Today is the first Friday of Lent. As a church we’re working through a devotional that I personally prepared called “The Path of the Beatitudes: A Lenten Journey.” The devotional is available off Amazon as both a Kindle book and in large print on paper.

Our reading today focused on Luke 4:31-37. The passage immediately follows our passage from yesterday. In the passage Jesus of Nazareth is approached by a person who is “possessed” while in nearby Capernaum.

Jesus is asked two questions: What does Jesus have to do with them and has he come to destroy them? Jesus frees the person of their condition, but the questions remain. What has Jesus come to do?

This Lent, that’s really the question we all must ask before we dive into the matters found in the beatitudes. What has Jesus come to do? Jesus’ teachings can radically affect the way we interact with the world. What has Jesus come to do in our lives?

One of the things I am appreciating about both using this devotional and writing this devotional is that it approaches Lent from a completely different angle than most Lenten studies. It is my hope and prayer that spending time in less traditional scriptures might help us to see things differently this season. What has Jesus to do with us? What might Jesus want to do in our lives?

Only time will tell how things will look, but I believe Christ has come to bring grace into my life. Things I have done may need to be discarded, patterns in my life may need to be destroyed, but I believe that at the end of this journey and Lent I will find myself alive in Christ.