Lent Devotions

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April 22: The End of the Gospel

Posted: 21 Apr 2014 06:59 AM PDT

Read: Mark 16:1-8

And they went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them . . . (v. 8 ESV)

The oldest and most accurate copies of Mark end with verse 8, which says that when the women who came to the garden on Easter morning found Jesus’ grave empty, they “went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had seized them, and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.”

It’s an odd way to end a gospel, and people have been offering explanations and alternative conclusions ever since. But the basic facts are clear in Mark’s account. Jesus of Nazareth, the same man who was crucified, died, and was buried, rose again from the dead. His tomb was found to be empty on Easter morning. These facts powerfully declared that Jesus was the Son of God, as the apostle Paul would write in his letter to the Romans (Romans 1:4).

Here’s a thought. Maybe Mark’s ending is really just the beginning. Maybe we are supposed to supply the gospel’s succeeding chapters, as we go out into all the world with the good news that Jesus is alive, that he has conquered sin and the grave.

So what are we waiting for? The story isn’t finished yet. There’s still more to be written! –David Bast

Prayer: Lord Jesus, come and finish your work of salvation!

Words of Hope is an international media ministry, founded and owned by classes of the RCA, dedicated to building the church in the hard places. The Words of Hope devotional encourages readers to grow spiritually through daily Bible readings and prayer. To subscribe, please visit: woh.org/word/devotionals/.

Lent Devotions

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April 21: Freedom

Posted: 20 Apr 2014 07:08 PM PDT

Read: Romans 6:5-11

Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again. (v. 9)

When I was a student a popular folk song called Abraham, Martin and John referred to Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., and John F. Kennedy. It was a sad song, with a haunting refrain:
Has anybody here seen my old friend Martin?
Can you tell me where he’s gone?
He freed a lot of people but
It seems the good, they die young . . .
Abraham, Martin and John.

Why doesn’t Jesus fit this song? He was a good man who died young. So why don’t we sing sad songs about him? After all, we call the day the stock market crashed “Black Monday.” Why do we call the day Jesus died “Good Friday”?

Because we know how it all turned out. New Testament scholar Marcus Borg has observed that if there hadn’t been an Easter Sunday, there would be no Good Friday. He means that if Jesus had not risen from the dead, no one would have bothered to remember the story of his death. Crucifixions weren’t memorable, but a resurrection certainly was! So we know that death was not the end for Jesus. By his resurrection Jesus truly has “freed a lot of people.” United to him in faith, we have died to sin’s penalty and are alive to God, free to live for him. –David Bast

Prayer: Help me die to sin and live to you.

Words of Hope is an international media ministry, founded and owned by classes of the RCA, dedicated to building the church in the hard places. The Words of Hope devotional encourages readers to grow spiritually through daily Bible readings and prayer. To subscribe, please visit: woh.org/word/devotionals/.

Lent Devotions
Easter, April 20: On the Third Day
Posted: 19 Apr 2014 02:36 PM PDT
Read: Matthew 28:1-10
He is not here. (v. 6 ESV)
We all know the story. Several of the women closest to Jesus head out to the garden tomb early Sunday morning to finish the job they had not had time to complete on Friday afternoon. As they reach the grave they see to their astonishment that the stone sealing the tomb has been rolled back. The women are even more startled by the angel’s incredible news: “Don’t be afraid. You seek Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here.”
The angel meant that literally. He wasn’t speaking the way we sometimes do in funeral homes. (“You know, Jimmy, Grandpa isn’t really here.”) The angel wasn’t speaking of Jesus’ soul; he was talking about his body.
This Easter announcement has never been contradicted. To the angel’s “He is not here,” no one has ever been able to respond, “Wait! He is over here. There’s his body.” Jesus’ resurrection was a physical event. The New Testament says as clearly as it can that Jesus rose bodily from the tomb. Skeptics who argue that the gospel accounts of the resurrection are really just a symbolic way of saying that Jesus’ influence lived on in his disciples’ lives simply haven’t got the story straight.
As Christians, we base our faith on the fact that Jesus rose. More than that, we are staking our whole future on it. –David Bast
Prayer: Jesus lives, and so shall I.
Words of Hope is an international media ministry, founded and owned by classes of the RCA, dedicated to building the church in the hard places. The Words of Hope devotional encourages readers to grow spiritually through daily Bible readings and prayer. To subscribe, please visit: woh.org/word/devotionals/.

April 19: Dead and Buried
Posted: 19 Apr 2014 07:59 AM PDT
Read: John 19:31-42
. . . since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there. (v. 42 ESV)
After Jesus died, he was buried. It’s the last item of business to be checked off for every human being.
Corpses must be disposed of. What makes death so repulsive is not just the fear or the pain; it’s the indignity of the thing. This is why Jesus’ burial is so comforting. It means he went all the way through the experience of death for us, to the bitter end. He even became a corpse that had to be prepared and then carried away and buried like every other dead body. His identification with our mortality is complete. “He knows our frame, he remembers that we are dust,” affirms the psalmist. And we may be sure of it, because he once was dust himself. If Jesus could do that much for me, I know that he will be with me when I too am one day a corpse.
The prayer of committal in the Reformed Church’s funeral liturgy says that “by his rest in the tomb, Christ has sanctified the graves of his saints.” No matter how dark the place, our Lord has been there before us. So death is not the end for us. Even burial isn’t the end. –David Bast
Prayer: Thank you, Lord, for all you have done for me. Be near me now and in the hour of my death.
Words of Hope is an international media ministry, founded and owned by classes of the RCA, dedicated to building the church in the hard places. The Words of Hope devotional encourages readers to grow spiritually through daily Bible readings and prayer. To subscribe, please visit: woh.org/word/devotionals/.

Lent Devotions

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Good Friday, April 18: Beneath the Cross of Jesus

Posted: 17 Apr 2014 06:09 AM PDT

Read: John 19:17-30

Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be. (v. 24 ESV)

I know I’ve sung these words dozens of times; maybe you have too:
Beneath the cross of Jesus
I fain would take my stand–

The truth is that the cross of Jesus was not a nice place. None of us would really have wanted to stand beneath it. The only ones who were literally right there underneath Jesus’ cross were the soldiers. Having crucified him, these guards settled down to the more pleasant task of dividing Jesus’ possessions among themselves, while they waited for him to die.

I wonder which one of them won his seamless tunic and what he did with it. Did he sell it for a few coins? Did he trade it for a bottle to drink, or use it to hire a woman for the night? Or did he take it home, keep it for himself? What if he covered himself with that garment? In spiritual terms, that is exactly what we do when we trust in Christ for the forgiveness of our sins. His death becomes our righteousness. He covers our shame with his perfect obedience and sacrificial blood.

Jesus, thy blood and righteousness,
My beauty are, my glorious dress.
Midst flaming worlds, in these array’d,
With joy shall I lift up my head.
–David Bast

Prayer: Lord Jesus, may your blood cover my sin.

Words of Hope is an international media ministry, founded and owned by classes of the RCA, dedicated to building the church in the hard places. The Words of Hope devotional encourages readers to grow spiritually through daily Bible readings and prayer. To subscribe, please visit: woh.org/word/devotionals/.