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April 21, 2025April 19, 2025

All Roads Lead to Jerusalem

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Leviticus 25 Listen: (7:41) Read: Acts 21 Listen: (5:55)

Scripture Focus: Acts 21.12-15

12 When we heard this, we and the people there pleaded with Paul not to go up to Jerusalem. 13 Then Paul answered, “Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” 14 When he would not be dissuaded, we gave up and said, “The Lord’s will be done.” 15 After this, we started on our way up to Jerusalem.

Luke 24.13-16, 27

13 Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. 14 They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. 15 As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; 16 but they were kept from recognizing him…27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.

Acts 20.22-24

22 “And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. 23 I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. 24 However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.

Reflection: All Roads Lead to Jerusalem

By John Tillman

Traveling to or from Jerusalem can mean many things, good or bad. Jesus often meets people on the road to or from Jerusalem.

On the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus, Cleopas and another disciple encountered the resurrected Jesus. On their way home in disillusionment and discouragement, Jesus joined them. Through scripture, he restored their faith and reversed their journey’s direction.

On the road from Jerusalem to Damascus, Paul encountered the resurrected Jesus. On his way to persecute Jesus’ followers, Jesus confronted him. Through miracles and the ministry of the church, he reversed the direction of Paul’s pursuits. Paul returned to Jerusalem a follower of Jesus.

On Paul’s final road to Jerusalem, the Holy Spirit spoke to him. On his way to testify about Jesus, prayer and prophecies warned Paul of persecution and pain, not to turn him back, but to prepare him.

His arrest set Paul on the road away from Jerusalem to Rome. On this journey, an angel of the Lord stood beside him, promising to fulfill God’s purpose in Paul’s life. (Acts 27.22-24)

Jesus is with us on whatever road we walk. He knows what it is like to walk to and from Jerusalem that kills the prophets. (Matthew 23.37) Jesus knows what it is like to both love your city and nation and know the dangerous wickedness within them.

All roads for the Christian lead to Jerusalem and all of the potential glory, danger, sacrifice, and suffering that means. We must face our Jerusalem, our Judea, our Samaria, and our Rome. (Acts 1.8) Prison and hardship may await us. (Acts 20.23) We must prepare to be bound or to die for the name of Jesus. (Acts 21.13) What shall we say, “Deliver us from this hour?” No. We must say, as Jesus did, “Father, glorify your name!” (John 12.26-28)

Our road to or from Jerusalem can mean difficulty or danger or doubt or depression. Is your Jerusalem road one of mourning and defeat? Anger and retribution? Fear and ominous warnings? Slander and accusations? Persecution or prosecution?

Jesus will meet us, join us, confront us, comfort us, protect us, and prepare us. Let him open scripture to us, challenge us when we are wrong, warn us to prepare us for the future, and promise us that his purpose in us will be fulfilled.

The road through a Jerusalem of suffering, leads to the new Jerusalem of glory. This is the way and there is no other.

Divine Hours Prayer: A Reading

Then they said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us as he talked to us on the road and explained the scriptures to us?” They set out that instant and returned to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven assembled together with their companions, who said to them, “The Lord has indeed risen and has appeared to Simon.” Then they told their story of what had happened on the road and how they had recognized him at the breaking of bread. — Luke 24.32-35

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.

Examine Your Sacrifices

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Leviticus 22 Listen: (4:41) Read: Acts 18 Listen: (4:06)

Links for this weekend’s readings:

Read: Leviticus 23 Listen: (6:31) Read: Acts 19 Listen: (5:47)
Read: Leviticus 24 Listen: (2:58) Read: Acts 20 Listen: (5:22)

Scripture Focus: Leviticus 22.17-20

17 The Lord said to Moses, 18 “Speak to Aaron and his sons and to all the Israelites and say to them: ‘If any of you—whether an Israelite or a foreigner residing in Israel—presents a gift for a burnt offering to the Lord, either to fulfill a vow or as a freewill offering, 19 you must present a male without defect from the cattle, sheep or goats in order that it may be accepted on your behalf. 20 Do not bring anything with a defect, because it will not be accepted on your behalf.

Malachi 1.8, 14

8 When you offer blind animals for sacrifice, is that not wrong? When you sacrifice lame or diseased animals, is that not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Would he accept you?” says the Lord Almighty.

14 “Cursed is the cheat who has an acceptable male in his flock and vows to give it, but then sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord. For I am a great king,” says the Lord Almighty, “and my name is to be feared among the nations.

Reflection: Examine Your Sacrifices

By John Tillman

Where does food come from? We know the answer is “farms,” yet the first image in our head is probably a grocery store.

Most people in modern societies, whether we live in cities or the countryside, are socially and geographically disconnected from our food sources. Few have ever grown and harvested our own crops or raised or butchered our own animals. This isn’t bad or good—it’s just different than biblical societies. This agricultural disconnection distances us from some aspects of the sacrificial system.

We might cringe at the perceived cruelty of animal sacrifices but fail to blink at the financial cost. When a family sacrificed an animal they weren’t sacrificing a pet. They sacrificed all the things the animal could give them over its life. They sacrificed the labor the animal could perform, the goods it could be traded for, the offspring it could reproduce, in addition to most of the food it could provide.

Leviticus 22 stressed that animals for sacrifices must be “without defect,” to head off a financial temptation to keep the best animals for breeding, working the land, or market, sacrificing to the Lord less valuable stock. You wouldn’t want to breed the runts, the deformed, or the sickly animals. Yet, God forbids using sacrifices to cull the weak. He demands their best.

Israel struggled with this. Malachi condemned the priests and people of his day. They brought God offerings so deformed and diseased that no human wanted to eat them. (Malachi 1.12-14) God challenged the people to offer food like this to human rulers and endure their reaction.

Just as the Israelites were prone to give to God lame, blind, diseased, or deformed animals, we are prone to give up to God things we didn’t want anyway and keep for ourselves what we find most valuable.

Our salvation is secured by the sacrifice of Jesus the “spotless lamb.” But we are still called to many works of sacrifice. Jesus asks us to take up our cross and lay down our lives. He asks us to feed the hungry, hydrate the thirsty, welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, and visit the sick and the prisoner. (Matthew 25.34-40)

If a human leader had assigned these tasks, would the state of our world indicate acceptable job performance? Are our sacrifices and efforts at these tasks (our orthopraxy) lame, blind, or weak like a diseased lamb?

Examine your sacrifices. Give your best.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer

I cry out to you, O Lord; I say, “You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.” — Psalm 142.5

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.

God Makes the Disabled Holy

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Leviticus 21 Listen: (3:08) Read: Acts 17 Listen: (5:28)

Scripture Focus: Leviticus 21.21-23

21 No descendant of Aaron the priest who has any defect is to come near to present the food offerings to the Lord. He has a defect; he must not come near to offer the food of his God. 22 He may eat the most holy food of his God, as well as the holy food; 23 yet because of his defect, he must not go near the curtain or approach the altar, and so desecrate my sanctuary. I am the Lord, who makes them holy.’ ”

Reflection: God Makes the Disabled Holy

By John Tillman

Is God against the disabled?

Leviticus 21.21 seems, at face value, to devalue the disabled.

Is Yahweh breaking his own command from Leviticus 19.14 to not curse or put obstacles in front of the disabled? When Jesus cleared the Temple courts of merchants described as “thieves” and called the disabled to himself, was he “correcting” God’s mistake in Leviticus 21? (Matthew 21.12-14)

No. When we set Jesus against Yahweh (or Yahweh against Yahweh) we deny the essential unity among the godhead which is taught by Jesus, affirmed by the Father, and demonstrated by the Holy Spirit.

There are a few things to consider in this difficult-to-understand passage.

The disabled were not barred from worship or the Lord’s presence. Leviticus 21’s limits are only for priests and only for one specific priestly duty: offering sacrifices.

Disabled priests were barred from physically demanding duties. Serving at the altar involved killing and butchering the animals and carrying out the many physical requirements of the ritual for whatever sacrifice was being made. This physical labor may have been difficult for those with some of the disabilities mentioned.

Nothing, animal, vegetable, mineral, or human, that approached the altar was to have a defect. Sacrifices represented the perfect dying on behalf of the imperfect. Both animal and priest represented the people offering it. Priests “without defect” were mirror images of animals “without defect.”

Disabled priests had full rights as priests. The disabled priests could not offer the food offerings, but their rights to eat from those offerings were identical to the other priests and they had no other limitations in their responsibilities.

God claimed disabled priests as his and made them holy. Describing a disabled priest’s limitation, God identified himself with them, saying, “his God.” (Leviticus 21.21) God is still their God and they are his priests. They are included when God says, “I am the Lord who makes them holy.” (Leviticus 21.23)

Today, many in our society threaten protections, education, and opportunities for the disabled. Our God makes the disabled holy along with us. Let us not allow anyone to label them as anything but equally blessed and loved by God.

In Christ, the disabled are priests of equal value, equal calling, equal standing, and share an equal blessing of the Holy Spirit. We must include them, not only in feasts, so that all will be blessed (Luke 14.13-14), but in every work of God within their capabilities.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer

Know this: The Lord himself is God; he himself has made us, and we are his; we are his people and the sheep of his pasture. — Psalm 100.2

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.

Our Role in Holiness

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Leviticus 20 Listen: (4:18) Read: Acts 16 Listen: (5:53)

Scripture Focus: Leviticus 20:7

Consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am the Lord your God.

Reflection: Our Role in Holiness

By Erin Newton

What part do we play in holiness? As Christians, we are accustomed to crediting our holiness to the work of Christ imparted to us in faith. Are we holy in and of ourselves? No.

“Consecrate yourselves,” Leviticus 20 says. Consecration means devoting oneself to God. It is the act of separating oneself from that which is “secular.”

Child sacrifice, sexual license, and dietary restrictions—these three categories include the death penalty as a result in most cases. And these practices reflected the culture around them. God, here, describes ways to be different and be devoted.

From the way they worshiped to their intimate relations to the foods they consumed—in short, every part of life was to be consecrated to God.

Consecrating everything would be a lot easier with a long list of do’s and don’ts. Or so we think. The list here is lengthy but not comprehensive.

On top of that, some laws were seemingly rejected with Christ. Separate clean and unclean food? God tells Peter, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean” (Acts 10.15). The death penalty for adulterers? Even Jesus sends the crowd away and raises no stone against the woman in John 8.

Jesus came not to abolish the Law, but he certainly understood its purpose better than we do. “Be holy” appears throughout Leviticus, nestled among commandments. It serves as a prelude to the whole litany of commands in chapter 19. It is the core truth among a myriad of rules.

We still live under the call, “Be holy as God is holy” (1 Peter 1.16), but we don’t have to worry about eating ham or keeping a pet lizard. Those rules are easily dismissed today. Yet we shudder at the mention of child sacrifice or many of the sexual practices listed in Leviticus 20.

How, in the twenty-first century, do we consecrate ourselves to God? Sometimes we’d like to reduce our faith down to a laundry list of do’s and don’ts, especially if we can check boxes and point out others’ shortcomings. But no list in the universe would be adequate to achieve our own feeble participation in holiness. In a pursuit of consecrating ourselves via ticking boxes, we’ve merely adopted legalism as our plan of salvation.

As we learn to consecrate our lives in a modern world, may we pray for wisdom to know the difference between being devoted and being legalistic.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Greeting

With my whole heart I seek you; let me not stray from your commandments. — Psalm 119.10

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.

Being Holy Includes Being Just

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Leviticus 19 Listen: (4:39) Read: Acts 15 Listen: 5:43)

Scripture Focus: Leviticus 19.1, 9-15

1 The Lord said to Moses, 2 “Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them: ‘Be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy.

9 “ ‘When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. 10 Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am the Lord your God. 11 “ ‘Do not steal. “ ‘Do not lie. “ ‘Do not deceive one another. 12 “ ‘Do not swear falsely by my name and so profane the name of your God. I am the Lord. 13 “ ‘Do not defraud or rob your neighbor. “ ‘Do not hold back the wages of a hired worker overnight. 14 “ ‘Do not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block in front of the blind, but fear your God. I am the Lord. 15 “ ‘Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly.

Reflection: Being Holy Includes Being Just

By John Tillman

God’s holiness is the motivating factor in every command. “I am holy, therefore, be holy.”

Leviticus 19 echoes the Ten Commandments, with some commands centering on the Israelites’ relationship to and treatment of God, such as not building idols and having proper respect for worship practices. However, the majority of the commands to “be holy,” involve others.

Godly holiness means being loving and just.

Do not harvest everything. Leave enough margin for the poor and the foreigner. Do not cheat one another or your workers. Do not curse or harm the disabled. Enforce the law impartially. Do not endanger others.

Leviticus defines God-commanded holiness as loving like God by establishing justice, doing good, being selfless, and helping the unfortunate. Being holy is not some esoteric, difficult-to-define, spiritual-emotional state. Holiness includes practical demonstrations of God’s love and justice.

Pray for this kind of holiness in our lives, communities, and nations.

Being Holy Includes Being Just

God who gives harvests, teach us to leave margins for the marginalized.

Let us not be so efficient that we spend every cent in our own interest. (Leviticus 19.9)

For when we collect all the profit to ourselves we steal by keeping what you instructed us to leave for the poor. (Leviticus 19.9-10)

When we say, “We can’t afford to help” we are often deceptive—the truth is we have spent the portion you intended us to use to aid others. (Leviticus 19.10-13)

Teach us to honor workers, for you ask us to pray for workers in the vineyard and not to spare expense in paying them. Let us not be stingy, but generous that all will go well with our nation. (Leviticus 19.13)

Teach us to help those in need without partiality or favoritism. Teach us to remove barriers to success and allow all to be treated equitably. (Leviticus 19.14-15)

Teach us not to value our own freedoms over our neighbor’s life and to treat foreigners with the same love we treat our own family. (Leviticus 19.33)

Teach us to root out corruption and dishonesty.
Let not the poor be defrauded by corrupt business…
Let not the minority be dominated by the majority…
Let not the weak be preyed upon by the powerful…

Help us make the scales of commerce, scales of political representation, and scales of justice fair. (Leviticus 19.36)

In all these things, may we be holy as you are holy by being just as you are just and loving as you are loving.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence

May God be merciful to us and bless us, show us the light of his countenance and come to us.
Let your ways be known upon earth, your saving health among all nations. — Psalm 67.1-2

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle.

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Links for today’s readings:

Scripture Focus: Acts 21.12-15

Luke 24.13-16, 27

Acts 20.22-24

Reflection: All Roads Lead to Jerusalem

Divine Hours Prayer: A Reading

Read more: Following Through Jerusalem

Read more: Now Jerusalem and Not-Yet Jerusalem

Links for today’s readings:

Links for this weekend’s readings:

Scripture Focus: Leviticus 22.17-20

Malachi 1.8, 14

Reflection: Examine Your Sacrifices

Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer

Read more: Holidays are Tabernacles

Read more: Pleasing Sacrifices

Links for today’s readings:

Scripture Focus: Leviticus 21.21-23

Reflection: God Makes the Disabled Holy

Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer

Read more: Not So Random Acts of Kindness

Read more: The Stigma of Disease

Links for today’s readings:

Scripture Focus: Leviticus 20:7

Reflection: Our Role in Holiness

Divine Hours Prayer: The Greeting

Read more: Testify to Ultimate Healing

Read more: The Sojourn of Sanctification

Links for today’s readings:

Scripture Focus: Leviticus 19.1, 9-15

Reflection: Being Holy Includes Being Just

Being Holy Includes Being Just

Divine Hours Prayer: The Request for Presence

Consider Supporting Our Work

Read more: Prayer for Outcasts