Drew Downs

Make a New Normal

  • Those Women, That Morning: Friday of Holy Week

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    2 min read

    “As soon as it was morning” Read the Text: Mark 15:1-41 There is a startling character to the Passion story. The Jewish authorities are bloodthirsty. Pilate, speaking for Rome, is strangely indifferent. The soldiers humiliate Jesus. The disciples have deserted Jesus entirely. And the women, many women who followed Him, watch from a distance. I’m struck by…

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  • Keeping it 100

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    8 min read

    When Jesus gathers his disciples for the Passover, Jesus does this one most radical act. No, not the Last Supper or the footwashing. What he does is treat Judas like one of the team. Like he isn’t about the betray him. The message, if we can hear it, is not only get together and eat,…

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  • On the First Day: Thursday of Holy Week

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    2 min read

    They break bread. They eat. They drink. Then they leave for the Mount of Olives. And here Jesus declares: “You will all become deserters” Just like that. Deserters all. Peter’s protests mimic our own. Peter is always our stand-in. Surely I won’t desert Jesus, we say. Surely I would keep awake.

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  • Two Days Before: Wednesday of Holy Week

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    2 min read

    “It was two days before the Passover” Read the Text: Mark 14:1-11 Did you notice the context? Jesus brings His followers around, staying at the house of an outcast, and is served by another. Then is betrayed by one of His own. Of course, you were naturally drawn to that age-old debate: should they sell…

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  • In the Morning: Tuesday of Holy Week

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    2 min read

    The Jesus Movement is actually all about authority. If we recognize how Jesus challenged their understanding of authority on Sunday and again on Monday and then witness the fig tree “withered away to its roots” we may see that we, as the disciples, are the witnesses.

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  • The Following Day: Monday of Holy Week

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    2 min read

    “On the following day” Read the text: Mark 11:12-19 There are so few opportunities to see the anger of Jesus. We get so lulled by the images of the sweet Jesus, the stained-glass stick figure or the imagined bearded Caucasian with the sheep on his back and the children at his feet, that the Jesus with…

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