A Blessed Easter to you from all of us at Restoration Ministries.
We share with you an Easter prayer written and generously shared by our Sarah Patton:
Jesus,
You laid aside your garments, your heavenly robes
When you came down to us, putting on a servant’s apron
To tenderly cleanse us from the cares and sins that cling to us
As the dust clung to the disciples’ feet.
When you finished washing the feet of the twelve,
You put on your humble garments again
For your work was not yet done.
You alone knew that you would soon allow
Even those garments to be stripped from you,
Bearing the shame of your nakedness before humanity,
Even those who betrayed you,
Transforming the shame of our nakedness.
Compassionately seeing us as we are,
Gently bringing us into a life with you,
Cleansed, accepted, loved,
Loving us to the end.
May we be Easter people who love you and all those you bring to us to the end.
Amen
John 13:1-17, 31b-35 RSV
Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. And during supper, when the devil had already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, rose from supper, laid aside his garments, and girded himself with a towel. Then he poured water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the towel with which he was girded. He came to Simon Peter; and Peter said to him, “Lord, do you wash my feet?” Jesus answered him, “What I am doing you do not know now, but afterward you will understand.” Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part in me.” Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” Jesus said to him, “He who has bathed does not need to wash, except for his feet, but he is clean all over; and you are clean, but not every one of you.” For he knew who was to betray him; that was why he said, “You are not all clean.”
When he had washed their feet, and taken his garments, and resumed his place, he said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. . . .
Jesus said, “Now is the Son of man glorified, and in him God is glorified; if God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once. Little children, yet a little while I am with you. You will seek me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, ‘Where I am going you cannot come.’ A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
For Reflection and Prayer:
Was there a word, a phrase, image, or feeling that ‘shimmered’ as you listened? Allow it to land in your heart. Stay with it. Savor it.
Reflect on what you heard. What effect does it have on you? What meaning does it hold for you? What does the Holy Spirit seem to be conveying to you? Talk it over in your prayer.
Perhaps you want to draw or color your prayer or journal the conversation.
As the time of prayer comes to a close, share some moments of quiet with Jesus, simply resting safely in his presence.
