February 21st, 2016

Isaiah 49:8-16

Restoration of Israel

This is what the Lord says:

“In the time of my favor I will answer you, and in the day of salvation I will help you;

I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people,

to restore the land

and to reassign its desolate inheritances,

to say to the captives, ‘Come out,’ and to those in darkness, ‘Be free!’

“They will feed beside the roads

and find pasture on every barren hill.

They will neither hunger nor thirst,

nor will the desert heat or the sun beat

down on them.

He who has compassion on them will guide them

and lead them beside springs of water. I will turn all my mountains into roads, and my highways will be raised up.

See, they will come from afar—

some from the north, some from the west,

some from the region of Aswan.” Shout for joy, you heavens;

rejoice, you earth;

burst into song, you mountains! For the Lord comforts his people

and will have compassion on his afflicted ones.

But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me.”

“Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she

has borne?

Though she may forget,

I will not forget you!

See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands;

your walls are ever before me. 

Luke 23:32-43

Two other men, both criminals, were also led out with him to be executed. When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left. Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.

The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One.”

The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.” There was a written notice above him, which read: this is the king of the jews.

One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!”

But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”

Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus answered him, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.”