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Sound & Season is a daily audio devotional designed to connect the routine moments of life to the rhythms of the Church seasons.
This is Sound and Season. It's Wednesday of Holy Week, 37th day of Lent. Our passage today comes from the gospel of Mark, chapter 14 verses 43 through 52. And immediately, while he was still speaking, Judas came, one of the 12, and with him a crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the scribes and the elders. Now the betrayer had given them a sign saying, the one I will kiss is the man, seize him and lead him away under your guard.
Jeffrey Heine:And when he came, he went up to him at once and said, Rabbi, and he kissed him, and they laid hands on him and seized him, but one of those who stood by drew his sword and struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his ear. And Jesus said to them, have you come out as against a robber with swords and clubs to capture me? Day after day, I was with you in the temple teaching and you did not seize me, but let the scriptures be fulfilled. And they all left him and fled. And a young man followed him with nothing but a linen cloth about his body, and they seized him, but he left the linen cloth and ran away naked.
Jeffrey Heine:This is the word of the lord. Thanks be to God. Jesus is betrayed by one of his own disciples and seized by the crowd. Jesus had always known Judas would betray him, that he was patient with him, giving him bread from his table, welcoming him in the garden of Gethsemane with a kiss, how much more patient will he be with us, when we turn not in betrayal, but in repentance? When we confess our sin and need, Won't he welcome us with a kiss and embrace us?
Jeffrey Heine:Let us go to him in repentance and be seized by his grace and mercy. Lord, hear our prayer, and let our cry come to you. Let us pray. Almighty and everlasting God, blessed be the father of our Lord Jesus Christ. For according to your great mercy, you have caused us to be born again to a living hope, through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for us.
Jeffrey Heine:Guard us by your power. Grant us the eyes to see, ears to hear, and the will to respond to your grace and mercy today. O Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us. Glory to the father and to the son and to the holy spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.