Lord Jesus Christ, you know what it is like to be whipped and scorned. You know what it is like to have the powers and principalities of this current age turn against you, and seek to destroy you. You know what it is like to lose friends to violence, and to be betrayed by those who sit at table with you. You know what it means to not have a place to lay your head.
Yet you also know the healing touch of one who poured oil over your tired feet. As Mary of Bethany so lovingly anointed you before your journey to the Cross, may we too reach out to those who suffer. May we be alert to those who need our help. May we open our hearts to all of creation. And we may be empowered, through your love, to dismantle all systems that isolate and hurt the least among us—for in doing so, we find and serve you.
All this we say in your name. Amen.
The Rev. Lindsay Hardin Freeman Author of “Bible Women”