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This week we focus on the Lenten theme of taking up our cross and following Jesus.

Words of Reflection

During Lent we can sometimes get overwhelmed by the invitation to self-reflection, and in doing so we can forget what’s really going on. If we’re not careful it can turn our gaze completely inward, rather than using our self-reflection as a first step to looking upward. In the midst of that danger there’s an important truth we need to hold on to:

Taking up our cross and dying to self is an act of worship.

In our modern church culture, which tends to think of “worship” as only being gatherings we attend or songs we sing, the kind of self-examination we take part in during Lent is often not understood for what it really is: worship

We sometimes forget that the Old Testament sacrifices, as strange to us as they may seem, were conducted in the context of worshiping God. They were “an aroma pleasing to the LORD” (Lev. 1:9), a statement of complete and utter dependence on him. When sacrifice is made, and lives stained by sin bow in submission to the God who makes them clean and transforms them, God is honored and glorified. That is worship.

The gospels give us a beautiful portrait of this kind of worship in the days just before Jesus is arrested. Matthew records it in chapter 26 of his gospel:

“While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on his head as he was reclining at the table. When the disciples saw this, they were indignant. ‘Why this waste?’ they asked. ‘This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor.’

Aware of this, Jesus said to them, ‘Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me. When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial. Truly I tell you, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.’”—Matthew 26:6-13 (NIV)

This “beautiful thing” is an act of sacrificial worship. In her extravagant gift we find an echo of David’s pledge to not offer to God that which costs nothing (2 Samuel 24:24). Jesus not only commends her, but says her example will live on in the gospel story…which, of course, it did!

As we, too, prepare for Jesus’ burial, there is a continual call for us to offer all that we are, all that we have, and all that we hope to be to God. We die to self as an act of sacrifice, and that sacrifice becomes worship. Our gaze is not only inward…it is ultimately outward and upward to the only “worthy King of Kings,” who gave himself as a sacrifice for us. How can we respond any other way?

Scripture for Meditation:

I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, on the basis of God’s mercy, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable act of worship. Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.
—Romans 12:1-2 (NRSV)

Song: Alabaster Heart w/Take All of Me

So here it is my alabaster heart
I’m keeping nothing back from who You are
No hidden treasure veiled by key or lock
You’re a lifetime worth of worship
And that’s only just the start
Here it is my every waking day
The minutes hours the years of endless praise
For You’re worthy far beyond all I could say
There’s a lifetime worth of worship
In the nuance of Your names
Let it rise like incense
My whole life a fragrance
Every ounce here broken at Your feet
Every breath is an offering
My heart cries these lungs sing
Over You my worthy King of Kings
There it is Your alabaster cross
Giving all You are for all I’m not
I can’t believe that’s the kind of King You are
How could I not bring a lifetime
Worth of worship to You God
Let it rise like incense
My whole life a fragrance
Every ounce here broken at Your feet
Every breath is an offering
My heart cries these lungs sing
Over You my worthy King of Kings
All my love
All my love
All my love
You can have it all (REPEAT)
All my heart and all my soul
All I own
You can have it all (REPEAT)
I love You
All of my hope is in You
Jesus Christ take my life
Take all of me (REPEAT)
Let it rise like incense
My whole life a fragrance
Every ounce here broken at Your feet
Every breath is an offering
My heart cries these lungs sing
Over You my worthy King of Kings

ALABASTER HEART: Benjamin Hastings | Kalley Heiligenthal

TAKE ALL OF ME: Marty Sampson

Questions for Contemplation:

How do you respond to the idea that our “dying to self” is an act of worship? How does that ring true for you, or if it doesn’t, what kind of questions or points of resistance surface as you consider it?

Do you ever find that intentional seasons of reflection sometimes cause your gaze to turn exclusively inward? How might you embrace in a new a deeper way the kind of worship to which Paul exhorts us?

Sit for a while with the lyrics of the chorus from today’s song. Read these words slowly and prayerfully? What do they stir in your soul? Spend some time in prayer offering your desires for whole-life worship to the One who alone is worthy of it.

Let it rise like incense
My whole life a fragrance
Every ounce here broken at Your feet
Every breath is an offering
My heart cries these lungs sing
Over You my worthy King of Kings