29 March 2026 - prisoners of hope

Today's Readings
(Audio)

Go into the village opposite you,
and immediately you will find an ass tethered,
and a colt with her.

We note first how precisely Jesus had everything planned out. There was a donkey and a colt in a specific place he predicted. He gave specific words which were adequate to address the concerns anyone might have about why the disciples were taking them. There was a specific place where he desired to celebrate Passover, and a chosen individual who would consent to host he and his disciples. 

His mission as a messiah appeared to be reaching a climax as they entered the city. It must have looked to the disciples like he was in complete control and knew exactly what he was doing. And he was and did. But what he was doing was still not what anyone really expected. These anecdotes about his careful planning may have been merely several among many intended to demonstrate that he was in fact in control, particularly as it would soon appear that he was anything but. He wanted his disciples to realize that although he would be handed over it was because of a more fundamental way in which he handed himself over. His life would not be taken from him. Rather, "I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again" (see John 10:18). The horror that was about to unfold was no accident, but rather part of the eternal plan of God, designed to bring about our salvation.

Say to daughter Zion,
"Behold, your king comes to you,
meek and riding on an ass,
and on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.

He was not coming to begin a military conquest, as Matthew indicated by citing the words of the prophet Zechariah. It might have seemed that his supernatural insights and abilities would have been perfect for the military leadership necessary to throw off the yoke of the Romans, as though he were a modern Maccabees. But the yoke of the Romans was not his target. His strategy and tactics were rather employed to take aim at the true enemies, Satan, sin, and death itself. A good human tactician might find a way to resist an oppressive foreign rule. But only a divine intellect could ensnare death itself so as to destroy it. Let us hear a little more from the prophet Zechariah that speaks to what Jesus would accomplish and how:

As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you,
I will set your prisoners free from the waterless pit.
Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope;
today I declare that I will restore to you double (see Zechariah 9:11-12).

Because of the new covenant in his blood Jesus would indeed set prisoners free from the waterless pit of death. Therefore they would be no longer prisoners of the enemy, but prisoners of hope, waiting to receive double for all that they had endured and suffered. 

The crowds preceding him and those following
kept crying out and saying:
"Hosanna to the Son of David;
blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord;
hosanna in the highest."

No doubt the crowd recognized that Jesus entering the city in the way he did was an explicit confirmation of the fact that he was the messiah. Finally, they thought, his victory was at hand. And again, it was, but not in the way they expected. And so they shouted with joy and the top of their lungs and laid their cloaks on the path before him. And this is our tendency as well. We celebrate Jesus when he seems triumphant, his Church when it seems effective, and the way God is at work in the world when it seems direct and unchallenged. But we are often as quick to change our tune as were the crowds, as were even his own disciples.

We may go out from the Passover meal singing the Hillel songs. But when we try to endure with him in the garden we tend allow sleep to overtake us rather than remain present to him in distress. Once the crowd comes out with swords and clubs we are typically as quick to flee as anyone rather than stay with Jesus and share his fate. 

Then all the disciples left him and fled.

It is hard for us to come to terms with the necessity of the death of Jesus, that our salvation had to come about in this way, rather than by some easier and more pleasant means. If he had been looking merely for a military success it surely would have been possible to keep everything positive for his allies, at least for the moment. But as he had his sight set on solving a more intractable problem more was required. He knew on Palm Sunday that those who sang hosanna would later be the same ones to shout, "Crucify him!" But these were the very people he desired to save. And it was from this fickle inability to commit themselves to the Lord from which he would save them. He had to expose the duplicitous and sinful nature of the common heart of humanity in order to bring it into the light and heal it.

Even before the Father fully vindicated Jesus through the resurrection there were already signs of hope. How could it be otherwise? By dying, the king had in fact already triumphed.

And behold, the veil of the sanctuary
was torn in two from top to bottom.
The earth quaked, rocks were split, tombs were opened,
and the bodies of many saints who had fallen asleep were raised.

These initial signs were persuasive enough to make those keeping watch say, "Truly, this was the Son of God!" Yet even so, Jesus was still in the tomb. Life seemed to continue without missing a beat, as though the very Lord of life had not gone missing. The women, at least, seemed to sense that this was not, could not be, the end of the story.

But Mary Magdalene and the other Mary
remained sitting there, facing the tomb.

For our part, we know well how the story ends. But we do well not to rush through the path that leads to that end. From staying as close to Jesus as we are able on this journey of his we hope to have new levels of love for him awakened within us. We hope to learn to be prisoners of hope even before we see that hopes realized.

I will proclaim your name to my brethren;
in the midst of the assembly I will praise you:

Hillsong Worship - Hosanna

 

28 March 2026 - for worse or for better

Today's Readings
(Audio)

What are we going to do?
This man is performing many signs.
If we leave him alone, all will believe in him,
and the Romans will come
and take away both our land and our nation.

The ability of the darkened human mind to blind itself to the action of God among us is striking. When many others, for good reason, came to believe that Lazarus had been raised, and therefore came to believe in Jesus, the Sanhedrin didn't even consider the possibility that they might be right to do so. They were so worried about the persuasiveness of the signs that they feared that eventually "all will believe in him". Perhaps they saw themselves as intellectual elites who would not be fooled like everyone else. But it is not exactly clear that they were certain his signs were false. They seemed more concerned about the practical matter that his signs were inconvenient for the status quo which they enjoyed at that time in relative comfort. Yes, they were under the power of the Romans. But at least they still possessed their land and their nation, and were able to enjoy their ancestral heritage. Things were far from as good as they could be. But they were mainly concerned about all of the ways in which they could easily become worse. But they were so concerned as to miss the much bigger picture which was nevertheless clearly unfolding in their midst.

You know nothing,
nor do you consider that it is better for you
that one man should die instead of the people,
so that the whole nation may not perish.

Caiaphas clearly intended to say that Jesus ought to be put to death so that the Romans would not turn hostile and dispossess them of their land. Without realizing it, he was in fact suggesting that the greatest possible goods, the possibility of reconciliation with God and eternal life, should be sacrificed for the political status quo. All that was represented by the raising of Lazarus was rejected in favor of a basic affirmation of the Roman occupation. In a way, it was like the people who complained when they were led forth from Egypt. They preferred the comfort of servitude to the freedom of the Sons of God. 

Through the gift of prophecy at work because Caiaphas was the high priest, however, God said something else. He stated the truth of the value of the sacrifice of the lamb of God: that it was better for one man to die, bearing the sins of the people, and thus saving all. If Jesus died in this way the whole nation need not perish in a way that was spiritual and eternal. And it was not only the nation that stood to gain from the sacrificial self-offering of Jesus. It was all of the dispersed children of God who would be gathered together as a result of his death and resurrection into a new and everlasting Kingdom who would benefit together. Thus there was something at stake much greater than the political status quo. By giving himself up to death Jesus would unlock the promise made through Ezekiel in our first reading:

I will take the children of Israel from among the nations
to which they have come,
and gather them from all sides to bring them back to their land.
I will make them one nation upon the land,
in the mountains of Israel,
and there shall be one prince for them all.

Hopefully we ourselves are not so blind to the goodness of God as were the religious leaders in the time of Jesus. But we nevertheless sometimes encounter situations in our world in which people seem shockingly oblivious to the true, the good, and the beautiful. By the actions they take they absolutely seem to put first priority on the wrong things, ignoring or actually sabotaging higher goods as collateral damage. But we see that, as with Joseph, what man intends for ill good is more than able to use for his own purposes (see Genesis 50:20). It usually involves a cross before it involves a crown (as it did for Joseph). It almost always goes beyond our ability to understand or predict. But, and this is important, it is certain, more than the coming of the dawn.

I will turn their mourning into joy,
I will console and gladden them after their sorrows.

 

Matt Maher - Behold The Lamb Of God

 

27 March 2026 - not a word problem

Today's Readings
(Audio)

I have shown you many good works from my Father.
For which of these are you trying to stone me?

To even engage with him about the many miraculous deeds he had done was already to concede more than they wanted. For instance, they could complain about what he had done on the Sabbath only by mentioning one or more of the healings had had performed. Jesus preferred to keep the emphasis on the way the power of God was obviously at work in the world through him. But they wanted to argue about words, and often about technicalities, to keep the focus away from this elephant in the room. Other of his opponents did not find success in impugning the conduct of his disciples, whether that of not performing ritual washings, or of picking grain on the Sabbath. These Judeans therefore ramped up their critique, making him out to be guilty of one of the chief crimes against the Law, that of blasphemy.

“We are not stoning you for a good work but for blasphemy.
You, a man, are making yourself God.”

To their credit they did correctly understand what Jesus had implied about his unique relationship with the Father. Yet they wished to ignore all of the works that seemed to indicate that his claim must be true, that the finger of God was really at work in their midst. They therefore thought a verbal assault would be irrefutable. Their logic: men are not gods, but you claim to be God, therefore you are a blasphemer. 

Jesus answered them,
“Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, ‘You are gods”‘?
If it calls them gods to whom the word of God came,
and Scripture cannot be set aside,
can you say that the one
whom the Father has consecrated and sent into the world

Jesus did not then go to great lengths to explain the reason why the incarnation was in fact possible, or how the Second Person of the eternal Triune God could, without contradiction, take unto himself a human nature. Rather it seemed that he didn't want them to get hung up at that point in words or merely verbal disputes and miss the reality that was unfolding all around them. Scripture had used the term gods for those who were merely creatures made in God's image, and whose leadership roles in some measure mediated his presence. The implication was not that the term was empty. It was rather that if even those individuals, who were wicked, and would be punished, could be described in that way, how much more could Jesus be rightly addressed as the Son of God. If there was any valid analogy at all between God and man then perhaps reality had always been designed to be open to the incarnation. In any case, the Scriptures had used the word in that way, and so the opponents of Jesus ought not to be so utterly flabbergasted when he appropriated the term himself.

If I do not perform my Father’s works, do not believe me;
but if I perform them, even if you do not believe me,
believe the works, so that you may realize and understand
that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.

He wanted to direct their attention back to the works he did. The reason seemed to be that they had an excessive ability to deceive themselves in merely intellectual and abstract discussion. But if they actually gave their attention to the things Jesus was doing in their midst they would be more likely to "realize and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father".

Most of us probably know what it is like to spend too much time in our heads, in our own subjectivity. We are aware of our tendency to become confused and even deceived when we spend too much time on abstractions. Instead, let us focus more on the great things Jesus has done, just as Mary teaches us.

for he who is mighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his name. 
And his mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation (see Luke 1:49-50)

Matt Maher - Great Things

 

26 March 2026 - before and after

Today's Readings
(Audio)

Amen, amen, I say to you,
whoever keeps my word will never see death.

Everyone who had ever spoken before, who had given words to the people, whether Abraham, Moses, or one of the prophets, had all tasted death. The notable exception was of course Elijah, but that was a privilege peculiar to himself. It wasn't something imbued into the power of the words he shared. The Judeans correctly understood the magnitude of what Jesus was claiming.

Now we are sure that you are possessed.
Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet you say,
‘Whoever keeps my word will never taste death.’
Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died?
Or the prophets, who died?
Who do you make yourself out to be?

Indeed it would be hard to conceive as one greater than Abraham, through whom the promises of the covenant were given. It was indeed unthinkable for a young individual born so much later in history to have a more important role than all of the pivotal players of Jewish antiquity. His opponents clearly thought that Jesus was doing nothing more than bragging, in a way that was difficult to challenge or to falsify. Therefore Jesus clarified his purpose, which was not to glorify himself.

Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is worth nothing;
but it is my Father who glorifies me,
of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’
You do not know him, but I know him.
And if I should say that I do not know him,
I would be like you a liar.

Jesus wanted to reveal his unique relationship to the Father. He could not pretend that he was not the incarnate Son of God merely to avoid unproductive conflict. He couldn't lie about his origins, because there was nothing more important to the salvation of the world than the truth of the claim that he came forth from the Father.

But I do know him and I keep his word.
Abraham your father rejoiced to see my day;
he saw it and was glad.”

In response to their question about whether Jesus was greater than Abraham he answered clearly in the affirmative, explaining that even Abraham himself acknowledged it. When Abraham laughed it was implied that he was rejoicing at the revelation, not just of the exile and return of Israel, but at the eventual coming of the messiah, the one through whom the promise that all the nations of the earth would be blessed would be fulfilled. Thus, although Abraham was born first, Jesus was prior in the sovereign plan of God, and thus was truly of greater importance to salvation history. The first in intention was last in execution, as the philosophers say. 

“You are not yet fifty years old and you have seen Abraham?”
Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you,
before Abraham came to be, I AM.”

From the fact that Jesus claimed to have a unique relationship to the Father, and from the fact that he described his experience of time as having a perspective that was not limited to years of his mortal existence, they inferred that he was claiming to be something greater than merely human. He seemed to imply that he shared God's eternal perspective on reality. But far from being ready to discuss the point, they only sought to provoke him because they were eager to have grounds to take offense. Yet, as we have said, Jesus could not lie about such an essential truth. He told them directly, in unmistakable language that he shared his identity with the God who had revealed himself to Moses at the burning bush when he said "before Abraham came to be, I AM".

Rather than being ready to take offense let us be ready to rejoice at the hidden good at which our God is always at work. Let us take the advice of our psalm for today:

Look to the LORD in his strength;
seek to serve him constantly.
Recall the wondrous deeds that he has wrought,
his portents, and the judgments he has uttered.

Newsboys - Joy

 

25 March 2026 - hail, full of grace

Today's Readings
(Audio) 

“Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you.”
But she was greatly troubled at what was said
and pondered what sort of greeting this might be.

Gabriel addressed Mary in a way that echoed things God had spoken to a figure known as daughter Zion through the prophets:

Sing, Daughter Zion;
shout aloud, Israel!
Be glad and rejoice with all your heart,
Daughter Jerusalem! (see Zephaniah 3:14)

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your king is coming to you;
righteous and having salvation is he (see Zechariah 9:9).

Moreover, his greeting referred to something of which Mary may have been only dimly aware. He spoke of the fact that she had been filled with grace by God in the past in a way that continued until that moment. In some way Gabriel seemed to tie the fulfillment of the messianic hope spoken through the prophets to the grace that was present and at work in Mary. Is it any wonder she was greatly troubled? There was something unbelievably vast at work, a divine conspiracy in which she was now implicated. Since her youth she had seen herself as dedicated to God. But now her mind must have been running through various Scripture passages as she sought to put the pieces together and understand what was expected of her. And it was true that much was being asked of her. Humanly speaking, fear would have been a natural response to the call on the life of Mary. But the angel helped her to frame things correctly, from God's point of view.

Do not be afraid, Mary,
for you have found favor with God.
Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son,
and you shall name him Jesus.

It got more confusing before it became clear. Mary understood herself to be a virgin, and planned to remain in that state, as she indicated when she asked, "How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?". But it was this very commitment that helped qualify her to bear the savior of the world. She was sacred and set apart for the miraculous way Jesus would enter the world. In asking the angel how it would happen she did not mean to imply doubt that it was possible. Rather, she understood that her prior commitment meant that the birth of this child couldn't come about in the normal way. She was docile and wanted the understanding required to play her part well.

The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.
Therefore the child to be born
will be called holy, the Son of God.

As the cloud of God's presence had once descended on the tent of meeting in the time of Moses so too would his presence overshadow Mary. It was this power and proximity of God that would be the direct cause of the birth of the child in such a way and to such a degree that he would, "be called holy, the Son of God". Mary was thus privileged and set apart. But she also became an example for us, an icon of the perfection of the Church at its beginning. From her we can learn how to allow the Spirit, who has now come to us as well through the Sacraments, to bring Jesus to birth in our own lives. If we remember this we will have the same cause for joy that Mary did, and the same sense of purpose animating our lives. We too will do our best to discern "How can this be" in our own lives, and respond to what we discover by imitating Mary's own assent to God's plan:

Mary said, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.
May it be done to me according to your word.”

Songs In His Presence - Bright As The Sun

 

24 March 2026 - when you lift up the Son of Man

Today's Readings
(Audio)

I belong to what is above.
You belong to this world,
but I do not belong to this world.
That is why I told you that you will die in your sins.

Since they belonged to the world they were destined to share its death directed destiny. Decay, entropy, and eventual dissolution were the ultimate defining realities of temporal existence. Humans were subject to "the ruler of this world" (see John 12:31) unless someone greater than the one who is in the world (see First John 4:4) set them free by plugging them in to a higher reality.

For if you do not believe that I AM,
you will die in your sins.

The point was not so much that he would punish them for unbelief as it was that unbelief would prevent them from availing themselves of their one opportunity for rescue. If they did not believe that Jesus had a unique connection to the Father, or that he was stronger than the forces of darkness, they would not open themselves to allow that power to come into their own hearts and work in them. An ark had been sent for their rescue. But they had to actually get onboard. Or, better, a power greater than death and stronger than the devil had finally appeared on earth. And now they needed to welcome that power into their own hearts so as to be transformed.

So they said to him, “Who are you?”
Jesus said to them, “What I told you from the beginning.
I have much to say about you in condemnation.
But the one who sent me is true,
and what I heard from him I tell the world.”

He had been revealing the truth of his identity and the reason that he came to earth for some time by then. But the people who heard had not been a receptive audience. Jesus could have said much in condemnation about the hardness of their hearts. He could have gotten frustrated. He could have gotten mad and sought retribution. But he was too deeply rooted in his own mission and purpose for that. He was too committed to helping the world to know everything he heard from the Father.

When you lift up the Son of Man,
then you will realize that I AM,
and that I do nothing on my own,
but I say only what the Father taught me.

When the Son of Man was lifted up upon the cross the people would have to reckon with the ugliness of sin. But as they looked on him whom they had pierced they could also experience the revelation of the ever greater love of God, love that was stronger than sin, more powerful even than death itself.

The one who sent me is with me.
He has not left me alone,
because I always do what is pleasing to him.

Although Jesus would in some way feel alone on the cross, bearing the alienation of the people from the Father, he always remembered that the Father was with him. Jesus remained on the cross, not out of weakness, but out of obedience. And his last words were words of trust in the Father as he handed over his Spirit. We see in Jesus the fact that death could not overcome the connection between the Father and the Son, even when it did its worst. This was meant to convince us that the Son is who he claims so that we might come to share in this connection. The only alternative is death. And we already know how toxic the is the poison of the seraph serpents. It only gets worse from here without the divine intervention of the great I AM. 

Because he spoke this way, many came to believe in him.

May we too hear the truth in the voice of Jesus and come to believe in him more deeply, that we may more fully share in his life.

The Maranatha Singers - Lord, I Lift Your Name On High

 

23 March 2026 - stone's throw away

Today's Readings
(Audio)

“Teacher, this woman was caught 
in the very act of committing adultery.
Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women.
So what do you say?”

It was amazing the lengths to which the scribes and Pharisees went in order to ensnare Jesus in their trap. They did not particularly care about the sanctity of marriage, but used the law as an excuse to find fault with Jesus. The women, whose dignity, as one created in the image of God, they clearly did not recognize, was merely acceptable collateral damage as far as they were concerned. Jesus, who was the bridegroom of Israel, did care deeply about marriage. He himself had given the commandment that prohibited adultery. But he did so precisely because of how adultery tarnished the dignity of his creatures and made them less than they were meant to be. Offenses against the dignity of marriage made those guilty of them less capable, not only of human love, but of relationship with Jesus. But since it was precisely this relationship that he desired above all else his instinctive response to guilt was not first judgment, but rather mercy. The Pharisees assumed that Jesus might endorse stoning the woman, thus bringing upon himself the wrath of the Romans, who reserved to themselves the right to administer the death penalty. Or else they thought he would set mercy against the Mosaic law, contradicting the punishment Moses commanded. But he did neither.

“Let the one among you who is without sin 
be the first to throw a stone at her.”

They would likely have seen themselves as without sin, just as Paul once saw himself, saying "as to righteousness under the law, blameless" (see Philippians 3:6). But they also knew that Jesus did not consider them to be faultless. Thus he was not actually suggesting any of them could rightly throw a stone. But there was more. What they would have desired to do at that point was almost certainly to stone the woman themselves, in order to uphold their public image of righteousness. But they could not, since it would upset the Roman authorities. They were thus made to look like sinners in the eyes of the crowd. They had been caught in the trap they themselves set.

They set a net for my steps; my soul was bowed down. They dug a pit in my way, but they have fallen into it themselves (see Psalm 57:6).

The scribes and the Pharisees were thus humiliated and went away with no ability to respond. But what of the woman, whom they had used and abused for their own ends? She was in fact guilty. And Jesus was in fact without sin. He was qualified to throw a stone if he chose. But the one person who could see clearly enough to be eligible to issue forth punishment instead chose to show mercy. There was no board in the eye of Jesus and so he was able to see clearly enough to actually help this sister who had been wounded by her sin. The Pharisees and the scribes were the opposite, since their own vision was so impaired they caused damage around themselves wherever they turned. They suffered precisely the sort of darkening of vision described in our first reading.

They suppressed their consciences;
they would not allow their eyes to look to heaven,
and did not keep in mind just judgments. 

We are not without sin ourselves, since, "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us" (see First John 1:8). But this need not be the end of our story as long as we continue to listen to our consciences and look to heaven. We can discover, like both Susanna, who was innocent, but also like the woman caught in adultery, that, "saves those who hope in him".

Bob Fitts - He Will Come And Save You