Printable version of today’s devotional guide

Where Do I Begin?

Begin each day with the Prayer of Illumination to help, prepare your heart to hear God’s word for you.  Read “to be formed and transformed rather than to gather information…Read with a vulnerable heart.  Expect to be blessed…Read as one awake, one waiting for the beloved.  Read with reverence.”*

Let us Pray a Prayer of Illumination:

All-Seeing One, above me, around me, within me —
guide my vision as I engage with your sacred words.
Look down upon me, look out from within me, look all around me.
See through my eyes, hear through my ears, feel through my heart.
God of Wisdom, touch me where I need to be touched;
    and when my heart is touched, give me the grace to lay
    down this Holy Book and ask significant questions:
Why has my heart been touched by you?
How am I to be changed through your touch?
All-Seeing One, I need to change, I need to look a little more like You.
May these sacred words change and transform me.
Then I can meet You face to face…when I shall be healed forever.
Your Word and the touch of your Spirit bring healing…
    a healing that will last.
O Eye of God, look not away.
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and put a new and right spirit within me. Amen.

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TUESDAY OF HOLY WEEK – Day 42

PREPARING TO GO
John 13:31-35

When he had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’ I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

GLORIFIED IN GOD

The passage begins, When he had gone out… We are in the middle of a story and so we ask: who had gone out, and why? And why does Jesus wait until he had gone out to start talking about how the Son of Man has been glorified and God has been glorified in him…?

The 13th Chapter begins with Jesus washing the disciples feet. Jesus finishes the lesson, “For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you;” and he talks about servants not being greater than their masters, and being blessed if you know what to do and you do it. (John 13:15-17) Then there is a turning point when Jesus speaks of one…chosen, “the one who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me.” (John 13:18) And he begins to speak of a betrayer; the disciples express concern, and Jesus dips his bread in the dish and gives it to Judas. (John 13:26) Then Jesus tells Judas, “Do quickly what you are going to do…and he immediately went out. And it was night.” (John 13:27, 30)

And so it is Judas who has gone out, and Jesus has waited for Judas to go before he tells his disciples about the glorification of God that is happening in him. The Greek word used for glorified is doxazo. It means to “honor, praise, extol, magnify, celebrate, to render excellent or illustrious, and/or to cause the dignity and worth of some person to be manifest and acknowledged.”^tttt

It is so difficult for us to understand the confusion of the disciples at this moment: they have all followed together, yet now one of them has left; they have always followed Jesus but now he is going where they cannot go. There is something unexpected happening. But we know the truth: Jesus’ identity will soon be revealed. He is going to be extolled and magnified as Messiah. He will be affirmed and made manifest to all who believe. Now, he is preparing them for his departure with these words, that above all else, they will need to remember in the coming days: By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.

PRAYER

Even and especially when life is confusing, Jesus, reveal yourself to me in the love of another. Amen

 

FOR FURTHER REFLECTION

Describe a time when leaving someone/thing was difficult.

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Notes:
This week’s devotional resource was written by Rev. Wendy Depew Partelow, President of the American Baptist Churches of New York State Board of Missions, and edited by Rev. Mark H. Breese of Community Missions. The content was created specifically keeping in mind the populations served by Community Missions.

REFERENCES AND RESOURCES

Scripture Verses are from the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV), HarpurCollins Publishers, 1989.

The choice of Daily Scripture texts are taken from Lent & Easter, Wisdom from Thomas Merton, Linguori Publications.

^ttCarlo Carretto, In Search of the Beyond, as quoted in A Guide to Prayer for All God’s People, Shawchuck and Job, Upper Room Books, p. 138-9.

^tttMarcus J. Borg & John Dominic Crossan, The Last Week, HarperCollins Publishers, 2006. From pgs. 2-4.

^ttttwww.blueletterbible.org, glorified, using Strong’s Lexicon #G1392.