Midweek Lent Meditation 5 – Hands of Self-Preservation

If you are familiar with the events surrounding Jesus’ Passion, then you are familiar with Pontius Pilate. We will soon see that Pilate did many different things on Good Friday, but there is one thing he didn’t do. He didn’t do what he had decided to do. Instead of letting Jesus go, he let the enemies of Jesus have their way. And Pilate will forever be remembered as the man who sentenced the author of life to death.

So what happened? What made Pilate change his mind? Where did he go wrong, and what can we learn from his tragic story so that we don’t go down the same path? You and I can’t read minds, but we can read and review and learn from the Bible’s Spirit-inspired words. All four gospels share details about the interaction between the King of the Jews and the governor of Judea, but only Matthew mentions something Pilate did before he handed Jesus over to be crucified. To protect his position, to proclaim his innocence, Pilate washed his . . . Hands of Self-Preservation

Midweek Lent Meditation 4 – Hands of Brutality

It’s one thing for a socially awkward teenager to leverage a growth spurt to steal an underclassman’s lunch money, or for a jealous fifth grader to bully the teacher’s pet. It is entirely another thing to bludgeon a man nearly to death for the heinous crime of preaching forgiveness of sins and eternal life. Throughout his ministry Jesus was bullied verbally and socially. Beginning late Holy Thursday evening the physical violence escalated. Tonight, we see Jesus suffer the soldiers’ . . . Hands of Brutality

Every Wednesday during Lent, we release a video meditation providing a chance to focus on Jesus' passion and sacrifice for our sins. This evening, take a few moments for quiet reflection with this week's meditation.

Midweek Lent Meditation 3 – Hands of Hypocrisy

There is a word for pretending to be something you are not. There is a word that describes the false assumption of an appearance of virtue. There is one word that comes to mind when we think of Caiaphas: hypocrite. Today we will examine the hypocrisy of Caiaphas. Not so that we can shake our heads at him. Not so that we can congratulate ourselves for not being like him. Taking a closer look at this account will also force us to take a closer look at ourselves, to examine our own hearts, to see if we are also guilty of having . . . Hands of Hypocrisy.

Midweek Lent Meditation 2 – Hands of Misguided Zeal

Of course it was Peter. If the Gospel writers would have left out in their account of Jesus’ arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane the detail that it was Peter who cut off the ear of the high priest’s servant, it it possible that your initial reaction would have been, “That sounds like something Peter might do”?

Peter wielded his weapon because he loved Jesus. He wanted Jesus to know that he was serious when he said that he would give up his life for him. Peter was full of what he believed to be a righteous zeal, but that zeal turned out to be misguided.

You and I love Jesus too. We become upset, even angry, when our Savior’s name is dragged through the mud. And when we see how his Word is ignored and ridiculed in our world, we want to do something about it. We want to protect Jesus. We want to defend Jesus. Those are good and godly impulses, but we need to be careful that we don’t go too far, that we ourselves don’t do something that goes against God’s Word, that we don’t become guilty of having . . . Hands of Misguided Zeal.

Midweek Lent Meditation 1 – Hands of Betrayal

Is there anything more biting than betrayal? We expect unbelievers to persecute us. We’re not surprised when an enemy or a competitor lies about us. We know that corporate life brings office politics. Yet we expect our friends to be loyal. When we’re close with someone, when we share our deepest secrets and trust him or her completely, and then he or she betrays that trust, that is intensely painful.

In today’s Lent meditation, we see how garden variety greed, unrepented and unchecked, was the sin that corroded Judas’ soul over time, and eventually put him in the position of betraying Jesus. But in looking at Judas, we will examine our own hearts and look at the everyday sins we commit and how if left unchecked and unrepented, they can lead us away from our Savior as well.