The Wartburg Project

Daily Lectionary

March 19, 2025

March 18, 2025 March 20, 2025

These daily readings from the EHV follow the one-year daily lectionary provided in Christian Worship: Hymnal, the Lutheran Service Book, and the Treasury of Daily Prayer. In this lectionary, two readings of 15-25 verses each are provided for each day. Under this plan, nearly all of the New Testament and approximately one-third of the Old Testament are read each year. These readings fit well within the daily offices of Matins, Vespers, or Compline as daily family devotions.

Genesis 22:1-19

Abraham Offers Isaac
221Some time later God tested Abraham. He called to him, “Abraham!”
Abraham answered, “I am here.”
2God said, “Now take your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah. Offer him there as a whole burnt offering on one of the mountains, the one to which I direct you.”
3Abraham got up early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, along with Isaac his son. Abraham split the wood for the burnt offering. Then he set out to go to the place that God had told him about. 4On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance.
5Abraham said to his young men, “Stay here with the donkey. The boy and I will go on over there. We will worship, and then we will come back to you.” 6Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and loaded it on Isaac his son. He took the firepot and the knife in his hand. The two of them went on together.
7Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, “My father?”
He said, “I am here, my son.”
He said, “Here are the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?”
8Abraham said, “God himself will provide the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.” So the two of them went on together. 9They came to the place that God had told him about. Abraham built the altar there. He arranged the wood, tied up Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar on top of the wood. 10Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son.
11The Angel of the Lord called to him from heaven, “Abraham, Abraham!”
Abraham said, “I am here.”
12He said, “Do not lay your hand on the boy. Do not do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.”
13Abraham looked around and saw that there was a ram behind him, caught in the thicket by its horns. Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son. 14Abraham called the name of that place “The Lord Will Provide.”[] So it is said to this day, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.”
15The Angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven 16and said, “I have sworn by myself, declares the Lord, because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17I will bless you greatly, and I will multiply your descendants greatly, like the stars of the sky and like the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the city gates of their enemies. 18In your seed[] all the nations of the earth will be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice.”
19Then Abraham returned to his young men, and they set out and traveled together to Beersheba. Abraham lived at Beersheba.

Mark 7:1-23

Commandments and Traditions
(Matthew 15:1-20)
71The Pharisees and some of the experts in the law came from Jerusalem and gathered around Jesus. 2They saw some of his disciples eating bread with unclean (that is, unwashed) hands. 3In fact, the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they scrub their hands with a fist,[] holding to the tradition of the elders. 4When they come from the marketplace, they do not eat unless they wash.[] And there are many other traditions they adhere to, such as the washing[] of cups, pitchers, kettles, and dining couches.[] 5The Pharisees and the experts in the law asked Jesus, “Why do your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders? Instead they eat bread with unclean hands.”
6He answered them, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites. As it is written:
These people honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.
7They worship me in vain, teaching human rules as if they were doctrines.[]
8“You abandon God's commandment but hold to human tradition like the washing of pitchers and cups, and you do many other such things.”[] 9He continued, “You have a fine way of setting aside God's commandment to keep[] your own tradition. 10For example, Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother,’[] and, ‘Whoever speaks evil of his father or mother must be put to death.’[] 11But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or mother, “Whatever help you might have received from me is corban”’[] (which means an offering), 12then you no longer let him do anything for his father or mother. 13So you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. You do many things like that.”
14He called the crowd to him again and said, “Everyone, listen to me and understand. 15There is nothing outside of a man that can make him unclean by going into him. But the things that come out of a man are what make a man unclean. 16If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear!”[]
17After he had left the crowd and entered a house, his disciples asked him about this illustration. 18He said, “Are you lacking in understanding too? Do you not understand that whatever goes into a man from the outside cannot make him unclean? 19For it does not enter his heart but goes into his stomach and goes out of him into the latrine—in this way all foods are purified.”[]
20He continued, “What comes out of a man, that is what makes a man unclean. 21In fact, from within, out of people's hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual sins, theft, murder, 22adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, unrestrained immorality, envy, slander, arrogance, and foolishness. 23All these evil things proceed from within and make a person unclean.”