Category: Devotions Page 2 of 4

Order of Daily Prayer for Individuals and Families

• Old Testament: Zechariah 11:12-14
• Epistle: 1 Corinthians 11:23-32
• Gospel: John 13:1-15, 34-35

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Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father, and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

St. Paul writes to the church in Corinth that He delivered to them what He had received from the Lord, “that the Lord Jesus, on the night when He was betrayed took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it, and said, “This is My body, which is for you. Do this this in remembrance of Me.” In the same way also He took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the New Testament in My blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of Me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.” (1 Cor 11:23-26)

I’m at something of a loss this holy week. I’m not able to deliver to you very much of what I have received from the Lord. We cannot celebrate the Lord’s Supper together as brothers and sisters, as the Body of Christ. How often did we take that for granted before? How often did we inwardly groan when we walked in to church and saw the communion vessels set on the altar? The very thought of an extra fifteen minutes in this place was unbearable. Now what would we give to be able to gather again? We told the Lord that we did not want His gifts more often, because it would make them less special. Now our Lord has taken His gifts away. It is God who establishes the authorities that have limited our ability to gather. It is the Lamb who opens the seal that sends forth the pale rider to kill with pestilence.

How much would we give to be able to join our voices with other people who love Jesus? But now we find ourselves in exile. And like the people of Israel in their captivity in Babylon, the songs just don’t sound right when we are exiled by ourselves. “How shall we sing the Lord’s songs in a foreign land?” (Psalm 137:4) they wondered. How shall we sing them by ourselves? we wonder.

Our church services are reduced to something you can scroll past, right after the memes about “Repost if you remember when phones had cords?” and right before “post something purple from your picture roll” comes this purple reminder of remember when we used to be able to go to Church.

Tonight is a night that shows us what we are missing. Like the disciples who were all scattered like sheep by the end of this night, we have each been scattered to our own places, hoping to evade death. We are missing gathering together, and we miss the gifts that we are used to receiving. We miss the Body and Blood of our Savior. Jesus says, “Come to Me all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” He says to the weary, “Take eat, this is My Body, given for You! Take drink, this is My blood, shed for the forgiveness of Your sins.” He says to those who hunger and thirst for righteousness “Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise Him up on the last day. Whoever tastes and sees that I am Good, abides in Me and I in him.” Let the words of Jesus increase our hunger for His gifts so that we may receive them in joy when He once again permits us to enter His house.

Hope in God, for we will again praise Him! Our salvation and our God.

Let us learn from our Lord in this time of exile. We pray that He would wash us and make us clean, our hearts, souls, strengths, and minds, that we might have our share with Him. In this time, and especially in these three days we examine our lives, our homes, our families, our church, our community, and confess where we have not lived in the light of God’s Word, where we have brought death to ourselves and others by our lust, our sloth, our greed, our anger, and our pride. Wash us clean. And restore to us the joy of your salvation, O Lord. And strengthen us, that we may love each other as you have loved us. Pray with your families. Read God’s Word together. Prepare to join in the heavenly feast in His Kingdom.

Already we see His love at work. We pass on of the gifts that we have received from the Lord. People are delivering food to those who need it. Working to make sure that the sick and aged are cared for, that we have food to eat and water to drink. People who still have jobs and income seeking to help those who have seen theirs taken. And, though we may not be washing each other’s feet, we are washing our own hands in love for our neighbor. And in the love we show in earthly things, may it awaken a desire for the greater gifts which lead to life that has no end, life that was won for our Savior who laid down His life for us. Amen.

L Holy God, holy and most gracious Father,

C have mercy and hear us.

C Our Father who art in heaven,

hallowed be Thy name,

Thy kingdom come,

Thy will be done on earth

as it is in heaven;

give us this day our daily bread;

and forgive us our trespasses

as we forgive those

who trespass against us;

and lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil.

For Thine is the kingdom

and the power and the glory

forever and ever. Amen.

C I believe in God, the Father Almighty,

maker of heaven and earth.

And in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord,

who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,

born of the virgin Mary,

suffered under Pontius Pilate,

was crucified, died and was buried.

He descended into hell.

The third day He rose again from the dead.

He ascended into heaven

and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty.

From thence He will come to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,

the holy Christian Church,

the communion of saints,

the forgiveness of sins,

the resurrection of the body,

and the life T everlasting. Amen.

Reading Matthew 22:15–45

Paying Taxes to Caesar

¹⁵Then the Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle him in his talk. ¹⁶And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone’s opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances. ¹⁷Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” ¹⁸But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why put me to the test, you hypocrites? ¹⁹Show me the coin for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. ²⁰And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” ²¹They said, “Caesar’s.” Then he said to them, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” ²²When they heard it, they marveled. And they left him and went away.

Sadducees Ask About the Resurrection

²³The same day Sadducees came to him, who say that there is no resurrection, and they asked him a question, ²⁴saying, “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies having no children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up children for his brother.’ ²⁵Now there were seven brothers among us. The first married and died, and having no children left his wife to his brother. ²⁶So too the second and third, down to the seventh. ²⁷After them all, the woman died. ²⁸In the resurrection, therefore, of the seven, whose wife will she be? For they all had her.”

²⁹But Jesus answered them, “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God. ³⁰For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. ³¹And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God: ³²‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living.” ³³And when the crowd heard it, they were astonished at his teaching.

The Great Commandment

³⁴But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. ³⁵And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. ³⁶“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” ³⁷And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. ³⁸This is the great and first commandment. ³⁹And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. ⁴⁰On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Whose Son Is the Christ?

⁴¹Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, ⁴²saying, “What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “The son of David.” ⁴³He said to them, “How is it then that David, in the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying,

⁴⁴“‘The Lord said to my Lord,
Sit at my right hand,
until I put your enemies under your feet’?

⁴⁵If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?”

L I cry to You, O Lord;

C in the morning my prayer comes before You.

L Restore to me the joy of Your salvation,

C and uphold me with a willing spirit.

L My mouth is filled with Your praise,

C and with Your glory all the day.

L Every day I will bless You

C and praise Your name forever and ever.

L By awesome deeds You answer us with righteousness,

C O God of our salvation, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas.

L Bless the Lord, O my soul;

C and all that is within me, bless His holy name!

L He redeems your life from the pit

C and crowns you with steadfast love and mercy.

L Hear my prayer, O Lord;

C let my cry come to You.

L Let us pray.

Almighty and everlasting God, grant us by Your grace so to pass through this holy time of our Lord’s passion that we may obtain the forgiveness of our sins; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

C Amen.

C I thank You, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, Your dear Son, that You have kept me this night from all harm and danger; and I pray that You would keep me this day also from sin and every evil, that all my doings and life may please You. For into Your hands I commend myself, my body and soul, and all things. Let Your holy angel be with me, that the evil foe may have no power over me.

L Let us bless the Lord.

C Thanks be to God.

L The Lord bless us, defend us from all evil, and bring us to everlasting life.

C Amen.

Hymn: 438 A Lamb Goes Uncomplaining Forth st. 2

Tune: Public domain

Text: © 1941 Concordia Publishing House. Used by permission: LSB Hymn License no. 110003709

Acknowledgments

Responsive Prayer 1 from Lutheran Service Book

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the ESV^® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version^®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Created by Lutheran Service Builder © 2018 Concordia Publishing House.