This Lent we follow Jesus as he faces evil in the hours before his death. What is evil? Who is doing evil against Jesus during Passion Week? What are ways in which we are complicit in evil? Do we take evil seriously? As we experience evil in our own lives, discover how Jesus stands in the face of evil.
Invocation
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, who delivers us from all evil.
Invitation Prayer
Lord, you experienced evil by your death on the cross. Death is the great foe we all face. Yet you overcame the power of death by your resurrection. So fill us with this power that even now our lives may be filled with genuine hope. Hold us now and until our life’s end. We cling to you, our crucified and risen Savior, Jesus. Amen.
Meditation: Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted
“Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted”by Thomas Kelly
At the turn of the nineteenth century, Thomas Kelly studied at Trinity College in Dublin for a career in law but soon abandoned his legal career and took up Holy Orders in the Church of Ireland. Kelly’s public, evangelical preaching often brought him into conflict with the authorities in the Church of Ireland, which he eventually broke away from. Kelly wrote about 765 hymns in his lifetime.
Stricken, smitten, and afflicted,
see him dying on the tree!
‘Tis the Christ, by man rejected;
yes, my soul, ’tis he, ’tis he.
‘Tis the long-expected Prophet,
David’s Son, yet David’s Lord;
proofs I see sufficient of it:
’tis the true and faithful Word.
Tell me, as you hear him groaning,
was there ever grief like his,
friends through fear his cause disowning,
foes insulting his distress?
Many hands were raised to wound him,
none would interpose to save;
but the deepest stroke that pierced him
was the stroke that justice gave.
If you think of sin but lightly
nor suppose the evil great,
here may view its nature rightly,
here its guilt may estimate.
Mark the sacrifice appointed,
see who bears the awful load;
’tis the Word, the Lord’s anointed,
Son of Man and Son of God.
Here we have a firm foundation,
here the refuge of the lost:
Christ, the Rock of our salvation,
is the name of which we boast;
Lamb of God, for sinners wounded,
sacrifice to cancel guilt!
None shall ever be confounded
who on him their hope have built.
Sending
Almighty God, cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you and worthily magnify your holy name, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.