Holy Week Contemplative Messages
Maunday Thursday: “Jesus’ Final Evening”
April 1, 2021 | David Mosgofian Koeker | Maunday Thursday (The Last Supper)
This is the night that Jesus shares his last meal with his apostles. Later, he will be betrayed, arrested and face trial.
David Mosgofian Koeker reads the sacred words and Kathleen Sieck performs the special music, including an original song called “My Peace”.
Good Friday: “Seven Sayings from the Cross”
April 2, 2021 | David Mosgofian Koeker | Good Friday (The Day Jesus is Crucified)
This contemplative time of meditation focuses on the seven phrases Jesus spoke from the cross during his final hours.
David Mosgofian Koeker invites us to center ourselves into the deepening love of God through Jesus as we ponder the questions put to us. Kathleen Sieck performs the special music.
“Easter Changes Everything”
April 1, 2021 | David Mosgofian Koeker | Easter Changes Everything (From Death to Life)
When the women discovered the empty tomb on Sunday morning, the words of Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53 had already foretold what was going to happen.
David Mosgofian Koeker provides the context in light of the Passion of the Christ and Kathleen Sieck performs songs of faith and inspiration to remind us that Jesus overcame even death itself!
References and Resources
Scripture:
Maundy Thursday: Jesus’ final evening with his disciples
It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love. When evening came, Jesus was reclining at the table with the Twelve. And he said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover meal with you before I suffer. And while they were eating, he said, “I tell you the truth; one of you will betray me.” They were very upset and began to say to him one after the other, “Surely, you don’t mean me, Lord?” Then Judas, the one who would betray him, said, “Do you mean me, Rabbi?” And Jesus answered, “Yes, it is you.”
As they were eating the meal, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is my body.” Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. Then after supper, Jesus got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, wrapped a towel around his waist, poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciple’s feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.
When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Since I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set for you an example that you should do as I have done for you. Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.”
Then Jesus looked toward heaven and prayed: “Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. I have completed the work you gave me to do. I have revealed you to those whom you gave me. I have given them the words that you have given me and they accepted them. They know with certainty that I came from you and they now believe that you sent me. “Now the time has come for me to leave this world and come to you, but they are still in the world. Father, protect them by the power of your name so that they may be one as we are one. I not only pray for these you have given me, but also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they be brought into complete unity so the world will know that you sent me and have loved them, even as you have loved me.” After the prayer, they sang a hymn together.
Good Friday: reflecting on Jesus’ seven sayings from the cross
1) The people stood watching and the soldiers came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar and said, “If you are a King, save yourself.” And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them for they don’t know what they are doing.”
1) Reflection: Is there someone you need to forgive today? What do you need forgiveness for?
2) One of the criminals who hung there, hurled insults at him, but the other criminal said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”
2) Reflection: Where in your life do you feel unworthy of this love? Can you accept that the same kind of love that was graciously and freely given to the thief on the cross is also available to you?
3) Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Dear woman, here is your son,” and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home.
3) Reflection: Jesus is making provision for his mother’s care. Is there anyone you are concerned about that you wish to ask Jesus to take care of? Where do you need Jesus to care for you?
4) From noon until 3pm, darkness came over all the land. About 3 o’clock Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” Which means: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
4) Reflection: Is this your prayer at this time in your life? In what way do you feel distanced or abandoned by God and why?
5) Later, knowing that all was now completed, Jesus said, “I am thirsty.” A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus’ lips.
5) Reflection: What is the nature of your own thirst? What are you thirsting for?
6) The whole land was still and covered in darkness. The curtain of the temple was torn in two. Jesus called out in a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.”
6) Reflection: Are you ready to give yourself over to God at this time? Or is there something you’ve been unwilling to relinquish to God. Are you willing to let it go?
7) Jesus cried out again and in a loud voice said, “It is finished!” With that he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
7) Reflection: Let your heart grasp these powerful words of Jesus. IT IS FINISHED! In this declaration you stand forever loved, forever forgiven, and forever free! IT IS FINISHED! Draw near and taste the banquet prepared for you. Receive Christ’s gift for you. .
Easter Changes Everything: Jesus’ fulfillment of Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53
Psalm 22
1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from helping me, from the words of my groaning?
2 O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer;
and by night, but find no rest.
3 Yet you are holy,
enthroned on the praises of Israel.
4 In you our ancestors trusted;
they trusted, and you delivered them.
5 To you they cried, and were saved;
in you they trusted, and were not put to shame.
6 But I am a worm, and not human;
scorned by others, and despised by the people.
7 All who see me mock at me;
they make mouths at me, they shake their heads;
8 “Commit your cause to the Lord; let him deliver—
let him rescue the one in whom he delights!”
9 Yet it was you who took me from the womb;
you kept me safe on my mother’s breast.
10 On you I was cast from my birth,
and since my mother bore me you have been my God.
11 Do not be far from me,
for trouble is near
and there is no one to help.
12 Many bulls encircle me,
strong bulls of Bashan surround me;
13 they open wide their mouths at me,
like a ravening and roaring lion.
14 I am poured out like water,
and all my bones are out of joint;
my heart is like wax;
it is melted within my breast;
15 my mouth is dried up like a potsherd,
and my tongue sticks to my jaws;
you lay me in the dust of death.
16 For dogs are all around me;
a company of evildoers encircles me.
My hands and feet have shriveled;
17 I can count all my bones.
They stare and gloat over me;
18 they divide my clothes among themselves,
and for my clothing they cast lots.
19 But you, O Lord, do not be far away!
O my help, come quickly to my aid!
20 Deliver my soul from the sword,
my life from the power of the dog!
21 Save me from the mouth of the lion!
From the horns of the wild oxen you have rescued me.
22 I will tell of your name to my brothers and sisters;
in the midst of the congregation I will praise you:
23 You who fear the Lord, praise him!
All you offspring of Jacob, glorify him;
stand in awe of him, all you offspring of Israel!
24 For he did not despise or abhor
the affliction of the afflicted;
he did not hide his face from me,
but heard when I cried to him.
25 From you comes my praise in the great congregation;
my vows I will pay before those who fear him.
26 The poor shall eat and be satisfied;
those who seek him shall praise the Lord.
May your hearts live forever!
27 All the ends of the earth shall remember
and turn to the Lord;
and all the families of the nations
shall worship before him.
28 For dominion belongs to the Lord,
and he rules over the nations.
29 To him, indeed, shall all who sleep in the earth bow down;
before him shall bow all who go down to the dust,
and I shall live for him.
30 Posterity will serve him;
future generations will be told about the Lord,
31 and proclaim his deliverance to a people yet unborn,
saying that he has done it.
Isaiah 52:13 - 53:12
13 See, my servant shall prosper;
he shall be exalted and lifted up,
and shall be very high.
14 Just as there were many who were astonished at him
—so marred was his appearance, beyond human semblance,
and his form beyond that of mortals—
15 so he shall startle many nations;
kings shall shut their mouths because of him;
for that which had not been told them they shall see,
and that which they had not heard they shall contemplate.
53 Who has believed what we have heard?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2 For he grew up before him like a young plant,
and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by others;
a man of suffering[a] and acquainted with infirmity;
and as one from whom others hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him of no account.
4 Surely he has borne our infirmities
and carried our diseases;
yet we accounted him stricken,
struck down by God, and afflicted.
5 But he was wounded for our transgressions,
crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the punishment that made us whole,
and by his bruises we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have all turned to our own way,
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
8 By a perversion of justice he was taken away.
Who could have imagined his future?
For he was cut off from the land of the living,
stricken for the transgression of my people.
9 They made his grave with the wicked
and his tomb[c] with the rich,
although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him with pain.
When you make his life an offering for sin,
he shall see his offspring, and shall prolong his days;
through him the will of the Lord shall prosper.
11 Out of his anguish he shall see light;
he shall find satisfaction through his knowledge.
The righteous one, my servant, shall make many righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will allot him a portion with the great,
and he shall divide the spoil with the strong;
because he poured out himself to death,
and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors.