November 12, 2025

Today's Reading: Matthew 26:1-19

Daily Lectionary: Jeremiah 25:1-18; Matthew 26:1-19

“You know that after two days the Passover is coming, and the Son of Man will be delivered up to be crucified.” (Matthew 26:2)

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

The hour has come; the time is at hand. The Son of Man is hours away from his cross. Jesus knew this, yet his disciples refused to believe it. The Scriptures pointed to this, and this is the reason Jesus was born: to die that he might save his people from their sins. 

News spread that Jesus was approaching Jerusalem, and the reception couldn’t be more opposite, as opposite as faith and unbelief. When the chief priests and the elders of the people get wind that Jesus was coming near the city, guess what kind of welcome they are planning for him? They gather in the palace of Caiaphas, the High Priest, to plan how to secretly arrest Jesus and kill him. Isaiah’s words about God’s Messiah indeed are true: “He was despised and rejected by men.”  And yet God would use their scheming to accomplish his plan to save the world. 

Jesus stops in Bethany, two miles outside Jerusalem, at the house of Simon. While Jesus is reclining at the table, a woman pours expensive ointment on his head. The disciples become irate, thinking that is a waste of money, but Jesus has a different response: " What she has done is a beautiful thing to me.” He goes on to say, “She has done it to prepare me for burial.” The “Annointed One” has been anointed! The Passover Lamb is ready for the slaughter. 

“My time is at hand,” Jesus said. He would not be deterred. He knew what lay ahead of him over the upcoming hours, and yet Christ suffered for you. He endured the cross and bore your sins upon the tree that “you might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed” (1 Peter 2:21-24). 

Still to this day, Jesus, the Lamb of God, is rejected. Yet, the world’s unbelief does not nullify what Christ accomplished on his cross. Jesus bore the iniquities of us all. So let us not be deterred to proclaim the Good News of Jesus, who is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. There is no sin Jesus’ blood did not cover. There is no sinner left out whom Christ did not die for. This is the awesome wonder of Christ’s cross.

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

“See, the Lamb, so long expected, Comes with pardon down from heav’n. Let us haste, with tears of sorrow, One and all, to be forgiv’n.” (345:3)

Author: Rev. Darrin Sheek, pastor at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church Anaheim, CA.

Audio Reflections Speaker: Rev. Richard Heinz, pastor at Trinity Lutheran Church in Lowell, IN.

This new devotional resource by Carl Fickenscher walks you through each week’s readings, revealing thematic connections and helping you better understand what is to come in worship each Sunday.