Thursday of the First Week in Lent
In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus claims to forgive sins and He heals people. As you read on in the New Testament, He claims to be the Son of God. The religious leaders of the time are offended and horrified. How can someone claim to forgive sins, they ask? That is the business of God alone. This Jesus is laying a claim to that which belongs uniquely to the Almighty. The question they are asking screams out from our reading: who is this Jesus? It has become fashionable in our modern day to say that Jesus was a great teacher, an insightful and important figure. Jesus has been given credit for being a moral philosopher, an innovator, and a compelling figure. But when someone claims to forgive sins and to be the Son of God, one of two things has to be true. Either that person is all that he claims to be, or he is nuts. You can’t compromise on the claim to divinity. When someone claims to be uniquely tied in to the Almighty, they are either hopelessly crazy, or they are right.
The question of today’s Gospel is, who is Jesus? Jesus says that He is God’s Son, our Savior. If He is right, if Jesus is who He says He is, then there is no one more important for us to know. There is no other one who can give life, no other one who can redeem life. There is no other one for us to follow.
Who is this Jesus? That is the question of today’s Gospel, that is the question of Lent. There is no more important question for us.
Prayer: Holy Jesus, You are Lord, You are Savior, You are the Son of God. Use this Lenten Season to direct us and Your entire Church to You. Amen.
Devotion written by the Rev. Dr. Mark H. Braaten
Morning Psalms
Evening Psalms
This daily prayer and Bible reading guide, Devoted to Prayer (based on Acts 2:42), was conceived and prepared by the Rev. Andrew S. Ames Fuller, director of communications for the North American Lutheran Church (NALC). After several challenging years in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have been provided with a unique opportunity to revitalize the ancient practice of daily prayer and Scripture reading in our homes. While the Reading the Word of God three-year lectionary provided a much-needed and refreshing calendar for our congregations to engage in Scripture reading, this calendar includes a missing component of daily devotion: prayer. This guide is to provide the average layperson and pastor with the simple tools for sorting through the busyness of their lives and reclaiming an act of daily discipleship with their Lord. The daily readings follow the Lutheran Book of Worship two-year daily lectionary, which reflect the church calendar closely. The commemorations are adapted from Philip H. Pfatteicher’s New Book of Festivals and Commemorations, a proposed common calendar of the saints that builds from the Lutheran Book of Worship, but includes saints from many of those churches in ecumenical conversation with the NALC. The introductory portion is adapted from Christ Church (Plano)’s Pray Daily. Our hope is that this calendar and guide will provide new life for congregations learning and re-learning to pray in the midst of a difficult and changing world.