Lent - The road to Easter
Readings for this week March 18 - 23
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Day 1 – Lent: The Road to Easter
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Luke 9:51-52
Although not very conspicuous in our church gatherings this year, Lent, which runs from February 14 to March 28 is a regular part of the Christian liturgical year. Christmas and Easter may be the festivals still highlighted in society, but unless people come from a tradition that actively, publicly practices Lent, it remains a mystery to them. Many followers of Jesus see the time leading up to Easter as a crucial time of preparation, a chance to orient themselves towards the cross, and to walk the road to Calvary with Jesus. Easter is something to prepare for, to look ahead to, and seek God through, not just a time or event that suddenly arrives without warning.
The way we prepare for something shows how we really feel about it. If we are not paying attention, not attending to the coming events, not prayerfully meditating on the meaning of Easter, then how seriously are we taking the impending commemoration and celebration of Jesus’ work on the cross? But if the lead in to Easter is a time of positioning ourselves to hear from God, to experience again His gracious love, and to ask Him what He would have us do and where He would have us follow now, then we show the nature of the transformation that Jesus, by His Spirit, has wrought in us. The purpose is to travel the road with Jesus, to prepare for the crucifixion. How we approach Easter – if we consciously approach it at all – says something about who we are as followers of Jesus.
Question to Consider
What Lenten practices do you follow? Why? How do they help you hear the voice of God and bring you closer to Him? How are you preparing yourself this year? What do you hope to hear from Him this Lent?
Prayer
Sovereign Lord, prepare me for Easter. Lead me to the foot of the cross and reveal yourself anew. Speak to me again and show me where you would lead me. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
Day 2 – The Entry into Jerusalem
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Matthew 21:1-3
Now we move into Jesus’ last week. Holy Week, leading into Easter, begins with his triumphal entry into the city of Jerusalem. Sitting astride the back of a young foal to remind people of Zechariah’s prophecy of the Messiah arriving in such a manner, Jesus is coming to fulfil the nation’s hope for a king and for deliverance and rescue. He enters with all the trappings of royalty befitting a King being received by his subjects. For Jesus it is a royal occasion, and he wants to stage it perfectly to get the point across to the crowds of people who have come to celebrate his arrival.
This is good news – the Good News! Welcoming the King, praising him and placing cloaks and tree branches upon the road before him, singing joyous songs to the Son of David – what God will soon bring about upon the hill outside the city, in a way that people maybe haven’t guessed or can’t recognise yet in the midst of all the celebration, is truly worthy of rejoicing over. Though we know what is still to come, though Calvary and crucifixion await, we must remember that the coming of the Messiah to his people is good news – the best news, in fact! The triumphal entry into Jerusalem reminds us of the awesome wonder of what it is that God is accomplishing and the celebration that the prospect of reconciliation and salvation – salvation! – brings. The One who brings this gift to all people everywhere deserves all praise and acclamation.
Question to Consider
What makes you celebrate uninhibitedly? What does celebration look like to you?
Prayer
Heavenly Father, remind me of the joy your presence brings and the beauty of knowing you and being with you. Help others always see such joy visible in my life. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
Day 3 – Hosanna!
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Matthew 21:4-9
Let us look at what the people were saying and doing as Jesus entered the city. One of the key things they were calling as Jesus made his way through the streets was “Hosanna!” a word that is familiar to most followers of God through the Psalms, and through modern hymns and worship songs. There are two meanings associated with the word and both are in play here. The first is that it is a shout of praise to God, a shout proclaiming the goodness and greatness of God, a shout for joy. Closely tied in with this overwhelming joy, Hosanna is also a prayer said in expectation of God acting to save His people – hence the joyfulness of the people, and hence the naming of David and David’s kingdom, as the crowd joyously looks forward to God restoring the kingdom and its King.
What about us, had we been there? With the benefit of hindsight, it is easy for us to say what we would have done? But would we be singing Hosanna with the crowds because everyone was doing it, or would we be shouting it as an expression of true devotion to the Messiah, God’s Anointed One? We can wave our hands and sing and place our cloaks on the ground and take part in all the fun – and has said previously, the celebration is justified and deserved – but push will come to shove and our challenge will be to leave our cloaks behind, exchange our praise for lament and follow Jesus into trial and torture, up the hill to the cross. Easter is a challenge, a question to us of where our true allegiance lies.
Question to Consider
Why did the crowd that welcomed Jesus so enthusiastically as king cry so enthusiastically for his crucifixion? What changed for them? Why?
Prayer
Lord God, may I not be fickle, blown by the wind, praising you when times are good, running for cover when times are bad. Give me strength to be always loyal and faithful regardless of the cost. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
Day 4 – Clearing the Temple
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Matthew 21:12-17
Jesus was not trying to take over the Temple. Turning over a few tables, spilling coins and cages onto the ground, is not the beginning of a revolution – but what Jesus did was still revolutionary. The sacrificial system was instituted by God; the selling of animals to sacrifice, to people who had travelled from far away, and changing of money into the specific money used at the Temple were both necessary parts of this. But the Temple, rather than being a place where Israel could come in prayer, was now the focal point for the revolutionary aspirations of those who wanted to bring the kingdom of God to pass by force. Jesus disrupts the sacrificial system, temporarily halting the ability of people to offer sacrifices and instead offers something else in its place. Something centred on Him.
Jesus turns the Temple’s traditions upside down. The lame and the sick came to him, and he healed them. This might be familiar territory for us with the many Gospel accounts of Jesus healing people but now he is healing people in the Temple grounds themselves! The very people long excluded from the Temple, through sickness and impurity and the social ostracism practised by the priests, are now being welcomed in! This is the perfect summation of Jesus’ ministry: the people previously scorned being healed and welcomed into the places they had previously been barred from. The real revolution was not military or political action but healing and restoration that brought people into God’s presence. What the Temple had been supposed to offer people was now available through Him.
Question to Consider
Why was Jesus’ action in the Temple so important? How does it complement and symbolise what happened on the cross?
Prayer
Loving Father, thank you for bringing us back to you, and opening the way for us to return as your children to your loving embrace. Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)
Day 5 – My Body Broken for You
Silence, Stillness and Centering before God (2 minutes)
Scripture Reading – Luke 22:14-20
And then at the end of Holy Week, on his last evening before that journey to Calvary, Jesus shared a last celebratory meal with the people closest to him. The Last Supper, as we call it, was a Passover meal. Jesus did not just make this up. He took a pre-existing celebration, familiar to all Jewish people, and give it new meaning. Jesus and his disciples were following Jewish tradition, based on the biblical command to remember Israel’s deliverance from Egypt and the start of the journey to the Promised Land. Bread and wine were essential elements in the traditional Passover meal. Jesus took these symbols of Israel’s rescue and added new meanings connected with his own approaching death – meanings that would not be fully revealed and understood by the disciples until his resurrection.
Jesus body, like the bread, was broken for us. The Passover bread was unleavened because it was made without yeast. Yeast needs time to work and in their necessary haste to leave Egypt the Israelites had no time to let their bread rise. Yeast is also a symbol of sin and corruption. It gets everywhere, spreading and growing all through the dough. Even the appearance of the unleavened bread, with scorch marks stripes upon it and holes in it, would have been a reminder of Jesus’ broken body. The last supper is a pre-Easter meal of remembrance that takes on its full significance in the light of the cross. Jesus knew what was coming and knew what we would need to begin – and to continue – processing what had happened and to remember his love for us.
Question to Consider
Why did Jesus spend these last moments with his friends in this way? What does the Lord’s Supper mean to you? Why?
Prayer
Gracious God, as we approach Easter, help me focus upon you and the sacrifice of your son. Prepare me for what comes. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Conclude with Silence (2 minutes)