Holy Week Devotional

Friday Evening

Read Mark 14:1-15:47

Hello friends,

If you have yet to read the story of Jesus’ passion from Mark’s Gospel this Holy Week, I invite you to do so now.

For our devotion today, I’m not going to limit my reflections on the passage or the events of Good Friday.  Instead, I invite you to sit with the text, to sit with the story for a while today.  Ponder the events of that day and ponder the different people in the story.  Consider the woman who anointed Jesus’ body with a costly jar of perfume in Bethany.  Contemplate the reasons why Judas Iscariot may have betrayed Jesus.  Study the reasons the religious leaders were determined to condemn Jesus to death.  Ponder Peter’s denial of Jesus and deliberate over the other disciples’ abandoning him, all of the men, but not the women.  Think about what it might have been like to be Pilate or Simon from Cyrene or Joseph of Arimathea.  And as you muse over these different individuals in the passion story, who do you most identify with?  What leads you to identify with them?  Finally, ponder the actions and words of Jesus.  What do they mean to you?

After taking the time to meditate upon the story of Jesus’ passion, I invite you to spend some time in silent reflection.  Then say a prayer like the following prayer.

Closing Prayer

Gracious God, as I ponder the story of your passion, I marvel and give thanks for the gift of your self-giving love.  Lord, may your love be the foundation of my faith and my life.  Amen.