Our series during Ordinary time will explore the revelation of God’s Kingdom through his Son. We will look specifically how the incarnation—the ministry, passion, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus Christ—reveals the long-promised Kingdom of God breaking into human history demonstrating God’s love, destroying the powers that ravaged creation, and displaying the Messiah’s promise (to continue reading this essay, click on image above).
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YOUR KINGDOM COME
Pastoral Resources | 2025-26 Themes At-A-Glance
Week 18: Holy Week — Monday of Holy Week: Mary Anoints Jesus at Bethany, John 12:1-11
In the wake of Jesus’ upcoming death, Mary offers her gift of true worship that is extravagant, prophetic, and costly, giving her best to Christ without calculation. Mary’s anointing reveals that genuine devotion perceives what others miss and honors Jesus above all earthly prudence. The Master calls us to examine our hearts and see if we offer to him our most precious gifts freely, or if we, like Judas, cloak self-interest in the language of apparent righteousness.
Invocation
Lord Jesus, as I come before you into your presence, still my own restless and calculating heart. Awaken in me today the same spirit that Mary gave t o you in her gift of love, her lavish, unhurried, and wholly devoted gift to you. Expose every Judas-like pretense I may carry in my life, and grant to me new eyes to see you clearly as you are, so that my worship of you might be worthy and and fitting as my Master and King. Amen.
Gloria Patri
Glory be to the Father,
And to the Son and to the Holy Spirit:
As it was in the beginning,
Is now, and ever shall be,
World without end. Amen, amen.
Chronological Scripture Readings for Today
These Scriptures allow us to read through the entire Bible in one year in chronological order.
Monday: 2 Sam. 22; Ps. 18
Chronological Holy Week Reading for Today
These Scriptures allow us to read through the entire Bible in one year in chronological order.
Monday of Holy Week: Matt. 21.18-19; Mark 11.12-19
Lectionary Readings for Today
Our readings from the Psalms, the Old Testament, the Gospels and the Epistles are taken from the Revised Common Lectionary for this week.
Psalm: Psalm 36:5-11
Old Testament (or Acts [during Eastertide]): Isaiah 42:1-9
Gospel: John 12:1-11
New Testament: Hebrews 9:11-15
Click here for all of this week’s Scripture readings
Psalms and Proverb for Today
These Scriptures allow us to read through the Psalms and Proverbs each month.
Monday: Psalm 30, 60, 90, 120, 150 and Proverbs 30
Mary Anoints Jesus at Bethany, John 12:1-11
Mary’s extravagant anointing of Jesus anticipates and foreshadows his coming burial, exposing her heart of true worship against Judas’s hollow and greedy piety, while Lazarus’ presence embodies the resurrection life that Jesus offers to overthrow death’s dominion.
Reflection
At a Bethany dinner, Mary pours costly perfume on Jesus’ feet in an act of lavish, prophetic devotion, while Judas exposes his hollow greed by expressing false concern for the poor. Jesus defends Mary’s sacrificial gift, naming her worship as burial preparation. Meanwhile, the living Lazarus draws crowds to Jesus, a living testimony that so threatens the religious establishment that they conspire to kill him alongside the Lord.
Engaging God’s Word Today
When you consider your own walk with Christ, in what areas have you been offering calculated worship — giving to him just enough that is “reasonable,” while protecting all that is most precious to you? What would if mean for you to anoint Jesus with your costliest gift of love, time, or surrender?
Nicene Creed
We believe in one God, The Father Almighty,
Maker of heaven and earth and of all things visible and invisible.
We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Begotten Son of God,
Begotten of the Father before all ages,
God from God, Light from Light, True God from True God,
Begotten not created, of the same essence as the Father,
through Whom all things were made.
Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven
and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit and the virgin Mary and became human.
Who for us too, was crucified under Pontius Pilate, suffered and was buried.
The third day He rose again according to the Scriptures, ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and His kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and life-giver,
Who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
Who together with the Father and Son is worshiped and glorified.
Who spoke by the prophets.
We believe in one holy, catholic, and apostolic church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sin,
and we look for the resurrection of the dead
and the life of the age to come. Amen.
The Lord’s Prayer
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the Kingdom, and the power, and the glory for ever. Amen.
Doxology
Praise God from whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him all creatures here below;
Praise Him above ye heavenly host;
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Amen.
Benediction
Thank you, Father, for the remarkable gift that we see in Mary’s truly great sacrifice in her expensive gift to our Lord. Give me the same heart that she had, the same willingness to sacrifice for him. Help me to go now from this place as one of those who has sat at his feet and anointed the King. Let my devotion to him always be extravagant, my worship prophetic, and my life offered as a living testimony, just like Lazarus gave, to Jesus as the one who conquers death. May the fragrance of my surrender fill every room I enter, to the glory of Christ, who alone is worthy of my best. Amen.
Scripture Memory for this season
Mark 12:13-17: The Messiah Confronting Religious Leaders: The Kingdom’s Revolutionary Truth
13 And they sent to him some of the Pharisees and some of the Herodians, to trap him in his talk. 14 And they came and said to him, “Teacher, we know that you are true and do not care about anyone’s opinion. For you are not swayed by appearances, but truly teach the way of God. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not? Should we pay them, or should we not?” 15 But, knowing their hypocrisy, he said to them, “Why put me to the test? Bring me a denarius and let me look at it.” 16 And they brought one. And he said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said to him, “Caesar’s.” 17 Jesus said to them, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” And they marveled at him. x`
Scripture Engagement
As disciples of Jesus, the Churches of Christ the King strongly seek to engage the Scriptures to discover the centrality of Christ and his Kingdom in the prophetic and apostolic writings. You will find a rich treasure of resources on engaging Scripture at the Center for Scripture Engagement of Taylor University.
Books We Are Reading this Church Year, and When
• The Most Amazing Story Ever Told, Dr. Don Davis (during season of Advent)
• Get Your Pretense On, Dr. Don Davis (during season of Christmas)
• Destined for the Throne, Paul Billheimer (during season of Epiphany)
• The Presence of the Future, George Eldon Ladd (during seasons of Lent, Holy Week, Easter and Ascension)
• Thy Kingdom Come, Rev. Terry Cornett and Dr. Don Davis (during season of Ascension)
• Kingdom, Church and World, Howard Snyder (during seasons of the Coming of the Holy Spirit, Headship and Harvest)
• The Gospel of the Kingdom, George Eldon Ladd (during the seasons of Hope and Remembering the Saints, Exalting the King)
Book Reading Reflection: Destined for the Throne
(Reading “The Presence of the Future,” during season of Lent, Holy Week, and Resurrection)
“There is a close relationship between the ethical concern of the prophets and their eschatological perspective. The prophets were not primarily concerned about the time of the eschatological redemption, nor were they primarily concerned with that redemption in itself. They were concerned with the state of God’s people in their day and with God’s will for his people. It is because of this ethical concern that they have a perspective which, to the modern critical mind, seems confused and even erroneous. Frequently, the prophets sound a note of imminence which, from the point of view of analytic chronology, seems quite wrong. They speak of the nearness of the Day of the Lord (Isa. 13:9; Zeph. 1:7, 14; Joel 1:15, 3:14; Obad. 15) as though the end of the world lay immediately ahead.
In the Old Testament, this note of imminence is an essential element in the prophetic perspective and must not be forced into modern ideas of chronology but must be interpreted in its own setting. The Day of the Lord for the prophets was both the immediate act of God expected in history and the ultimate eschatological visitation. The prophets did not usually distinguish between these two aspects of the Day of the Lord, for it was the same God who would act. The two events are viewed as though they were one. Furthermore, the prophets were not primarily concerned with the question of chronology but with the ethical impact of the future upon the present. Therefore the warning of the nearness of the Day of the Lord is more a note of ethical exhortation than it is a chronological reference. The question of whether they were guilty of a chronological error is therefore the wrong question and fails to appreciate their way of thinking. God did act. The Day of the Lord did come; and yet, the Day of the Lord continued to be an eschatological event in the future. This tension between the immediate and the ultimate future, between history and eschatology, stands at the heart of the ethical concern of the prophetic perspective. For the important thing is not what is going to happen and when it will happen, but the will of God, who is Lord of both the far and the near future, for his people in the present.”
~ Ladd, George. The Presence of the Future: The Eschatology of Biblical Realism. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids: MI, 1974. Electronic Edition, location 74-75.
On Eagles Wings Prayer Focus: A Long Time Comin‘
The Chastisement that brought us Peace was upon Him, Isa. 52:13-53:12
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