People sometimes talk about “giving something up” during Lent. To be sure, the 40 days of Lent have generally been treated as days for discipline. At first, however, this “discipline” was first “discipling,” that is, instruction.
This year I want to challenge you, instead of “giving something up” during Lent, “take something up” and read through the Four Gospels with me. Get to know the life and works of your Savior Jesus better as we watch him go to the cross!
Monday through Friday, beginning today I will post the daily readings here and as time permits a brief meditation on those readings.
This is a plan from YouVersion.com.
Day 1: Matthew 1, Luke 1, John 1.
So, Lent is usually a focus on the Passion of our Lord, on his suffering and birth. What could these readings about his forerunner, about his birth, about his person have to do with his passion? Is this not where it all begins? Yes and no.
If we want to know where this all begins we have to go back to Genesis where God first proclaims the promise when he curses the snake (Genesis 3:15). There God promises a Champion who will rise up from the seed of woman to crush the serpent's head and render him powerless and destroyed. It all begins there.
Oh, how Satan must have screamed every time a child was born wondering, "Is this the promised Champion who will crush my head?" And then, in the person of Jesus, in the baby born of Mary adopted, so-to-speak, by Joseph, proclaimed by John, the Champion was born. So, where does the passion begin, where does the cross begin to come into view? It begins the moment he was conceived, the day he was born. This child was born to die!
For us! For you. For me. This child was born to die for you and for me.
It all started there in a manger. It all ends at the empty tomb!
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