Thirty-seventh Day of Lent

 Wednesday, March 31, 2021

Hallelujah!  He is risen!

A Lenten Devotional Guide

By Patience Nave 

And while they were eating, He took some bread, and after a blessing He broke it; and gave it to them, and said, “Take it; this is My body.” And when He had taken a cup, and given thanks, He gave it to them; and they all drank from it. And he said to them, “This is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many.”

Mark 14:22-24 NAS

I like to try to imagine what it would have been like at the time that Jesus was speaking, and how his hearers might have heard what He was saying. This is a good example.

The feast they were having together was the Passover, and every good Jew knew from childhood the story of the Passover lamb. They had been told about the oppression of the Egyptians. They knew of God’s covenant with the Hebrew people, that their first-born child would be spared as the angel of death passed through the land only if they covered their doorposts and lintels with the blood of a lamb.

There were no windows in the homes in Jerusalem, and as Jesus and the disciples sat having their meal, the sound of bleating sheep in the night, sheep that would be slain for observance of the Passover Meal must have pierced the night air.

How shocking it must have been to the disciples to hear this man they had been following for three years say, “I am your Lamb. This is my covenant blood. This is my body.” A new covenant He was giving them, as only God could give. I wonder if they realized what he was saying!

Father thank you for Jesus, your Lamb who has taken away my sin and has saved me from the angel of death. Help me to remember as the resurrection celebration nears, that my life has been purchased at great cost. I can never merit such a gift, but I pray that you will help me show my appreciation by living in such a manner that your name will be honored by my life.

Hallelujah! He is Risen!
prepared for First United Methodist Church of Homosassa, Florida
Spring 2011
compiled by Patience Nave, Christian Education Coordinator
reproduced and edited by Patience Fort