Weekly Devotion for Sunday, March 22
By: Amy Baker
Hello all! This is Amy coming to you from the wonderful and beautiful Camp Gray. These last few days have brought us incredibly gorgeous weather in the high 60’s. And because of this warm weather we’ve been hurrying up to finish projects that require cold weather – more specifically, ice. One such project was clearing the marsh of some of the young trees that are turning it into a forest. Doing this required cutting down the trees and dragging all that wood across the frozen marsh, down the red trail, and to the athletic field.
Now, you may be wondering, and rightfully so, what this has to do with the Gospel for this Sunday. Don’t worry, we’re getting there. So for this marsh clearing project my task was to drag the trees away. It wasn’t too bad for the first load, but by the 4th or 5th I was pretty tired. At one point these song lyrics ran through my head: “And every day I will pick up my cross and walk with you, Lord, by your side…” and I thought about Jesus carrying his cross two thousand years ago. On that note, here’s the Gospel for this Sunday coming to you from John 3:14-21.
Jesus said to Nicodemus:
“Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert,
so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”
For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son,
so that everyone who believes in him might not perish
but might have eternal life.
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,
but that the world might be saved through him.
Whoever believes in him will not be condemned,
but whoever does not believe has already been condemned,
because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
And this is the verdict,
that the light came into the world,
but people preferred darkness to light,
because their works were evil.
For everyone who does wicked things hates the light
and does not come toward the light,
so that his works might not be exposed.
But whoever lives the truth comes to the light,
so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.
Here Jesus is explaining to a friend why he came to earth. He said that he came to earth to save us, because being human we sin, but because God is merciful he wants us with him. He is calling us out of the darkness of sin and to draw closer to him because he is the light. Jesus also explained it was necessary for him to die so that people could go to heaven.
Okay, so you’re probably asking what my story about the marsh has to do with this gospel. Well, my carrying that wood reminded me of the sacrifice that Jesus made in carrying his cross and dying for us. And in remembering that, I recalled that we are each called to pick up our crosses, whether they be a load of wood or homework or being nice to someone who doesn’t like us. These are some of the daily crosses that we face. This Gospel reminds us why we should bother to pick up our crosses, because if we love God and follow him we will eventually be with Him in paradise. And that is really what Lent is all about: loving God and following Him both when things are easy and when they’re difficult.
What crosses has God laid before you? Do you carry them with resentment or joy?