Christian Counseling Service -- Devotions

Attending Jesus - Thursday

Thursday, March 24, 2005

Exodus 12:11-13
This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the Lord's Passover.

"On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn - both men and animals - and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the Lord. The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you.

1 Corinthians 11:23-26
For I (Paul) received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, "This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me." In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me." For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

Psalm 116:15
Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.

John 13:1-5
It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love. The evening meal was being served, and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

As sure as he takes each breath, Jesus knows he is going to die. All these hours before Gethsemane he knows, and he thinks about where he has come from and where he's going, and how those he loves will live in the world without him.

Jesus has read the Scriptures since he was taught to read, and listened to the priests and rabbis day after day. He knows the words by his heart and they are planted deeply in his mind. He remembers almost as if he were there (!) the night of God's first Passover, when the angel of death wrought weeping and wailing and flowing blood in house after house, but passed over those marked with the blood of the lamb.

Now he is to become the Lamb of God. Jesus' body shrinks from the blade, even as his spirit rejoices and reaches out toward it. At the Passover feast he offers himself with sublime creativity to his friends, to those he loves and who love him.

I will wash your feet tonight, he says. And he does just that. He leads them to the brink of sacrifice and steps across, then beckons them to follow. He serves them from his deepest heart and makes them cry with joy at how much he loves them.

They eat, no normal Passover feast. This bread, he says, is my body. Take it and eat it. And this wine, this blood of my heart, drink it too and know the covenant God makes with you. Proclaim my death daily, and watch what happens next. The promise of God will bring you life that lasts forever.

Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death is your sting? Jesus stands and stands and stands.

Devotions Archive

Attending Jesus - Thursday

Thursday, March 24, 2005