A Gift For You

Lenten Devotions for 2005

 Jesus Meets the Women of
Jerusalem
Where true charity and love abide,
God is dwelling there;
God is dwelling there.1

1
Anonymous, Latin Hymn 8th century, With One Voice: A Lutheran Resource for Worship,
Augsburg Fortress, Minneapolis, MN, 1995.
 O, how sad and sore distressed
Now was she, that mother blessed
Of the sole begotten One.
Deep the woe of her affliction,
When she saw the crucifixion
Of her ever glorious Son.2

2
Anonymous, 13th century, Service Book and Hymnal: Authorized by the Lutheran Churches
cooperating in The Commission on the Liturgy and Hymnal, Augsburg Publishing House,
Minneapolis, MN, 1958.
 M onday, March 14
A great number of the people followed him, and among them were women who were

beating their breasts and wailing for him. But Jesus turned to them and said,

“Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your

children.” Luke 23:27-29.

The time of trial and tribulation for the the world will strike out at those who
followers of Jesus has started but not profess Him as Lord. The world does not
everyone recognizes it yet. Jesus sees want a ruler who advocates equality,
this but the women do not. peace, and service. Instead, the world
wants dominion so that it will have
The women clearly see Jesus as dead others in its service. We want war so that
because they are keening for Him as if we can obtain the spoils of war. The
He were already dead. Jesus responds to world wants to control us by having us
their actions by telling them that they work to pay off debt while Jesus wants us
need to not wail for Him but to instead to to freely give to others.
cry over those who will die.
In order to wipe out the memory of Jesus,
In this statement, Jesus is once again the world places Him on trial and finds
reminding us that not only does the Him guilty of subverting the world's
world reject His leadership but also that goals. The world hopes that by using
brutal torture and capital punishment it to children from now to the end of time.
can persuade the followers of Christ to In the telling of this story, the women
change their minds. will recount God's mighty deeds and
others will believe in the One who frees
It appears at this moment of time that the slaves.
world is winning since only the women
are with Jesus. But Jesus knows better Paradoxically, this freedom from slavery
than that because His Word will bring death. The world
has already freed the likes the way that it is
women from their bondage. doing things and it does
He knows that the women not want to change. Jesus
will tell their children and tells all Christian women
their children's children that the world will do to their
about their release from children what it has done to
slavery. And these stories Him.
will be passed from mother

Dear Lord, I want to be aware of my need for a Savior. Until I need a Savior, I
won't want one. The gift of forgiveness is my greatest need. Thank you for the
greatest gift of all - forgiveness; a gift that I cannot earn but one that I can
receive. Amen.
 Tuesday, March 15
“For the days are surely coming when they will say, "Blessed are the barren, and the

wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed." Then they will begin to say

to the mountains, "Fall on us;" and to the hills, "Cover us." For if they do this when the

wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?” Luke 23:29-31.

The world's utter rejection of God and His It is important to note three things that
message of life and are never said
love will continue as about the
long as the world Christian
exists. Jesus logically women. First,
points out that the Jesus never tells
world's deadly action us that His
against His followers followers will
will increase as His stop having
message spreads over the world as it is children. This is a message of hope in
passed from mother to child. This level of this hopeless situation. Life will go on in
death and destruction will make the Christian community because new
Christian women wonder why they ever generations will be told of God's mighty
had children. actions of freeing the slaves and
bringing life out of death. From now to
the end of time, Christian women will every generation, Christian mothers will
continue to have children and the women teach their children about Christ's
will hope against all hope that the world sacrifice for the world and how the world
will stop killing their children. Next, will reject them. Finally, no one, not
Jesus never says that the Christian even Jesus, tells the women to leave. In
women will stop teaching their children. God's darkest hour, the most loyal
Despite the persecution followers are not the men but
from the world, this instead the women. In some
amazing story of God's mystical way, they have a
passion will be passed different kinship with God
from mother to child until and do not abandon Jesus in
the end of the world. The His suffering.
world possesses nothing
that can stop the Thank God for the Christian
Christian woman from women who told you the story
telling God's story. In of Christ.

Dear Lord, I am thinking of the times I weep. Do I weep because of human

happenings or do I weep about spiritual things? Help me be aware of my life as
being a spiritual journey. Amen.
 Jesus is Crucifi e d
Glory be to Jesus,
Who, in bitter pains,
Poured for me the lifeblood,
From His sacred veins.3

3
Anonymous, Italian 13th century, Service Book and Hymnal: Authorized by the Lutheran
Churches cooperating in The Commission on the Liturgy and Hymnal, Augsburg Publishing
House, Minneapolis, MN, 1958.
 In the cross of Christ I glory,
Tow’ring o’er the wrecks of time;
All the light of sacred story
Gathers round its head sublime

Bane and blessing,

Pain and pleasure,
By the cross are sanctified;
Peace is there that knows no measure,
Joys that through all time abide.4

4
John Bowring, 1825, The Hymnal and Order of Service: Authorized by The Evangelical
Lutheran Augustana Synod, Augustana Book Concern, Rock Island, IL, 1925.
 Wednesday, March 16
When they came to the place that is called the Skull, they crucified Jesus there with the

criminals, one on his right and one on his left. Luke 23:33.

God is dieing between two enemies of the

state. One of them will ask Jesus to save The model of Jesus as a superman who
him and the other will ask Jesus to saves us from the cross does not fit what
remember him. What do we want God to we have been taught. Jesus does not
do? Do we want to be saved or do we want always come down and remove us from
to be remembered? our sticky situations. Every one of His
disciples faced death and every one of
The common English definition of being them died. Jesus did not keep the
saved is that someone is rescued from a disciples away from every danger and
dangerous situation. When this type of He will not extract us from all of our
language is used, it seems that we expect problems. In every encounter with Jesus
a superman to come in and to pull us out at least one change occurs. Sometimes
of our problem. Once superman has the crowd gets angry at Him, at other
raised us out of our nasty situation, we times, the crowd follows Him, and at yet
then want the superman to put us back other times, they believe in Him. Jesus
down in a safe place so that we can go on also changes. Sometimes He has
about our business. compassion on us, at other times, He
rebukes, and at yet other times, He yells. have been taught. In remembering,
In the comic book world, no one changes: something or someone is put together
superman or the one rescued. The final again or re-membered. Jesus puts our
difference is that Jesus tells us to go and broken relationships back together
live. Unlike superman who allows us to again. He brings us back to God. He
go back and to do things reconnects us with others. He
the way we always have, rejoins us with ourselves.
Jesus tells us to turn from And then at the last day, with
that which keeps us from his winnowing fork in His
God and our neighbor and hand, He will re-member us
to walk in a manner by separating us into wheat
worthy of a human. and chaff. He will clear His
threshing floor by gathering
Jesus remembering us in the wheat into His granary
His kingdom fits what we and burning the chaff.

Dear Lord, they treated Jesus the same way criminals are treated. Lord may I
treat Jesus with love, honor, and respect. He wasn't just a human, for He was at
creation when man was made. May I honor Him with my life each and every day.
He is not my buddy but my master. Teach me Lord to be a servant for my master.
Amen.
Jesus Promises His Kingdom to
the Good Th i e f
When I cross death’s bitter sea,
And its waves roll higher,
Help the more forsaking me,
As the storm draws nigher:
Jesus, leave me not to languish,
Helpless, hopeless, full of anguish!
Tell me, “Verily, I say,
Thou shalt be with Me today.”5

5
Theoctistus of the Studium, circa 890, The Lutheran Hymnary: Including the Symbols of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church, Augsburg Publishing House, Minneapolis, MN, 1935.
 We may not know, we cannot tell,
What pains He had to bear;
But we believe it was for us
He hung and suffered there.

There was no other good enough

To pay the price of sin;
He only could unlock the gate
Of heaven, and let us in.6

6
Cecil Frances (Humphreys) Alexander, 1848, , The Hymnal and Order of Service: Authorized
by The Evangelical Lutheran Augustana Synod, Augustana Book Concern, Rock Island, IL,
1925.
 Thursday, March 17
One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, “Are you not

the Messiah? Save yourself and us!” Luke 23:39a.

The criminal is entirely correct. The my attitude must be right before God
criminal's statements are true. Jesus is accepts me, I know that I will never be
the Messiah. He has saved others and it saved. I do not always approach God with
seems reasonable for the criminal to ask a deep sense of remorse. I often put my
Jesus to save everyone. will before God's will. If my theology
must be perfect before God grants me life,
Why does Jesus ignore this criminal's I will go down to the pit. In the two
question and command? Why doesn't thousand some odd years since Jesus's
God do anything? Is it the tone of the life, smarter people than I have argued on
criminal's voice? Is it the criminal's what we are to believe and how we are to
attitude? Is it the criminal's theology? Is put that belief into action. I know that I
it what the criminal did in the past? If will never approach their sophistication or
the correct tone of voice is required before their actions. If the criminal is being
I can talk to God, I know that I am in ignored because of his past, I know that
trouble. I often question God on God's God should ignore me also. I have not
actions and I know that I also command lived a perfect life. I have often forgotten
God to do the things that I want done. If to love others.
 Because it is so easy for us to sin, we
The writer of Luke only gives a one little need to ask the Holy Spirit in our daily
clue that might help in understand this prayers to turn our hearts so that we are
situation. According to our translation, not abusing Christ. Daily we need
the criminal was deriding Jesus. Perhaps God's forgiveness and because of Christ's
a better word would be life and death, we have been
abusing. The criminal is given this precious gift.
not making a confession of
belief instead he is abusing
Jesus. His relationship with
God is not one built with
trust but instead is built on
anger.

Dear God, help me to surrender my thoughts and life to Jesus. Help me to realize
that I must not dictate but listen to Him. Thank you for the many lessons He has
taught during His life here on earth so that I may follow His ways. Amen.
 Fr i d a y, March 18
But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same

sentence of condemnation? And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are

getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.” Luke

23:39b-42.

The criminal on the cross is speaking for was able to keep God’s commandments.
all of us when he says, “We indeed have The punishment that hangs over our
been condemned justly, for we are heads should cause us to fear God
getting what we deserve for our deeds.” because if God forgets us, we do not exist.
We all have been found guilty. We all And if we do not exist, we do not have
have missed the mark. Every one of us life.
has not loved God with our entire
existence and we have not loved those Instead of forgetting the human race,
around us. God has looked into our God has remembered us. God recalled
being and has found us to be lacking. His promises to Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob. God sent His only Son, Jesus into
A just God would condemn us and the world, not to condemn to world but
punish us because we have ignored God’s instead to show the world His love for all
Law. We have broken the Law time and of creation. It was us, not God, who did
time again even though a man, Jesus, not want the see God’s passion, so we
found God guilty and put Him to death.
That is why God is hanging on the tree. In this new universe, God promises us
that things will be different. We will live
Even through all of the cruel torture, as God intended and when this happens,
Jesus never forgets us. He never curses our outlook will change.
us. He does what is needed so that we can
be reunited with God, with Instead of fearing God, we
others, and with ourselves. now can give God our
This work of the Word thanks and praise because
includes proclaiming God’s He has placed us back on the
love, living as God intended path that leads us to eternal
us to live, and forgiving us. life.
In all of these actions,
Christ is putting together
our brokenness and is
assembling us into a new
creation.

Dear Lord, I thank you that I have not received what I deserve. I cannot earn
your favor for you have been the one choosing me to be your own. Amen.
 Saturday, March 19
Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” He replied,

“Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” Luke 23:42-43.

Christ’s promise to the criminal that he

will be with Jesus that very day in In creation, God gave each of us a portion
Paradise is one of the most comforting of God’s likeness. This image of God
verses in the includes the love
Jesus, remember me
Bible of relationships.
because we When you come into your God’s self-
cannot organization is
imagine kingdom. something like a
existence family.
without Jesus, remember me Everyone in the
relationship. Trinity pitches in
In other
When you come into your to do God’s will.
words, we kingdom. – God recognized
are not our need for
truly alive Luke 23:42, With One Voice: A Lutheran family and
Resource for Worship
unless we interactions, so
have others around us. God gave us the structures that we
construct into families and God also and the perfect example of a working
gave us others to place in our group. As we work out our own rules, we
relationships. Because of God’s find that no matter how hard we try; we
experiences in the Trinity, God gave us a can never achieve the perfection found in
set of laws, often referred to as the Law, the Trinity. Additionally, some of us
which shows us how we are to live with try to do things alone even though God
ourselves, with the community, and with created us to be in community.
God. We experience true life when we live
according to God’s rules. In His statement to the criminal, Jesus
once again reminds us that we were
The problem is that we created to be in relationships.
feel that the rules do not And for the criminal, that
apply to us. Each of us perfect relationship started at
has the opinion that our his death. What a waste of a
way is better than God’s life! Wouldn’t it be better to
way even though the start living in true community
Trinity is the original before one dies?

Lord of Heaven, I want to be with you. You have

chosen my lifespan and eternal life is the gift of grace that awaits me. My days
are in your hands and today is but just a part of this eternity you promised. Let
me us my days wisely and look forward to your call to my heavenly home. Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria
 O loving Trinity,
Our God, to You we bow through endless
days,
And in Your grace newborn we sing
New hymns of gratitude and praise.7
Ann Wofford – Prayers

Elaine Lenz – Crosses

The Winstons – Photographs

Jody Winston – Writing

7
Anonymous, Latin Hymn 6th century, With One Voice: A Lutheran Resource for Worship,
Augsburg Fortress, Minneapolis, MN, 1995.
Prayers
Prayers