I was blessed recently to write the meditation guide booklets for First Christian Church's Journey to the Cross Prayer Experience. I so enjoyed this opportunity to write for my church in such a deeply devotional way.
The Journey to Cross has caused me to take pause and think about Holy Week in a new way this year. So I'd like to take some time this week and expound on some of the themes I wrote about briefly in the Journey to the Cross booklet. I'd like to start off this week of writing by taking a look at what I've come to realize is the overarching theme of the Journey to the Cross Prayer Experience this year: God identifies with us in our darkness.
I think of this in light of Palm Sunday. It is a day of happiness and celebration. It is a day when "Hosanna" is sung and cheers erupted from the crowds of adoring fans. And yet, what a difference a few short days make.
In a few short days those "Hosanna" songs will turn to shouts demanding "Crucify him!" In a few short days those adoring crowds will be cheering on not Jesus' presence but his persecution. In a few short days his closest followers will be scattered and confused, leaving Jesus alone and crying out to his Father.
I sometimes wonder at what Jesus did or didn't know about the cup that did not pass him by as he entered the city of Jerusalem on that first Palm Sunday. I wonder whether or not he could hear the coming shouts of the crowds even as they sung his praises. I wonder whether or not his heart ached being with his friends knowing that they would soon no longer stand by his side in pride.
As we take a look at a few of the events leading up to Jesus' journey to the cross, I want to remind you that God through Jesus entered into the pain and mess of humanity. Jesus understands our heartache. Jesus understands our distress and anxiety. Jesus understands our fear of abandonment and our horror at betrayal. Jesus understands. And because he understands, because he too has been there, that pain and mess of humanity has been redeemed and will now be transformed into something new.
So journey with me this week. Let's remember together the beauty and the brokenness that is in Jesus' own journey to the cross. And let us remember that as we take up our own crosses and journey onward, we are not alone.