Monday, April 3, 2023

 

Monday, April 3, 2023


Psalm 21

Lamentations 1:1-12

John 14


Observance: Monday in Holy Week


Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?


Lent is wrapped up; now we begin the final march to Golgotha. Yesterday at church we heard both Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem, as well as the Passion narrative. From joyous expectation to tragic heartbreak, all in one service: this is the story of Holy Week.


We know how the story ends. We have heard it year after year. Some Christians have become so immune to the retelling they reject Easter altogether – following the rabbit hole of pseudo-history on the internet one can find a multitude of fallacious claims about the alleged pagan beginnings of Easter.


But the focus of Holy Week is the same thing we use to find our place in the world wherever and whenever we are. Whether life is up or down or inside out, whatever confusing or distressing or joyful situations we find ourselves in, it always comes back to the cross of Christ.


We are walking down this narrow path of discipleship, and there is a barrier coming up: it is the narrow gate through which we must pass if we want to get out to the other side, to our Father’s mansion of many rooms. That gate is Jesus Christ, and His hinge, opening the way for us to reach home, is His cross. Our Lord, suffering and dying on the cross, for the sake of our sins: is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?



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