Good News for Today: A Lenten Devotional

Copyright © 2013 Mel Shoemaker.

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Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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ISBN: 978-1-4908-1432-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-1433-9 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013919849

WestBow Press rev. date: 11/05/2013

Contents

Preface

Week One

A New Spiritual Journey

Fasting

Jesus, the Son of God

Peace! Be Still!

Week Two

Confession of Faith

The Transfiguration

Good News to the Poor

Showing a Greater Love

A Costly Commitment

Key to Eternal Life

A Crucial Decision

Week Three

Making Friends

Call to Prayer and Justice

Business Ethics

A Shining Light

Perfect Love

Great Faith

The Golden Rule

Week Four

Parables of the Kingdom

Humility and Forgiveness

Entering the Kingdom

Humble Service

The Lamb of God

Turning Water into Wine

Born of Water and Spirit

Week Five

Worship in Spirit and Truth

True Freedom

Seeing and Believing

The Good Shepherd

Hope of the Resurrection

Jesus Enters Jerusalem

The Cornerstone

Week Six

God of the Living

The Little Apocalypse

The Lord’s Return

The Great Judgment

Acts of Kindness

Foot Washing

The New Covenant

Week Seven

The Gift of Peace

The Vine and the Branches

The Spirit of Truth

Prayer for Unity

The Last Temptation of Jesus

Trial, Crucifixion, and Death of Jesus

Body Piercing

Week Eight

Eyes Wide Open

Good News Lectionary

About the Author

To All My Children

Born of water and Spirit

(John 3:5)

Preface

Y ou are beginning to walk with Jesus on a sacred journey, which will continue for the next forty days of Lent, plus the six Sundays between Ash Wednesday and Easter. If you read the gospel lesson suggested for each day, you will read the complete gospel story as it unfolds from the baptism of Jesus to his passion, death, and resurrection. Since the four Gospels tell some of the same stories and teachings of Jesus, the duplications have been omitted.

Most Bible scholars believe that Mark’s gospel was the first written and that significant sections were copied and included in the later gospels of Luke and Matthew. It is for this reason that the first six readings are in Mark’s gospel. Then the readings pick up the story in Luke, followed by readings in Matthew. John’s gospel provides a fourth stage in the developing story of Jesus, and he appears to fill in several of the gaps in the story with respect to Jesus’ travels in Judea and several visits to Jerusalem.

The forty-seven devotional readings permit you to choose one of three plans, depending upon the time you have.

Plan 1 Read the Old Testament verses, the psalm, the gospel verses, and the devotional reading (in that order) for the day—approximately fourteen minutes, plus quiet time for meditation and reflection.

Plan 2 Read the psalm, the gospel verses, and the devotional reading for the day—approximately ten minutes, plus quiet time for meditation and reflection.

Plan 3 Read the gospel verses and the devotional reading for the day—approximately eight minutes, plus quiet time for meditation and reflection.

The gospel readings provide the foundation upon which the devotional develops the meditation for the day.

The Gospels are telling a story, and the story unfolds, providing new spiritual insights and understanding as it progressively develops. This spiritual journey may be compared to the hike up a mountain. With each rise in elevation, the vistas become more spectacular, and there will be those aha moments of seeing things in new perspectives. However, one does not simply ascend directly from the nine thousand–foot elevation to the fourteen thousand–foot summit. The journey has many twists and turns, and persistence is required to reach the lofty pinnacle with its grand panorama. Each hour of the ascent has its importance in the ultimate ecstasy of triumph.

All four Gospels tell the story of Jesus, the Son of God, who came to die on a cross erected on a hill outside of Jerusalem’s walls. Good Friday and Easter rise before you as the magnificent pinnacle in your ascent. You are now taking the first step to walk with Jesus on the way. This may be your first Lenten study or your tenth. It is my hope and prayer that these forty-seven days of readings and meditations will cultivate a new spiritual vitality and faith in the living God, who loves you supremely. That is the good news and the underlying theme. God truly loves you.

Mel Shoemaker

September 2013

Week 1.1—Beginning with Ash Wednesday

A New Spiritual Journey

The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God (Mark 1:1).

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news’ (Mark 1:14–15).

T he gospel story begins and ends with the deity of Jesus Christ. Who was he? How was Jesus distinctly different from other Jewish rabbis of the first century? Mark’s gospel begins with the critical assertion that Jesus of Nazareth was indeed the Messiah promised by the ancient prophets, and his nature was unique. He was the Son of God. This is the primary point and foundation of the gospel story. Mark supports the deity of Jesus with multiple accounts of Jesus’ miraculous deeds. Forty-seven percent of the first nine chapters—i.e., nearly half of this gospel, prior to Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem to die—reports miracles that were impossible for a human rabbi to perform, but not impossible for the Son of God. Jesus is indeed the Messiah, the Christ! This is the good news.

The ancient Greek historians, Thucydides and Herodotus, chronicle the crucial battle between the Greeks and Persians at Marathon in 490 BC, which marks a turning point in Western civilization. The outnumbered Greeks startled the enemy with a radical new battle strategy. They charged the Persian’s orderly phalanxes, similar to the manner of the Scots in the legendary battle led by William Wallace, aka Braveheart, in their stunning victory over the English at Bannockburn in 1314. To the Persians, at first it appeared to be an act of reckless, military suicide. The Greek courage and ferocity, however, created a chaotic panic among the Persians, which resulted in a major military slaughter—6,400 Persians died while the Greeks suffered only 192 casualties that day. The good news of victory was carried by a fleet-footed messenger back to Athens, more than twenty-six miles away.

The origin of the Marathon race serves to illustrate the meaning of the gospel or good news. Mark, the author of the first gospel, is like the Marathon messenger who ran to tell the good news. The Greek word euangelion, translated gospel, literally means a good messenger or one who brings good news. The message is delivered and received with excitement. The message? God has won the victory over sin and death! The reader of Mark’s gospel becomes aware of this literary excitement as the author quickly moves the reader to the final week in Jesus’ life, beginning with his entry into Jerusalem in chapter 11. That means Mark covers the balance of Jesus’ life in the first ten chapters, and the final Passion Week is expanded to six chapters. Mark wants the reader to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, who accomplished a victory on the cross, which is unique in all human history.

Therefore the gospel message passionately calls us to believe God’s good news, to repent of our sins, and to begin a fresh spiritual journey with Jesus as our teacher and friend. Repentance implies a change of direction, an about-face. Whereas before we may have turned our backs on God, we now want to know him. In the past we may have had our priorities in an upside-down order; we now want to learn how to please God. Ultimately, we want to hear God say to us in the day of eternal judgment, Well done.

Prayer:

Heavenly Father, have mercy upon me;

For I have transgressed your law in word, thought, and deed.

I beg for your divine mercy and forgiveness.

Please help me as I begin this spiritual journey

To know Jesus, your Son, as the Lord and Master of my life.

Amen.

Gospel parallels: Matt. 3:1–4:25; 8:1–4; Luke 3:1–5:16

Week 1.2—Thursday

Fasting

Jesus said to them, ‘The wedding guests cannot fast while the bridegroom is with them, can they? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast. The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast on that day’ (Mark 2:19–20).

J esus told the paralytic, Son, your sins are forgiven (Mark 2:5). That is what he also says to you: Your sins are forgiven. With those wonderful words from Jesus, a burden of guilt is lifted. You are free! The memories and some of the consequences may still persist; however, God no longer condemns you for your past deeds.

When Jesus forgave the paralytic of his sins, the observing scribes or teachers of the Mosaic law reacted by saying, This is wrong. Only God can forgive sins. Who does Jesus think he is? (Mark 2:7). Jesus, however, wanted them to acknowledge his divinity. He is not Satan, nor is he demon possessed. He is the Son of God, and he has the power and authority to forgive sins. To prove this assertion, he asked the paralytic to take up his mat and go home (Mark 2:11). The forgiveness of sins is a spiritual matter, unobservable with the human eye. When the paralytic took up his mat and walked out through the crowd, everyone present witnessed a physical miracle that was undeniable. They were amazed, for only God could do this. Was Jesus really the Messiah, the Son of God?

Crowds of people now followed him, and Jesus taught them. Levi, aka Matthew the tax collector, chose to follow Jesus, joining the growing number of disciples. Again the Jewish leaders questioned the religious piety and behavior of Jesus and his disciples. The disciples of other rabbis and also the followers of John the Baptist were taught to fast, but neither Jesus nor his disciples practiced fasting. The pious Pharisees fasted on Mondays and Thursdays; however, the only fast prescribed by God in the Mosaic law was Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement).

All fasting in the Bible, other than on Yom Kippur, was voluntary. A person might fast for one day, i.e., sunrise to sunset, or for a longer period of time, such as the forty-day fasts of Moses (Ex. 34:28), Elijah (1 Kings 19:8), and Jesus (Luke 4:1–2). We are told that Jesus ate nothing during those forty days in the wilderness, and he was naturally famished and vulnerable when tempted by the Devil to turn a stone into bread (Luke 4:3). The forty-day fast of Jesus serves as the background for the forty days of Lent.

Sundays and weddings are festive celebrations, and Jesus stated that it is inappropriate to fast on these occasions. Jesus likens himself to a bridegroom at a wedding (Mark 2:19). His presence and ministry among his disciples was a time for feasting and celebration, not fasting. However, he foretold that a time would come when he would be taken away from his disciples. In that period following Jesus’ death and resurrection, it would be appropriate for his disciples to fast.

Ash Wednesday has traditionally been a day of Christian fasting, i.e., abstaining from eating and drinking during all or part of the day, typically from sunrise to sunset. Many Christian traditions also assemble for prayer and worship on Ash Wednesday, and they have their foreheads marked with a cross of ashes. The ashes and fasting signify sorrow and repentance from one’s sins and self-denial of the primary physical desire for food. In the early church, Wednesdays and Fridays were observed as fast days, and many Christians continue to abstain from eating meat on Fridays. If you are accustomed to some personal excess, neglect, or addictive behavior (e.g., coffee, work, sports, Internet, social networking, shopping, wine, etc.), these forty days of Lent provide a grand opportunity to reaffirm your devotion to Jesus Christ and his lordship of your life.

Prayer:

Gracious and forgiving Lord,

You know those things