A WORD FOR TODAY, March 25, 2026
Peggy Hoppes
We pray you have been blessed by this daily devotion.
Blessings. Peg
A WORD FOR TODAY, March 25, 2026
Lectionary Scriptures for March 29, 2026, The Sunday of the Passion, Palm Sunday: John 12:12-19; Isaiah 50:4-9a; Psalm 118:19-29; Philippians 2:5-11; Matthew 26:1-27:66
“You are my God, and I will give thanks to you. You are my God, I will exalt you. Oh give thanks to Yahweh, for he is good, for his loving kindness endures forever.” Psalm 118:28-29, WEB
Movember is a yearly challenge during which men grow mustaches to raise awareness for men’s health issues like prostate cancer, testicular cancer, and mental health. The participants begin the month of November with clean-shaven faces and spend the month growing and grooming a mustache for the whole month. The rules explicitly state that the participant should not have a beard, encouraging those with beards to shave it on November 1st. The change of facial character is meant to begin conversations, and the participants are encouraged to do everything to make it obvious they are doing something special, including creative and humorous styles.
Facial hair in our day is a personal choice, which is what makes Movember so powerful. However, that choice has not always been possible. Religious and secular law has long controlled the wearing of facial hair. For some, a beard is expected: to shave the hair is actually an insult to the gods or rulers. For others, wearing facial hair is an insult. There are often rules about how the beard could be worn, such as long or short, cropped or covering the face. In Greek society, a beard was a sign of wisdom. In societies where beards were the vogue, slaves were ordered to grow out their stubble so that they would be easily distinguished from their masters. Rulers often used the removal of a beard as a form of control. Beards were taxed by others. Along with a 100-ruble tax, Peter I of Russia made beard wearers also wear a medallion which had the words “beards are a ridiculous ornament.”
Depending on the society, beards were a sign of wealth or poverty, celibacy or manhood. Roman boys could not remove any facial hair until they reached adulthood. Amish men keep their faces clean until they are married. In some places, a man was not allowed to grow a beard until he had killed an enemy. The size of the beard was also symbolic, for instance, long beard meant greater wisdom. Alexander the Great insisted that his soldiers shave their beards because an enemy could grab a hold of the facial hair during battle and use it to his advantage. During World War I, it was discovered that facial hair affected the seal on the gas masks and so soldiers were very conscientious about keeping their face shaved clean.
Since wearing a facial is a personal choice for modern men, we don’t understand the imagery found in our culture. Why would “pulling a beard” be considered so horrible? After all, we laugh when we see those pictures of children sitting on Santa’s knees, pulling at his beard to ensure that it is real. Even funnier are the pictures of the child who finds a Santa with a fake. Yet, pulling a beard was a great insult in Isaiah’s day.
As a matter of fact, the suffering servant faced the most horrific conduct from people. He was willing to be beaten, the standard punishment for criminals. He was willing to give his cheek to the person who wanted to show him disrespect and contempt. He willingly faced the hatred of mocking and the disgrace of someone’s spit. The words of Isaiah point to the final hours of Jesus’ life; He was the suffering servant Isaiah described.
The servant did not see himself as greater than anyone. He said he was given the tongue of one who is taught, rather than identifying himself as a teacher. The words are passed on, and he does teach, but he recognized that he is not the teacher. He humbled himself before God’s word and was obedient. He faced the suffering, knowing that it was both God’s will and that God would be with him through it. Though the beating, disrespect, contempt, hatred, and disgrace were humiliating, he knew no shame because God was near. His enemies were nothing because their condemnation was meaningless against God.
A story is told of a holy man who was sitting on the bank of a brook while meditating. He noticed a scorpion that was caught in a whirlpool in the brook. Every time the scorpion tried to climb on a rock, it slipped back into the water. The holy man took pity on the scorpion and tried to save it from certain death, but whenever the man reached out to the creature it struck at its hand. A friend passed by and told the man that his actions were futile because it is in the scorpion’s nature to strike. The man said, “Yet, but it is my nature to save and rescue. Why should I change my nature just because the scorpion doesn’t change his?”
Most of us are not so gracious. We are more like that friend, and at times we are even worse. While the friend may have just let nature take its course, we might even consider pushing the scorpion into a quicker death. We would justify our action, claiming at once that it would be better for the scorpion not to suffer and that it might save someone from being stung. There are certainly few of us who would take the time or the risk to save what is, in essence, an enemy.
It is in our nature, it seems, to strive to be the best. We work hard for a promotion. We do whatever it takes to have the nicest car, the prettiest house, and the best lawn. We compete for the biggest trophies. Our quest to be number one can easily become the sole focus of our life.
This isn’t true of everyone. I once read a story about a pole vaulter. He held the record in his division and no matter how high they set the pole, he always cleared it by a foot. His peers said it was so amazing that they decided to test him. Instead of raising the bar an inch, they raised it six inches. He still cleared it by a foot. When they told him what they did, he walked away and never jumped again. He realized that however high he flew, someone would expect him to fly higher. We believe that no matter how great you become, there is always room to improve, but he did not see how he could keep getting better.
Unfortunately, we usually discover that there is a time when we have reached our limit. Athletes grow older and younger ones beat their records. We can’t keep getting better by our own power, and that’s when we face the real test. We are tempted to use outside forces to help us get better. For the athlete, the temptation is performance enhancing drugs. In business, the temptation might be to steal a co-worker’s ideas or lie on a resume to appear more qualified for a job. In our relationships, we pretend to be someone we aren’t to win the prettiest girl or the richest boy.
The passage from Paul’s letter to the Philippians is thought to have been based on an early Christian hymn describing Jesus’ kenosis, which is from the Greek word meaning “emptiness.” This hymn tells how Jesus emptied Himself to become one of us, to take on our sin and face once and for all the wrath of God on the cross. He did it out of obedience to His Father and love for us. God honored His humble obedience by exalting Him above all else.
It is easy to see this exaltation through the eyes of our human desire to be first and best. It is even possible for us to think that the way to get ahead in this world is to “be humble” so that we’ll be exalted. We justify this attitude by claiming we are following Jesus’ example, but this passage does not suggest that Jesus humbled Himself so that He would be exalted. He humbled Himself because it was in His nature to be a servant. This was the life to which God had called Him to live and die. He became one with God because He emptied Himself and took on God’s will as His own. He calls us to do the same. We do not empty ourselves so that we might be exalted with Him, but because in Christ we have taken upon ourselves His nature, the nature that saves and rescues even when it puts our own life in jeopardy.
This is what we see during Holy Week: Jesus didn’t come to be the new king of Israel. He willingly faced the passion of the suffering servant so that we will receive forgiveness we do not deserve and be reconciled to God our Father.
The lectionary Gospel texts for this coming Sunday take us through the entire experience of Jesus’ Passion: the Triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the Last Supper, the prediction of Peter’s denial, prayer at Gethsemane, the betrayal, the arrest, standing before the Sanhedrin, Peter disowning Jesus, Judas’ suicide, the trial, mocking, crucifixion, death and burial. The amount of text for this week’s lectionary is daunting. How do you write a devotional for this Sunday in just a few thousand words?
If we are honest with ourselves, we will agree that the story of the crucifixion doesn’t make sense. We want a happy ending. We want a coronation. We want a King to rule our world the way we expect, just like the Jews in Jesus’ day. Jesus accomplished so much during His three years of ministry. The four Gospels are filled with so many stories of His love, teaching, mercy, healing, correction, and grace. Last week we heard the story of the raising of Lazarus who was dead for four days, one of the many things He did that were impossible. He had an impact on the world, and many people were following Him because they saw His power and authority. His words rang true. His miracles were miraculous. His mercy was great.
He was greeted at the gates of Jerusalem with shouts of Alleluia and the waving of palm branches. The amazing stories had been heard throughout the land and people knew what He could do. They saw Him as the hope for their future. They were ready to receive their King!
The city was filled with pilgrims who were in Jerusalem for the Passover Feast. They were offering their lambs for sacrifice, receiving forgiveness for another year. They joined the celebration of the Seder which remembered the Exodus and thanked God for His faithfulness to His promises. They looked forward to the day when the Messiah would come and set them free to live once again as a sovereign nation under God’s care.
It is no wonder that people looked to Jesus with hopeful expectation. After all, He was fulfilling the prophecies found in the scriptures in so many incredible ways. Who else can feed five thousand with just a few loaves and fish? Who else could set a man free from a legion of demons? Who else could make the lame walk, the blind see, and the deaf hear? Who else could raise a dead man?
He was their King, but not in the way that they had anticipated. He would never sit on a throne. He would never deal with foreign leaders. He would never institute policies that would fill their physical, emotional, and political needs. The man on the donkey hailed as King would be crowned on a cross in just a few days.
They honored Him on Palm Sunday with a parade and shouts of acclamation. Isn’t that what every person wants? Don’t we want to be raised onto a pedestal? Don’t we want people to crown us? Don’t we want to become the best, to reach higher than everyone else? Jesus should have appreciated their approval. However, Jesus was never meant to be an earthbound king. His throne was in heaven from the beginning of time when He participated in the creation of the world.
We read through the Passion Story and think that we would have been with Jesus until the end, standing by Him even as He hung on the cross, but we have to remember that we see His story differently than we would have at that time. We are Easter people. We know the rest of the story. The reality is that we would have been in those crowds crying “Hallelujah” on Palm Sunday and “Crucify Him” on Good Friday. We would have fallen as fast as Peter, denying Jesus when He needed us most. We would have run to hide with the disciples. Even though we know the story, we still don’t understand why God would do things this way. Why would He choose to answer a plea for mercy with crucifixion?
During the Exodus story which the people were remembering during the Passover celebration, God’s people were commanded to sacrifice a lamb, roast it, and eat it in a certain way. The blood of the lamb was to be painted on the lintel of the house. That night, when the angel of death crossed over Egypt to take the firstborn, those with the painted lintels were saved. For Pharaoh, this was the last straw; it was the final nail that made him set the slaves free. Those who followed Jesus during Holy Week thought that He would save them from Rome, as God saved them from Egypt. They did not recognize their need for a greater salvation: from sin and death.
Jesus was there to be the final Lamb, the true Lamb that would save them from a different kind of slavery. They did not realize that the blood of Jesus was shed to be painted on the hearts of those who believe so that death would once again pass over them. Jesus died on the cross to defeat death forever. Our flesh will fail and our bodies will die, but through faith in the blood of Jesus we will dwell in God’s eternal kingdom forever.
Passion week gives us the opportunity to experience the final moments of Jesus’ life. We wave palms on Palm Sunday. We eat the Seder on Maundy Thursday. We weep at the foot of the cross on Good Friday. We wait with the disciples through the vigil until Easter morning. It is important to hear these stories every year. We need to experience the Passion to understand Easter.
We find it hard to believe that Jesus could lose so many followers in such a short period of time. After all, they went from singing hosanna to murder in less than five days. We feel like we have to assign blame to someone in the crowd, an instigator who took advantage of the mob to turn people’s attitudes away from Jesus. However, as we look at the story between Palm Sunday and Good Friday, we realize that it was more than a quick change of heart. Jesus spent those days attacking the status quo. He went into the temple and taught, He overturned the tables of the money changers, He spoke in parables that painted the leaders in a less than positive light. He turned their world upside down: not just the leaders, but also the people. He assaulted everything they knew, and they did not know how to handle it.
Maybe that’s why the people turned from Jesus so quickly during Holy Week. After the triumphant entry into Jerusalem, Jesus attacked the very foundation of their faith. He overturned the tables in the Temple, disrupting their religious ritual and their time with God. However, Jesus was not condemning faith, He was condemning the way they were focused on the wrong things. They’d lost touch with God, had set aside prayer time for a busy schedule of activities that were based on rules rather than on the heart of God. The crowds became upset, and in their sin they turned from God. Their negative attitude grew day by day until the time when Pilate asked the question of what to do with Jesus. By Good Friday, it was easy to say, “Crucify Him.”
But we who live beyond the resurrection are restored to that relationship that is lost by our sinfulness. We are called by God’s grace to live joyfully, to live faithfully, to keep our hearts and minds on God. Perhaps that is the silver lining in our current circumstances. We are not so busy these days, and we have plenty of time to spend in prayer and communion with God. We are learning to give thanks to God even in the midst of difficulty. The psalmist was able to go to the temple to worship, and we will have several opportunities this week to attend worship with our brothers and sisters in Christ. We sometimes struggle with the temporary loss of that tangible connection, but we are never far from the One who has saved us by His grace.
By Good Friday, the people were upset with Jesus because He rejected the expectation they had of Him. On Palm Sunday, they welcomed the king they thought would save them from Rome. They were ready to make Him king of Israel so that He would lead them to freedom. They did not understand the kind of freedom Jesus promised.
They went from jubilant celebration on Sunday to His arrest on Thursday and His death on Friday. Even His closest followers ran away in the end. Judas betrayed Him and Peter denied Him. Where were the rest? They were hiding, afraid. They were confused and upset. They didn’t know what to do without Him. They believed in Him on Sunday, but their faith wavered. Wouldn’t your faith waver, too? Even today, we would not expect our ministry to continue if our leader was arrested, tried, and then crucified.
We begin the final days of Lent anxiously waiting for the plan of God to be fulfilled, knowing that we do not deserve what He is about to do.
We begin our worship this Sunday celebrating as we remember Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem, but we know that it is a short-lived party. Those same people praising Him on the streets quickly turned from Him, falling for the lies of Jesus’ enemies. We don’t understand how they could turn so easily, but it doesn’t matter. This was all in the plan. No matter how the people reacted to Him, Jesus had to die. On Good Friday, the religious leaders thought they had won. The followers of Jesus thought they had lost. We know now what they did not know then: Jesus accomplished the work He was born to do.
Jesus humbled Himself and was obedient. He did not turn from God but faced the suffering knowing that it was God’s will. He trusted that God would be with Him. Though the beating, disrespect, contempt, hatred, and disgrace were humiliating, He knew no shame because God was near. His enemies were nothing because their condemnation was meaningless against God’s mercy. We are angry about the circumstances of Jesus’ passion, about the horrific conduct of His enemies. We are reminded as we remember the story of Holy Week that we were counted among His enemies. It is only by God’s grace that we have become His disciples, emptied of our desire to be number one so that we can embrace His will for our lives.
Our greatest sin, from the very beginning, was our desire to be God. We want to be in control. We want to strive to be the best. Lent has been a time for us to consider how we live, to reject the temptations of the world, to be emptied of our selfish and self-centered attitudes. Have you been emptied of your desire to be God?
It isn’t easy to fast for forty days, to stick to the promises we make to our God. It is easy to say that God will forgive us our failing, because of course He does. It is especially difficult when the world ridicules and rejects our faith. We will never be like Jesus on the cross, but we will suffer our own struggles as we continue to dwell in this world. We can look to Jesus as an example of how to submit to God’s will, to truly humble ourselves, and to live in obedience even when it doesn’t make any sense.
The cross makes no sense, but God highly exalted Jesus at the moment when He was most humiliated, when He was suffering a cruel and unwarranted death. It was on that cross that Jesus was glorified because it was there that He fulfilled God’s word and promise for our salvation. It is on the cross where we find forgiveness and through the cross, we are made free. We do see a coronation on that Good Friday, but it is on the cross that Jesus was crowned King of God’s eternal kingdom. He was glorified forever with a crown of thorns.
One of the best experiences I ever had was at a church where we worshipped every day of Holy Week. The pastor preached about the activities of Jesus each day. It was like walking with Him, alongside the disciples. Between Palm Sunday and Easter, we worshipped together eleven times. It is not a practical choice for many congregations, but most churches will at least offer worship for the Triduum, the Three Days of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Vigil. Unfortunately, many people do not attend those services. Passion Sunday gives us a taste of the story that we’ve heard over and over again. It reminds us of the story we need to hear constantly to remember what Jesus Christ did for us.
Today’s Psalm is a song of joy and thankfulness to God. The disciples faced incredible difficulties as they experienced the first Holy Week. Life in Christ never meant that we would not suffer. However, in Christ we have the grace to keep our eyes and our hearts on God, so we can get through anything with Him. We are called to live in praise and thanksgiving, to joyfully take God into any and every circumstance, knowing that He will be with us through it all.
The scriptures for this week are long, and we could easily spend hours with the many details found in these texts. Yet I wonder if we spend too much time trying to explain God and too little time lingering in His story getting to know Him. Spend time in the texts, hear the Passion as it has been told for millennia, written by the very inspiration of God as He tells us His story. Attend as much worship as you are able during Holy Week and experience the Passion with your brothers and sisters in Christ. Read the story again, not just Matthew’s point of view, read about Holy Week in all the Gospels. Experience Passion Week in a new way this year. Walk with Jesus and learn what He did for you so that you remember to dwell in His presence when our current troubles pass.
As we begin the final days of Lent and anxiously face the Passion, let us prayerfully consider what it all means for us. Jesus trusted God to the very end. Now He calls us to follow in His footsteps, to carry our own cross, to trust God in humble obedience and to praise Him always with thanksgiving for His loving kindness endures forever.
A WORD FOR TODAY is posted five days a week – Monday through Friday. The devotional on Wednesday takes a look at the scripture from the Revised Common Lectionary for the upcoming Sunday. A WORD FOR TODAY is posted on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/A-Word-for-Today-Devotional/339428839418276.