The Monday after the Sixth Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on July 28, 2025 by under
Scripture: St. Mark 1:9-11 (NKJV)
1:9 It came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10 And immediately, coming up from the water, He saw the heavens parting and the Spirit descending upon Him like a dove. 11 Then a voice came from heaven, “You are My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
Devotion
In the Gospel reading for yesterday our Lord Jesus states that unless one’s righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, that person cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven. This is not a plea to do better with one’s keeping of the Law. Our Lord is not telling us to look inside of ourselves and do a better job of keeping the Ten Commandments to make our righteousness better than the scribes and Pharisees.
Our Lord is rather urging us to look outside of ourselves to find true righteousness. The reading for today shows the baptism of our Lord. He is the One in whom the heavenly Father is well pleased. It is through His works and merits that one finds salvation. Only through His righteousness can a person hope to enter into the kingdom of heaven.
In Holy Baptism, through faith, we put on the righteousness of the Christ. We bear His righteousness. In Christ our righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, because it is His righteousness, and therefore it is perfect righteousness. It is our Lord’s righteousness which we have on account of faith in Him. Through faith we are in Him and He is in us, therefore our righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees.
Collect: Lord of all power and might, Who art the Author and Giver of all good things: Graft in our hearts the love of Thy Name, increase in us true religion, nourish us with all goodness, and of Thy great mercy keep us in the same; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
