Saturday, 7 March 2026
Leave the Forest and Pigsty Behind – Saturday of the second week of Lent
A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and travelled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living. When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything.” (Luke 15:13-16) (Luke 15:1-3, 11-32)
The prophet Micah offers one of the great images of Scripture: the flock “which lives alone in a forest in the midst of a garden land” (Micah 7:14). They think there’s only the forest, the dark place where death lurks constantly and where life is a matter of grim survival….
Friday, 6 March 2026
Turning Battlegrounds into Playgrounds – Friday of the second week of Lent
Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his children, because he was the son of his old age; and he had made him a long robe with sleeves. But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably to him. (Genesis 37:3-4) (Matthew 21:33-43, 45-46)
There’s a smell of death in the air as Joseph’s brothers plot to kill him and the tenants kill not just the servants, but the heir. Looming over all this is the figure of the crucified Lord, towards whom the whole of the Lenten journey looks. For the Bible, there’s…
Thursday, 5 March 2026
Who Lies At Our Gates? – Thursday of the second week of Lent
“There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to satisfy his hunger with what fell from the rich man’s table; even the dogs would come and lick his sores.” (Luke 16:19-21) (Luke 16:19-31)
We know the name of Lazarus, the nobody who sits at the rich man’s gate. But we are never told the name of the rich man himself. As the story unfolds, he becomes the nobody. He was probably not a bad man, but he was trapped in a bad system,…
Wednesday, 4 March 2026
Service and Sacrifice – Wednesday of the second week of Lent
Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. It will not be so among you; but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave; just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:25-28) (Matthew 20:17-28)
The leaders don’t want to listen to the prophet Jeremiah because he’s speaking a word they don’t want to hear. For them, he may be a prophet, but they only want to hear from the prophet and from God a word that suits them. They’re interested in the power plays…
Tuesday, 3 March 2026
Talk With God – Tuesday of the second week of Lent
“Do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they teach. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others, but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them. They do all their deeds to be seen by others; for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long. They love to have the place of honor at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues, and to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have people call them rabbi.” (Matthew 23:3-7) (Matthew 23:1-12)
For the God of the Bible, there is no such thing as a hopeless case. No one is beyond redemption. God wants to sit down with us and talk about what needs to happen if we are to “eat the good of the land” (Isaiah 1:19), as the prophet Isaiah…
Monday, 2 March 2026
Allow Mercy To Heal – Monday of the second week of Lent
“Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you.” (Luke 6:36-38) (Luke 6:36-38)
The prophet Daniel sees the sin of his people and the havoc it has wrought. But he sees further and sees the mercy of God which far surpasses the sin of his people; and he puts his trust in that mercy. The mercy of God is like the way a…
Sunday, 1 March 2026
Trust In What You Hear – 2 LENT
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 12:1-3) (Matthew 17:1-9)
In the act of creation, God brought order out of chaos, and that story is told in Genesis 1-2. But then in Genesis 3-11 the story of sin and its consequences is told, showing how sin does the exact opposite of God: it turns God’s order back into chaos. At…
Saturday, 28 February 2026
Walking in God’s Way – Saturday of the first week of Lent
Today you have obtained the Lord’s agreement: to be your God; and for you to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes, his commandments, and his ordinances, and to obey him. (Deuteronomy 26:17) (Matthew 5:43-48)
Judaism describes the religious life as halakah, which means walking. This is what we find in the Book of Deuteronomy where Moses speaks of walking in God’s way. This implies a journey from one place to another. The religious life, for the Bible, is not static but dynamic. The real…
Friday, 27 February 2026
Righteousness Confers Life – Friday of the first week of Lent
But if the wicked turn away from all their sins that they have committed and keep all my statutes and do what is lawful and right, they shall surely live; they shall not die. (Ezekiel 18:21) (Matthew 5:20-26)
In the Bible, sin and death are strictly related, and neither is native to the human being. We all sin and we all die; but we weren’t created by God either to sin or to die. Death comes not from God but from sin. “The wages of sin is death”…
Thursday, 26 February 2026
God Always Listens to Us – Thursday of the first week of Lent
“Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.” (Matthew 7:7-8) (Matthew 7:7-12)
The God who asks us to listen to him more deeply through these days of Lent is also the God who listens to us. This mutual deep listening is at the heart of the dialogue between God and the human being to which the Bible bears witness and which we…