Lent Devotional 2021 - Pittsburg - Flipbook - Page 9
DEVOTIONAL
Can’t you hear the resentment and envy in the words of
John’s followers: “But John, everyone is now going to him”?
To them, Jesus’ building popularity posed a threat to John’s
ministry. So it was entirely natural for them to ask, “What
about Jesus, Master? He is baptizing. He has taken a page
from your book; he is using your method—and everyone is
going to him!”
But what an astonishing reply they get back from faithful
John. When other men would have found some subtle
way to express their envy, John says, “It was all the Lord’s
doing. The Lord called me to this ministry. But I am merely
the forerunner to this Jesus. He is the Lamb of God who will
take away the sins of the world. The age of the Messiah is
dawning over the world.”
This situation, where crowds are flocking to Jesus, was only
the beginning. John knew that it must continue to be like
that until everyone was with Jesus and no one was left with
John himself. “Jesus must increase, I must decrease.” Jesus
is the Son of God, the Savior of sinners; John is not. Jesus is
the Messiah who baptizes with the Holy Spirit; John is not.
Put simply, if Jesus is the Son of God now come into the
world to take away our sins, then it is not enough that we
simply acknowledge these things to be true. Our lives must
be the demonstration of our faith, a response of heart and
mind. Our commitment to Jesus must put him in the position
of ascendancy in our lives. He absolutely must have the first
place in our hearts. “He must increase, but I must decrease.”
PRAYER
Heavenly Father, as we draw closer to the cross in this Lenten
season, we, like the disciples, seek to understand the mystery
of Jesus Christ, who draws all people to himself. Though we
do not deserve your mercy, we nevertheless receive it with
thankful hearts. Help us to trust that you give us what we
truly need, for you are the One who made us. In Jesus Christ
we pray. Amen.
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2021
The Rev. Alan Olson ’14
SCRIPTURE
Deuteronomy 11:18-28
18 You shall put these words of mine in your heart and
soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and
fix them as an emblem on your forehead. 19 Teach them
to your children, talking about them when you are at home
and when you are away, when you lie down and when you
rise. 20 Write them on the doorposts of your house and
on your gates, 21 so that your days and the days of your
children may be multiplied in the land that the LORD swore
to your ancestors to give them, as long as the heavens are
above the earth. 22 If you will diligently observe this entire
commandment that I am commanding you, loving the LORD
your God, walking in all his ways, and holding fast to him,
23 then the LORD will drive out all these nations before
you, and you will dispossess nations larger and mightier
than yourselves. 24 Every place on which you set foot shall
be yours; your territory shall extend from the wilderness to
the Lebanon and from the River, the river Euphrates, to the
Western Sea. 25 No one will be able to stand against you;
the LORD your God will put the fear and dread of you on all
the land on which you set foot, as he promised you. 26 See,
I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: 27 the
blessing, if you obey the commandments of the LORD your
God that I am commanding you today; 28 and the curse, if
you do not obey the commandments of the LORD your God,
but turn from the way that I am commanding you today, to
follow other gods that you have not known.
DEVOTIONAL
I love the Book of Deuteronomy. As I write, I can almost
see a meme on Facebook that reads: “‘I love the Book of
Deuteronomy!’ Said no one ever.” There’s a lot of material
in Deuteronomy that fits into a very old, and mistaken,
impression that the God of the Old Testament is angry and
vengeful, more concerned with obedience to the law than
with grace and mercy. That’s the danger of a superficial
reading of any text, especially Deuteronomy.
The name Deuteronomy means “second law”; it’s a retelling
or resetting of the law of Moses. It was written for a people
who were constantly turning away from God, a people who
failed to put their full trust in God and then created idols for
worship.
The God who is speaking in this passage is inviting Israel,
the chosen people, to return to a righteous relationship with
God. God is offering Israel yet another chance to turn back
to God. That’s the grace. Sometimes we get hung up on the
curses and we forget about the grace and the blessings.
God’s blessings are not a reward for obedience. We live into
God’s blessings when we turn toward God and away from
the idols we make and worship. The curses happen not
because God is punishing us but because we turn our focus
to the idols we make: money, work, activities, and general
busyness, to name a few. When we focus on these things,
we’re not busy looking to God. We build stumbling blocks.
We trip. We fall. We fail to get out of our own way.
In this season, let us look within and search for all the idols
and stumbling blocks that we create, all the curses that
we heap upon ourselves. Let us look for ways to smash
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