Friday, April 8, 2011

Journey to Jerusalem

Luke 9:51- When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.
Lent is a journey with a destination.  We enter into 40 days of confession and repentance not to punish ourselves, but to prepare ourselves for the journey.  When Jesus began his ministry, he knew that he was stirring up considerable controversy.  After all, you can’t challenge the political, economic, and religious leaders of the day without making a few enemies.  But, so long as Jesus stayed on the margins of society, it was likely that his trouble making would be ignored.  However, Jesus knew that it was one thing to preach in the fields, eventually, you have to take the message to the seat of power.
So, Jesus turned to Jerusalem and began the walk that would inevitable lead to his death.  Can you imagine the courage it took to begin that journey?  He had already found devoted followers.  He had already healed people and helped to transform lives.  Wouldn’t it have been easy for him to just keep doing what he was doing?  To never take a risk by embarking on a new phase of ministry?  What would we do if faced with that decision?  Would we be content to stay comfortable and work where no one will bother us, or would we have the courage to follow God’s will and take the greatest risk of all?
We are quickly approaching the destination of our own Lenten journey.  We are invited to join with Jesus as he enters Jerusalem, as he has a last meal with friends, as he is tried and crucified, and as he is resurrected on Easter morning.  Sometimes, however, I think we tend to want to skip straight from the joy of Palm Sunday to the joy of Easter Sunday.  In doing so, however, I think we miss a significant part of Jesus’ (and our own) journey.  Being a committed disciple does involve sacrifice at times, and it might even mean that parts of our life have to die so that we can be reborn as transformed people.  To facilitate experiencing the fullness of Jesus’ journey, we will be holding services on Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday.  I hope you can join us in the entirety of this Holy Week journey so that like Jesus, we may be reborn and empowered to change ourselves and our world.
May you have strength for the journey.

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