Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Do you have a vocation? Something you feel called to do? Something that suits your gifts and disposition? I spent 33 years in computing, which was a good fit for my on-the-spectrum personality.

Meanwhile, God formed me over those years in a vocation of prayer. That’s what I do now in retirement. Not like in a monastery, where monks pray all the time. But prayer is central to my heart and life.

In the last chapter of John, Peter discovered something about his heart and his vocation. Having denied Jesus three times, he went back to fishing. In the morning when Jesus called from shore, Peter was excited enough to walk on water. But that wasn’t one of his skills, so he jumped in and swam to shore to meet Jesus.

After breakfast, Jesus talked with Peter. Three times he asked, “Do you love me?” Three times Peter replied, “I love you.” And each time Jesus responded, “Care for my sheep” (21:15-17).

Jesus didn’t mention the denials, nor did Peter ask to be forgiven. Three statements of love, one for each denial, healed the relationship.

I wonder why Jesus didn’t talk to Peter about fishing? The stage was set with a fishing scene at dawn, Peter and crewmates hauling in a netful of 153 fish, and Jesus serving fish for breakfast. An amazing opportunity for Jesus to give Peter a fishing vocation. “Do you love me? Become a fisherman for people.”

But Jesus had shepherding in mind. He called himself the good shepherd, not the good fisherman. After Peter’s final fishing expedition, Jesus gave him a vocation as shepherd. A shepherd of people.

Let’s pray.

O Jesus, our childhood fantasy was to become a doctor or scientist or fire fighter. Later when power and money seduced us, we supersized our dreams to become business owners or politicians or high-powered executives.

But as we grow older and wiser, we settle into the smaller tasks, lower wages, simpler life you call us to.

Help us be faithful in our jobs and marriages and churches. And help us find the work you call us to, the vocation where we serve you and others.

Teach us, like Peter, to be fishers and shepherds. To be people who pray, and practice hospitality. Friends of God, and followers of you, Jesus.

Amen.

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Do you fish? My father taught me fishing, but it never caught me. I gave up fishing when I couldn’t go with him.

Jesus had fishermen disciples. After the resurrection, Peter thought denying Jesus disqualified him from serving Jesus, so he said to his friends, “This disciple-of-Jesus gig looks done. I’m going fishing” (21:1-3).

I’ve sometimes been like Peter, when I’ve thought, “I’m no good at following Jesus. I need to try something else.”

So Peter and friends spent an unsuccessful night fishing. In the morning, a stranger on shore shouted, “Hey, how’s the catch?”

“No luck, we haven’t caught anything” (21:5).

“Try the other side of the boat,” the stranger suggested.

Really? Why would professional fishermen take random advice from a land-lubbing stranger? But they did, and they caught a huge netful of fish.

Then they got it.

Remember three years ago, after another fishless night, when Jesus borrowed Peter’s boat to preach a seaside sermon. After, Jesus said to Peter, “Why don’t you row out and try fishing again?” (Luke 5:5).

Peter replied, “After working all night? Fish aren’t likely to come in the daytime.” But he rowed out, dropped his nets, and landed a boatful. That’s when Jesus invited Peter to a new vocation, fishing for people (Luke 5:8-11).

Now, three years later, with Peter’s net full of fish again, John said, “That’s not a stranger on the shore. That’s Jesus!” Peter jumped into the water and swam to shore to meet Jesus who was cooking bread and fish.

Then Jesus had an amazing suggestion for Peter and the others. He said, “You fishermen look like a crowd for breakfast. Bring some more fish to cook” (21:10).

I like that in Jesus. This wasn’t a time to sit at his feet like Mary did, while Martha slaved in the kitchen. This wasn’t the time to have a deep talk with Peter about his denials and about his future. This was a time for action. A crowd for breakfast. Time to collect and cook more fish.

Let’s pray.

O Jesus, Peter denied you and went back to fishing. He thought he was done being a disciple, but you weren’t done with him.

You showed up after his night of failed fishing. You gave him success in the morning. You showed him that his heart wanted you, not fish.

And so for us. After long nights when we despair of spiritual life, call us, come to us in the morning. Help us, like Peter, to swim to you through broken dreams and repeated failures.

We set out to be your apprentices, Jesus, but we didn’t have the courage and wisdom and patience to succeed. But following you changed our heart. We love you, and not much else matters.

Amen.

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Do you think the gospels are incomplete? John did. He wrote, “I’ve written about some of Jesus’ miracles. Just enough so you can believe that Jesus is God’s son, and find the life he offers” (John 20:30-31).

John didn’t write to entertain. His words lead to life. And now in chapter 20, his theme of life comes full circle. In chapter 1 John said,  “In the beginning was the word. . . . In him was life, and that life was the light of human kind” (John 1:1,4).

Jesus brought life and light to God’s people in Palestine. His wine put new life into a wedding. His voice brought Lazarus back from the dead. His words gave the woman at the well a source of living water. When Nicodemus needed to get a life, Jesus recommended he try being born again.

But here we are in 2026. Where will we find life, we who didn’t see Jesus’ miracles or hear his teaching? To us, John’s gospel is a gift. “I write that you may believe and have life,” he says.

Fair enough. But how do two-thousand-year-old stories give us life?

To religious leaders, Jesus said, “You search the scriptures because you think they give eternal life. They point to me, but you won’t come to me. You don’t let me give you life” (John 5:39).

When I want my dog to pick up his ball, I point and say, “There’s your ball.” But he wags his tail and looks at my finger. He doesn’t get the point of my pointed finger. Like the Pharisees with scripture. They didn’t get the point that scripture pointed to.

Much of modern scholarship is like the Pharisees’ study of scripture. We ask, “What does the Greek mean? What do archeologists say? How do literary critics explain this passage?” These investigations help us understand the text. But the text is only a pointer.

What do you see when you look at John’s gospel? Stories? Or do you go where the stories point?

Let’s pray.

O Jesus, John’s gospel is a powerful story. But John says it’s merely a pointer to you. “These are written that you believe, and that believing, you may have life.”

Help us read John’s book with a heart that chooses faith. Help us see beyond the stories to you, our Christ, who is still alive and doing miracles. Help us move beyond a fascination with history to experience your life and power today.

O Jesus, cure the deadness of our souls. Cast off the unbelief that clings to us. Help us go where scriptures point us, to you. May the stories come alive to us, teaching us to live a new and better story where you teach us and give us the miracle of life.

Amen.

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray with Me”.

The first time Jesus met his disciples after the resurrection, Thomas was absent.

When they told him they’d seen Jesus, he wasn’t convinced. He said, “Whatever! I won’t believe unless I see him alive in the same body he died in. The one with nail scars in the hands and a spear hole in the side” (v 25). 

That’s an odd picture of resurrection. I hope one day when my cremated remains are resurrected, that my body will be changed. Maybe I’ll lose my sagging stomach and  brown age marks. Maybe my friend with an amputated leg will be made whole.

But Jesus accepted Thomas’ assumption that his resurrected body should look just like his buried body, so when he met Thomas, he said, “See my nail-scarred hands? Go ahead . . . touch the spear wound in my side. You can believe it! I’m back from the dead” (20:27). 

Shocked and surprised, Thomas exclaimed, “My Lord and my God!” (20:28).

Did you hear that? Thomas’ statement in five little words is the simplest, clearest, and most unequivocal statement in John’s gospel that Jesus is God. In one breath, Thomas calls Jesus, “Lord and God.”

This may be the climax of John’s gospel. John wrote about signs and wonders and testimonies that made Jesus special. He called Jesus God’s son, Messiah, good shepherd, bread of life. He wrote about Christ’s miracles, about people worshiping him, and about how he borrowed God’s special name, “I AM”. But now, at last, someone–the doubting disciple, no less–calls Jesus “Lord and God”. That was a God-moment for Thomas.  

And then follows my favorite verse in John’s gospel, when Jesus says to Thomas, “You have seen me and believed. Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet believe” (20:29). 

That’s me. Not seeing Jesus in the physical world, I see him by faith. 

I once said to my mentor, “I’m full of doubts. I don’t have much faith.” 

He replied, “Your faith is evident in the way you live. But in your thinking, if there’s no room for doubt, whatever you have is not faith. It’s knowledge, or something else.” 

Let’s pray. 

O Jesus, I live in the mystery of believing in you whom I have not seen. Of praying to an invisible God. Of feeling the wind of your Spirit, but unable to catch it. 

Thank you for Thomas’ gift of doubt. Thank you for showing him your hands and side. Thank you for inviting him to believe. 

You invite us too. “Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet believe.” For two thousand years your disciples have not seen you, but hope and faith continue. 

Accept our faith. Accept our worship. Accept our service. May our doubts turn ever more to believing, until we see you face to face.

Amen.

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Have you ever picked a lock? I was a summer janitor at a college and one day we found ourselves locked out. What to do? 

Aha. My credit card. The building’s old door latch quickly responded to my ministrations. We got our job done, locked up, and went back to the office. “Hey,” exclaimed the boss, the key’s still here. How’d you get in?”  

That’s not how Jesus did it. On Sunday evening of the resurrection, he stepped into a locked room where the disciples were gathered (John 20:19). 

What resurrection message do you think Jesus delivered? Did he confront the disciples for abandoning him? Did he reprove Peter for denying? Did he lecture them about how little they learned during their three-year apprenticeship? 

No. None of that. Instead, Jesus had four positive messages for the failed disciples. 

The first positive message: “Peace be with you” (John 20:21). Where did Jesus find peace in this situation? Not in fearful disciples tangled in a crisis of faith. Where did he find peace? Maybe in himself. Abandoned by friends, unjustly crucified, left in a dark tomb. Yet Jesus was at peace with it all. And he brought peace to his bewildered disciples. Not reproof, not anger, not disappointment. Peace be with you.   

Jesus’ second positive message to the men in the locked room: “As the Father sent me, I’m sending you” (John 20:21). Really? Does Jesus think these disciples are ready to unlock the door and take his message into the world? After the shambles of crucifixion weekend, where will they find competence and courage to do that job? 

In a third positive message to the men in the locked room, Jesus breathes on them and says, “Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 10:22). Reminds me of Genesis, where God fashioned Adam from clay and breathed life into him. Now Jesus breathes on his disciples of clay. Will his breath, his Holy Spirit, bring them alive? Turn them from men in hiding to men with a message? 

Jesus’ fourth locked-room message is, “If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you don’t, they are not forgiven” (v. 23). Jesus is delegating the mission of forgiveness. Perhaps even the mission of deciding who should be forgiven. I hope the disciples will use that power wisely.   

Those are Jesus’ four resurrection gifts to his disciples. Peace. A mission. The Holy Spirit. The power of forgiveness.

Let’s pray. 

O Jesus, we live in a different world than you did. In our modern imagination, the universe was born in a big bang, expanded for billions of years, gave birth by chance to life, life which evolved into us. In our world, God is dead and we have locked the doors against him. 

And yet, and yet, we are your disciples, O Jesus. You stepped into time and space through our locked doors. You called us to follow you. You gave us gifts. 

The gift of peace in a chaotic world. The gift of a mission that gives us purpose. The gift of the Spirit who communicates your words. And the gift of forgiveness more powerful than political self-interest and war. 

Lord Jesus, help us receive your resurrection gifts. Help us move beyond our locked doors into the wider world of service. 

Amen.

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray with Me”.

I like those mystery novels where the detective exhumes a body and discovers lead weights instead of a corpse. What happened to the body?

Something like Mary Magdalene’s experience at Jesus’ tomb. The entrance stone was rolled away. The tomb was empty. What happened to the body?

When she reported “The Case of the Stolen Body” to Peter and John, they ran to  investigate. They found burial clothes, but no body. 

John jumped to his own conclusion. This was no grave robbery. This was a resurrection! 

What would be more appropriate for Jesus? He called himself the resurrection and the life. He’d raised others from the dead. And you expected his grave would hold him? 

Mary, still not understanding, stayed at the tomb weeping. Bad enough that Jesus had been crucified. Stealing his body was unthinkable. 

When she looked again, two angels sat where the body belonged. They asked, “Why are you crying?” (John 20:15). 

And then behind her, a gardener asked the same question, “Why are you crying? Who are you looking for?” 

Through her tears she said, “If you’ve taken him, tell me, and I will get him.” 

The gardener said, “Mary!” and she recognized him as Jesus (20:16).   

Let’s pray. 

O Jesus, what did your resurrection mean for Mary? What does it mean for us? 

We could wish it means we will not die. But those you raised from the dead, like Lazarus, died a second time and were buried. And they haven’t been heard from since. 

In your story, Jesus, you only died once. And then you were raised. Now you live with God, and your Spirit lives in us. 

We believe your resurrection, reported in the gospels. We believe your disciples who spread the word. We believe you live in us today. We believe your resurrection promises that we will be raised too. We wait for your coming again.  

Amen.

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Have you purchased your grave site? Long before needed, my parents did–a double-depth plot in a rural cemetery near their home. In 1995, we buried my father nine feet deep. Twenty-three years later, we placed my mother’s coffin above his, at six feet. 

In Jesus’ time, that’s  a pauper’s grave. Richer people preferred a burial cave dug into soft limestone rock. Stepping inside, you’d notice a shelf for a recently deceased body, lovingly wrapped in cloth and spices. 

After the body decomposed, the bones were moved to the back, to rest with other family bones. This freed the shelf for the next customer. 

After Jesus died, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus the Pharisee took him from the cross and wrapped him in linen cloth, along with a large amount of burial spices. Then they placed him on the shelf in a never-used tomb. 

The Apostles Creed says, “He was crucified, died, and was buried.” Not nine feet under like my father, nor six like my mother, but in a purpose-built cave, with a stone sealing the entrance. 

During his active ministry, Jesus went to Jairus’ house where friends were mourning a daughter’s death. He raised the daughter to life (Mark 5:38-42). In another town he interrupted a funeral procession by bringing the corpse to life (Luke 7:11-14). 

But at Jesus’ death, there’s nothing about a funeral procession, weeping relatives, or mourning friends. All John says is that two men placed his body in its final resting place. 

Or was it final? Stay tuned for the rest of the story. 

Let’s pray. 

O Jesus, you interrupted funeral proceedings for Jairus’ daughter and for Lazarus and for the widow of Nain. But no one interrupted your journey from the cross to the grave. Wrapped and spiced and sealed in a tomb, you were lost to your disciples and the world.

I attended a celebration of life for a lady who was your friend, and mine. Instead of a solemn funeral, she had asked her daughter she wanted a picnic. So I brought lawn chairs and firewood. We roasted hot dogs, ate bannock, and enjoyed Vy’s famous banana cream pie. A wonderful way to celebrate her life.

But for you, Jesus, there was no celebration of life, no picnic, not even an old fashioned funeral. Just a burial that left family and friends lonely and dejected. 

Thank you for participating in the life we live and the death we die. Thank you for experiencing the cross and the grave. 

Thank you for living in us today, for walking life’s road with us, for preparing us for death, and for eternal life with you.

Amen.

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Pilate declared Jesus innocent, but ordered his crucifixion anyway. Maybe being consistent wasn’t his strong suit. 

Little wonder he had a sign nailed to the cross: “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews”. Did he believe that or was he just insulting the Jews?

The sign did insult the religious leaders. “Change it to say he claimed to be king,” they requested (19:21). 

Fed up with the whole situation, Pilate said, “What I have written, I have written” (19:22). 

Those are the last recorded words we hear from Pilate. Earlier, he asked, “What is truth?” and now he’s inadvertently publishing the truth about Jesus, a truth neither he nor the religious leaders believed. But his proclamation was there for all to see while Jesus was dying.

John’s description of the crucifixion is strangely muted. Nothing about the pain and torture. John tells more about how the soldiers distributed Jesus’ clothes than about the prisoner dying naked.

He places greater emphasis on Jesus’ request that John care for mother Mary, than on Jesus’ slow and torturous death. 

He quotes Jesus’ words, “I am thirsty.” Jesus, who promised rivers of living water, now dying thirsty? 

John quotes Jesus’ final words, “It is finished.” Oddly enough, not “I am finished,” but “It is finished.” What exactly was finished? His life? His mission? 

When the soldiers found Jesus unexpectedly dead, they were surprised. Most victims lived somewhat longer. The soldiers pierced Jesus with a spear, bringing a flow of blood and water. 

This is the climax, the strange climax, of Jesus’ teaching about blood and water. 

After Jesus fed 5,000, he invited the lunch guests to eat his flesh and drink his blood. They were repulsed. 

Water was also important to Jesus’ ministry. John baptized him in water. Jesus changed water into wine, he advised Nicodemus to be born of water and the spirit, he offered springs of living water to a thirsty woman. He walked on water, he washed his disciples’ feet, he promised that faith would cause rivers of living water to flow from within. 

And now at Jesus’ death, blood and water flow from his side. 

Let’s pray. 

O Jesus, as the Rock of Ages hymn says,
    Let the water and the blood
      From your riven side which flowed
    Be of sin the double cure,
      Cleanse me from its guilt and power. 
(Augustus Toplady, Rock of Ages Cleft for Me)

Your mother Mary was present at your death, experiencing what Simeon prophesied at your birth, “This child will cause the rise and fall of many in Israel . . . .and a sword will pierce your own soul too” (Luke 2:34-35). 

John doesn’t describe Mary’s grief at your death. But we believe the water and blood that flowed from your spear-wound will wash away her pain and heal her grief. And we believe your water and blood have flowed for two thousand years, washing us today, quenching our thirst, causing your life to live in us.

We receive the gifts you gave on the cross. Help us to live lives worthy of your gifts.

Amen.

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Do you like easy escape routes from difficult problems? I sure do! So did Pilate in John 19. Pilate’s problem of the week was Jesus. “What am I to do with that man?” Pilate’s escape route? Make Jesus someone else’s problem.   

First, he said to Jesus’ accusers, “He’s not guilty of anything. It’s Passover. Let’s celebrate by releasing him” (18:39). 

“No way!” they replied. “Don’t do that! Release the criminal Barabbas.” So Barabbas went free, and Pilate still had the Jesus problem. 

Now what? 

Pilate had Jesus whipped; soldiers dressed him in kingly purple and pressed a crown of thorns on his head, making it bleed. They slapped him. They mocked him: “Hail! King of the Jews!” (19:1-3).

After that, back to Pilate. He called in the Jewish leaders and showed them a sorry, beaten, bloody prisoner. Nothing for them to be afraid of here, was there?  

But the religious leaders weren’t satisfied. Tortured and humiliated, yes, but Jesus was still alive. “Crucify him,” they cried (19:6).  

Again Pilate tried to escape. “If you want him crucified, you do it. I do not find him guilty” (19:6).

The Jewish leaders escalated. “He claimed to be the Son of God. That’s guilty enough to  crucify.” 

Pilate, cornered and fearful, asked Jesus, “Where do you come from?” Perhaps if Jesus was a son of God, his God could provide a solution. 

Jesus was silent. Frustrated, Pilate snapped, “I can crucify you or set you free. Don’t you care?” (19:10).

Jesus said, “Your power comes from God. My accusers are the guilty ones” (19:11). That didn’t help Pilate. His authority came from Rome, and maybe also this Jewish God Jesus talked about. But the problem was how to use his authority. 

Little wonder Pilate was confused. 
  Was this prisoner a son of God? King of the Jews? Just another poser? 
  Why wouldn’t he answer Pilate’s questions?
  But Pilate continued to believe that crucifying him was a bad idea.

Finally, the religious leaders pitched their strongest argument. “Jesus claims to be king. He’s in competition with Caesar. Make your choice, Pilate. Prove your loyalty to Caesar by crucifying this pretender. Or let him live, and you’ll be a traitor to Rome. You know how Rome treats traitors.”

With no escape route left, Pilate ordered Jesus’ death. 

Let’s pray. 

O Jesus, the religious leaders said, “We have no king but Caesar” (19:15). 

We too are religious. Who is our king today? Like Pilate and the Jews, we live in the space between the kingdom of this world and the kingdom of God. We serve our country and pay taxes. We donate to our church and worship on Sunday. 

Help us see clearly the claims of both kingdoms. Help us give Caesar what is Caesar’s. And help us proclaim from the heart, “We have no king but you, Jesus.” 

Amen.

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube.

Hello, I’m Daniel Westfall on the channel “Pray with Me”.

Do you feel sorry for Pontius Pilate? I do. Sometimes. 

Assigned to a backwater Roman province inhabited by troublesome religious fanatics, keeping a brutal peace with threats and swords and crosses. Despite his troubles and the malcontents he governed, I think Pilate retained some sense of fairness and justice.  

When the religious leaders brought Jesus, he said, “OK. What are the charges?” (18:29). 

They replied, “He’s a criminal, that’s why we’re here.” 

“Then don’t bother me,” said Pilate. “Judge him by your law.” 

“Done,” they said. “Our law condemns him to death. Capital punishment is your department” (18:30-32). 

Pilate interviewed Jesus to assess the problem. 

“Are you king of the Jews?” he asked. I hear in his question a plea for sanity in this insane world. Surely this prisoner is lucid enough to know he’s not a king.

“Me, a king?” said Jesus. “Did you think that up yourself or have you been listening to rumors?” (v 33-34). 

“I’m no Jew,” Pilate said. “You are and your people hate you. What have you done?”

Jesus said, “I’m not king in this world. My kingdom’s from a different place” (v 35-36).

“Ahh,” exclaimed Pilate. “So you are a king!” Can you hear his sigh of resignation. He thought he’d heard it all but this prisoner-cum-king presents a new level of insanity.  

“So you are a king.” 

“If that’s how you put it, I won’t argue,” Jesus replied. “I came into the world to tell the truth. People of truth listen to me” (v 37). 

“What is truth?” asked Pilate. I’m guessing Pilate doesn’t see a shred of truth in this prisoner. Let Jews practice their religion. Let Jesus rule his invisible kingdom. Pilate’s truth is visible, Rome conquering the world. Pilate’s creed is pragmatism. Do something. Solve a problem. Make a judgement. Don’t waste time philosophizing about truth.  

So Pilate announced his verdict. This prisoner can call himself “king of truth” if he wants, or even “king of the Jews.” That’s not in my wheelhouse. That’s no threat to Rome. You religious leaders can go away and debate truth with Jesus. Don’t waste my time.

Let’s pray. 

O Father, what is truth? Does science give a true measure of earth’s age? Is a billion years of evolution your idea or merely our imagination? Are our lives flecks of dust in a cosmic universe, or are we truly children of the most high God?

O Father, when you speak of truth, you don’t point to the stunning vastness of the universe, or the complexity of human history, or the probabilities of quantum mechanics. You explain truth by sending a person. Jesus, who showed up on earth, announced his invisible kingdom, journeyed  through lies and imprisonment and death, and promised freedom and truth to his followers. 

He is our truth. We are citizens of his kingdom. Students of his teaching. Apprentices to his way of life. We are his brothers and sisters, your children on earth.

Teach us to live this truth, for he said, “I am the way and the truth and the life.” 

Amen.

I’m Daniel, on the channel “Pray with Me”.

YouTube channel: Pray with Me – YouTube.