Christ on the Cross

HOLY WEEK is an invitation to gaze at our Savior on the Cross, the way God chose to save his people from their sins. Jesus came into the world in the most vulnerable way possible, as an infant, completely dependent on his parents. And God  leaves the world without armor, naked and spat upon. His whole life seemed to be about disarming. After all Jesus is the Prince of Peace.

For the early followers of Jesus, the most astonishing truth about their Master Jesus was that he did not lead with power but through vulnerability. Jesus did not dominate or control, but chose to be a servant leader.   The mystery of grace is that the vulnerability of Jesus did not weaken his authority as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, but revealed the depth and character of God’s love.

PRACTICE VISIO DIVINA. Divine Seeing, is a way of looking at art with an eye for the sacred. Take a reflective moment with the painting Christ on the Cross by Baroque master, Peter Paul Rubens, 1613.

ISAIAH READINGS.

The Holy Week Lectionary readings from the Servant Songs in the book of Isaiah are a way to more deeply imagine and visualize the Divine purpose of God in allowing the Son of God to hang on a cross. Your soul will be imprinted with the strength and vulnerability of Jesus Christ, who embodied the Beauty of the Crushing of the Servant for the Glory of God.

Download BEHOLD MY SERVANT to follow the Isaiah readings and my devotional commentary. The readings are for the week of Palm Sunday through Easter, but the meditations can be used anytime during Lent.

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GOSPEL READINGS. A good listening and contemplative practice for this week is to read the passion narratives in all four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. I offer this schedule for your personal and family readings:

Palm Sunday. Read Matthew 21:1-11; Psalm 118: 1-2,19-29; Philippians 2:5-11

Behold, your king is coming to you, humble, and mounted on a donkey,
    on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.

Matthew 21:5

Monday. Read Matthew 21-28. Isaiah 42:1-9.

And Jesus entered the temple and drove out all who sold and bought…he said to them, “My house shall be called a house of prayer, but you make it a den of robbers.”

Matthew 21:12-13

Tuesday. Read Mark 11-16. Read Isaiah 49:1-6.

Jesus said there is no greater commandment than these: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart…and your neighbor as yourself.”

Mark 12:30-31

Wednesday. Read Luke 19-24. Read Isaiah 50:4-9.

Passover drew near. And the chief priests and scribes were seeking how to put him to death. Judas conferred with them to betray Jesus.

Luke 22:1-6

Thursday. Read Mark 14:22-25; Luke 22:14-23; John 13:1-17; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26.

And as they were eating, he took bread, and after blessing it broke it and gave it to them and said, ‘This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. And he took a cup, and said to them, ‘This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for the many.”

Friday. Read John 12-21. Read Isaiah 52:13-53:12.

So they took Jesus, and he went out, bearing his own cross to Golgotha. There they crucified him.

John 19