as He felt the pressure and animosity from the Jewish and Gentile leaders, so too are His disciples, are we, going to feel pressure, animosity, hatred from the world around us. As believers, we are no longer members of this world, but are now members of a kingdom: the Kingdom of God. We have become sojourners on this earth, visitors to this planet - resident aliens. We reside here while eagerly anticipating the second coming of Christ. It is not always easy, for we are torn between two worlds: the sinful world we came from and the New Heavens and New Earth to which we truly belong. Not only are we living in a world that hates us, but we are also in exile, longing for our home.
Yet we can take solace for Jesus is with us. We may have to stay in the world, until our death or Christ's coming, but God is with us. We are kept from the evil one; we are kept from the evil powers of the world; we are sealed and marked as Christ's own. Because of what Jesus did on Calvary, we can be called sons and daughters of God. Jesus made it through the world. He made it through temptation, suffering and death. In Him we too can make it. In Him we have the strength to sustain us as we live in the world.
Lord Jesus, Thank you for the cross. Thank you for the cross you bore in life, and for the cross you bore in death. Thank you that you have sealed us so that we too may share in Your glory. Sustain us Lord through our time as aliens on this earth; lead us and guide us to the time we meet You in the New Heavens and New Earth. In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Miriam Seely, MAME
San Antonio, TX
Good Friday
Psalm 95, 22, 40:1-14 (15-19), 54
Genesis 22:1-14
John 13:36-38
John 19:38-42
While none of today's readings specifically mention the cross, even so, we are unmistakably reminded of the loneliness and isolation of our Lord at His death. We hear from Peter, declaring that he is prepared to lay down his life for Jesus. But Jesus, knowing the true hearts of men, rebukes him and announces that Peter will deny his Lord three times before the cock crows. When the time comes for His crucifixion, we find Jesus alone on the cross with even his closest disciple having deserted Him. And we have the opening verse of Psalm 22, the very Scripture quoted by Jesus on the cross, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" In Jesus' perfect obedience to God the Father, He is left hanging on the Cross. He is separated not only from his earthly friends, but from the very love of God as He endures death for the sins of others.
This loneliness, however, should belong to us, not to Christ. It is our sins that have driven a wedge between us and God. Yet Christ took them to the cross for us, enduring agonizing separation from God the Father. And despite this act of love, we, like Peter, continue to deny Him. We deny Jesus our hearts, our souls, and our minds. We deny him complete authority in our lives, and we find ourselves floundering, relying on our own sinful nature to navigate this fallen world. And yet, there is always the cross. Despite the pain, torment, and anguish He endured, Christ longs for nothing more than to meet us at the foot of the cross. Here, we are invited to lay down our lives, so that Christ may redeem them, so that in us, His glory may be revealed.
Lord Jesus Christ, you endured the isolation of the Cross so that we may be spared eternal separation from God. As we remember your death, may we reminded of our continued need to lay down our lives at the foot of the cross, to the honor and glory of Your Name, Amen.
Tyler Prescott, MDiv
Charleston, SC
Holy Saturday
Psalm 95, 88, 27
Job 19:21-27a
Hebrews 4:1-16
Romans 8: 1-11
"Who can live and never see death? Who can escape the power of Sheol?" Ps.88:48
Today is the last day of Holy Week and by sunset tonight we will begin the first new day of Easter. Perhaps we will participate in the Easter Vigil tonight and hear the great story of God's redemption embedded in the Scriptures from the very beginning. But today is a day of quiet and emptiness. I always think of the quiet work of altar guilds who today will be doing all the humble work of cleaning and preparing for Easter. This work echoes the ritual of the women who came to the tomb to properly prepare the Body of Jesus. It's a day that also evokes the days between death and the funeral, when the mourners are too numb to do much more than rest and wait.
But something else is going on here at the same time. Death itself is being put on notice-and so instead of resignation, there is a strange agitation in our hearts. The Apostles Creed states, "He descended to the dead/hell." The Nicene Creed states, "He suffered death and was buried." This day marks the liminal and mysterious moment of transition between the reign of death and the victory of resurrection. What Christ accomplished on the Cross has cosmic ramifications. The shaking of the earth at his death is echoing down to Sheol itself.
Grant that all who have been baptized into Christ's death and resurrection may die to sin and rise to newness of life, and that through the grave and gate of death we may pass with him to our joyful resurrection. Amen.
Collect from the Burial Rite 1 (BCP pg. 480)
The Rev. Martha H. Giltinan
Director of Mentored Ministry
Assistant Professor of Pastoral Theology
Beaver, PA
Easter Day
Psalm 148, 149, 150, 113, 114 or 118
Exodus 12:1-14
John 1: 1-18
Luke 24:13-35 or John 20:19-23
Today we celebrate the greatest festival of all time: the festival of Easter. Sin, death and the devil, the greatest enemies of the human race, have been overcome. These tyrants, as Martin Luther loved to call them, have been unseated from the thrones that they had stolen. They lie defeated at the foot of the cross and outside the entrance of the empty tomb.
The Word of God (v 1), who spoke the truth so patiently and graciously in the face of countless harsh-words and such terrible falsehood, has been vindicated. The Source of all light, who submitted himself to the prince of darkness for our salvation, has proved his mastery over him (v 5). And the Creator, through whom everything was made and has its being, has passed through the gates of death and stands with outstretched arms offering eternal life to all who put their trust in Him (v 3, 12). This is more than a great repair work; it is the start of a new creation.
Jesus took our mortal flesh so that we might receive his immortality; he fulfilled the law that we cannot keep so that we might be forgiven; and he made the invisible God visible so that we might know him. He died to destroy our death and he rose again so that we might rise again and live in his presence forever.
What a day this is! How much we have to celebrate! We inhabit a world whose true Lord is risen from the dead and who even now is interceding for us and preparing a place for us to be with him. The Lenten fast is over; let the feast begin.
Thank you, heavenly Father, for sending us Jesus and for raising him from the dead. Thank you too that the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead now lives in us. Do your work of re-creation in all your people, so that the world may know that Jesus is risen from the dead and he is Lord. Amen.
The Very Rev. Dr. Justyn Terry
Dean and President
Associate Professor of Systematic Theology
Sewickley, PA
