Holy week devotional

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Wednesday – thirty pieces of silver

No one wakes up one day and says “today is the day I am going to ruin my life.” It happens much more slowly than that. The worst moment, the worst choice, the worst day, all sneaks up on you through small, minute, seemingly inconsequential decisions until all at once they have reached their climax. Affairs don’t begin the minute you’re with another person. Murder doesn’t spring out of nowhere the second you pull the trigger. Thieves don’t walk into…

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Tuesday – Maybe this is the end?

The last few years have been fun, haven’t they? Obviously not. I am not making light, and I am picking sides. What I am saying is, everyone has suffered. Everyone has had their life changed, altered, or turned upside down because of the events we’ve gone through collectively. Some more than others, some worse than others for sure, but none of us were, or are, immune.  When we suffer, it makes us think about the end. The end our suffering,…

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Monday – “Day after” moments

There’s something about the day after a big event that creates an emotional letdown. Every year our church celebrates three HUGE events; Fall kickoff, Christmas Eve, and Easter Sunday. For each one, I find myself getting amped up to eleven (on a scale of ten) with energy, passion and excitement. We celebrate enjoy the day, celebrate the wins, and then, as always, life moves on. I’ve had similar experiences with sporting events, music releases, and others of life’s “big time”…

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Palm Sunday – How do you know He is a King?

I know it’s cliche, and it might out me as a former youth pastor, but I really enjoy the movie ‘Monty Python and the Holy Grail.’ It’s just the right blend of stupid funny, religion and history that speaks to a former history major turned theology major like me. One of the best scenes in the entire movie starts with a guy banging a wooden spoon into a pot asking people to bring our their dead relatives who have been…

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he has come to save

Early in the morning, before the sun had risen, they set out for the tomb. What was the use in waiting? They hadn’t slept in 48 hours, and they weren’t going to start now. His body had been buried hastily, and they had waited until after sabbath to return and do it true justice. Sure, He hadn’t been who He claimed, who they thought, who they WANTED Him to be - but He was still a friend, a teacher, and…

no rest for the weary

Matthew 27:62–66 (ESV) ~ The next day, that is, after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate and said, “Sir, we remember how that impostor said, while he was still alive, ‘After three days I will rise.’ Therefore order the tomb to be made secure until the third day, lest his disciples go and steal him away and tell the people, ‘He has risen from the dead,’ and the last fraud will be worse…

Lying in a tomb

John 19:38–42 (ESV) ~ After these things Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, and Pilate gave him permission. So he came and took away his body. Nicodemus also, who earlier had come to Jesus by night, came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds in weight. So they took the body of Jesus and bound it…

this time feels different

Mark 11:27–28(ESV) ~ And they came again to Jerusalem. And as he was walking in the temple, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders came to him, and they said to him, “By what authority are you doing these things, or who gave you this authority to do them?” This time feels different. They’ve been here before. Jerusalem. The city has never been great to them, but the moments of fear and tension have always passed. Usually the…

What a scene

Matthew 21:12–13 (ESV) ~ And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’ but you make it a den of robbers.” What a scene. The whole thing seemed to have been one giant, jumbled mess. People shrieking and diving out of…

Riding on a donkey

John 12:12–19 (ESV) ~ The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, crying out, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel!” And Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written,“Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your king is coming, sitting…