Daily Scripture Readings
Read along with us in community as we follow this daily scripture outline.
Sunday April 13th
Isaiah 50:4-9; Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29; Philippians 2:5-11; Luke 19:28-40, 23:1-49​
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Jesus came into Jerusalem the week before passover, humbly on colt, the foal of a donkey, with the people praising Him as a King comes back to what is his own. Although his disciples believed Jesus’ message, Israel rejected it and Jesus Himself. Yet it wasn’t just Jesus they rejected, but peace. They cried “crucify him”, trading a known insurrectionist for a peaceful innocent man. At the moment when the Lord God visited His people in the person of Christ the Son, mankind again chose violence, just as the people before the flood had when the earth was full of violence. The peace of the gospel is available, to free us from sin and death, but do we reject its plan for us?
Monday April 14th
Isaiah 42:1-9; Psalm 36:5-11; Hebrews 9:11-15; John 12:1-11​
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It is on the merits of Jesus' pure and holy life that He was able to make clean those who would believe in Him. His righteousness was able to pierce the veil by His sacrifice and make atonement for the sins of mankind eternally before the throne of God Almighty. He accomplished this once for all time on behalf of those who would give their life and trust in him. Where there was no justice, Christ dealt with it. When there was nothing but shame and guilt, Jesus wrought for us forgiveness which leads to hope. He came to lead the prisoners, you and I, out of the darkness and into the light of His eternal life. I pray that as we approach Easter that we might dwell on His goodness and grace. Amen
Tuesday April 15th
Isaiah 49:1-7; Psalm 71:1-14; 1 Corinthians 1:18-31; John 12:20-36
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Jesus’ triumph on the cross was hard to imagine for the people of His day and even His own disciples. It still confuses and frustrates some today. How can a crucified person be the Lord of all? But God in His wisdom made it so that no one could boast before Him. Not even Christ the Lord, who laid down His life in humility, trusted in the Father to glorify Him through the cross and resurrection. Though He looked defeated, He actually had won the victory. Broken and despised by some, He was revealed as King of King and Lord of Lords.. Christ submitted to the Father and overcame death, becoming its master in the process so that it could no longer reign over man. Praise the Lord.
Wednesday April 16th
saiah 50:4-9; Psalm 70; Hebrews 12:1-3; John 13:21-32
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Jesus faced enemies at every turn from within His own community and from outside as well. Not only were the Pharisees plotting, Judas, one of His own disciples, had turned against Him. Yet Jesus’ faith in the Father and His plans never waivered. At each point of opposition Jesus relied on His Father to see Him through, to give Him strength when all looked tragic. We, in our focusing on Jesus’ own righteous faith, can be strengthened to face any obstacle. If we trust in God we will never be put to shame. This doesn’t mean it will turn out how we think, but that God will deliver us from the ultimate bad and give to us all that is good in the end. Our hope cannot be just here, but through the now into the not yet. Let us cling to Jesus for dear life and rely on His righteousness. Amen.
Thursday April 17th
Exodus 12:1-14; Psalm 116:1-2, 12-19; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; John 13:1-17, 31-35
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The sacrificial lamb, the humble servant, and the glorified Lord, all of these things Jesus embodied. Through each role and title that He filled for us He gave His disciples a final commission in preparation for His crucifixion, “Love one another.” Of all the things Jesus could have said or did, this one seems the most pointed. He could have reinforced teachings on the torah and prophets, made sure their prayer practices were in order, but instead He asks of them the most difficult thing, love. You see, love costs us something. It requires us to put ourselves away and focus on others. Love binds all things in perfect unity when we allow ourselves to fully experience it. Let us love each other to the end.
Friday April 18th
Isaiah 52:13-53:12; Psalm 22; Hebrews 4:14-16; 5:7-9; 10:16-25; John 18-19
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It was on Friday, what we now call “Good Friday”, that Jesus was tried and crucified. The people He came to give the good news of God, the forgiveness of sins, now turned against their savior. It was for our good, but Christ suffered no good Himself on that day. The evil and violence of man leveraged fully upon the Son of God humiliating Him to the utmost. And yet, scripture tells us that it was, “for the joy that was set before Him” that Jesus endured the shame of the cross. He carried the eternal weight of sin and death in order to deliver mankind from a life separated from God. I pray this Good Friday we can rest in Christ's love reflecting on how He saved us. Hosanna in the highest indeed
Saturday April 19th
Job 14:1-14; Lamentations 3:1-9,19-24; Psalm 31:1-4, 15-16; 1 Peter 4:1-8; Matthew 27:57-66; John 19:38-42
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On the seventh day, God rested from all the work He had done. On Saturday, the seventh day of the week, God rested in a borrowed tomb. In the dark of that damp stone structure, the Lord of Glory rested. But He would not rest forever, no. Death could not hold Him. Jesus, upon whom the cruelest and most disgraceful manner of death was placed, would not stay in that place. When Christ rose early on that Sunday morning, the first day of New Creation, God would not rest any longer. No, instead He burst forth upon His good creation on a mission to redeem and save it. Every bastion of evil, sin and death to be uprooted so that the light of life might shine forth in triumph. Praise be to God in the highest for His great work of salvation through Christ our Lord. Amen.