Palm / Passion

Faithfully Follow

SUNDAY, April 10
Luke 19:28-40

“Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” (v. 38).

As the disciples march with Jesus up to Jerusalem, they are triumphant. The crowds swell and sing, echoing the songs of Jesus’s birth. Just as the angels sang, “Peace on earth,” the crowds herald, “Peace in heaven.” The realization dawns: David’s son is coming home to David’s city!

Jesus’s friends are ready to follow a victorious Messiah, and God’s good promise is coming true: righteousness and justice will reign. But in a few days, Jesus will devastate their expectations. He will turn to his friends and say, “Where I am going, you cannot come.” Jesus halts the disciples, because only he can walk the final few miles. This week, we will walk with Jesus only to suddenly stop. The disciples will wonder, “Where is Jesus going?” and we will wonder with them, “Where has Jesus gone?”

Lord, help me to see where you have gone, and teach me to faithfully follow you there. Amen.

A New High Priest

MONDAY, April 11
Hebrews 9:11-15

“For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance” (v. 15).

Where has Jesus gone? To answer this question, the author of Hebrews peers back into the history of Israel. There’s a pattern here, and we can know where Jesus goes if we realize who he is. Jesus is the “high priest.” Like all high priests, he is authorized to set foot inside the holiest place, where God’s glory dwells. But Jesus is also a different and new kind of high priest. He will go to the place where no other high priest has gone. Unlike the tabernacle or the temple, Jesus will go into the place that is “not a part of this creation” (v. 11). He will set foot in the place that is itself the pattern for all creation. Jesus alone can walk there, and he will carry our humanity with him. He will bring us there so that we, too, can learn to serve the living God.

Lord, help me to see where you have gone, and teach me to love and serve our Father. Amen.

Foolishness and Folly

TUESDAY, April 12
Corinthians 1:18-31

The way of Jesus is, by all appearances, foolishness. It is foolish because our faith proclaims that the way up is down, and that the way of victory is in humiliated defeat. As it was for Jesus, so it is for us.

And yet, we hardly stop to consider this scandal. We adorn jewelry and clothing with a ghastly symbol that would have made ancient stomachs churn. So Paul invites us to take a step back, to remember the dilemma of the cross. God accurses himself, and life itself dies. It boggles the religious mind and splits the logical head. And yet, this is “the power of God and the wisdom of God” (v. 24). It is what God has done, showing us what God is like: the one who always exalts the lowly and despised. The one who carves a way through death, making eternal life flow even from there.

Lord, humble what I exalt, and exalt what I judge as worthless and lowly. Amen.

The Cheering Crowd

WEDNESDAY, April 13
Hebrews 12:1-3

Jesus will walk to the place we cannot go, but what will he feel as he goes? I often think of the sadness and loneliness of Jesus in his final days. But these feelings are not the whole story. Jesus does not trudge toward the cross out of obligation or duty. He is held up and made strong by his deep, unshakable joy. It is joy that makes Jesus courageous. It is joy that helps Jesus to scorn shame and endure the cross. It is joy that sustains Jesus.

As his followers, it can be the same for us. The path can be sustained by God’s own joy, and we know this because God’s joyful witnesses surround us. They cheer us on from every side, telling us that the same joy can be ours too.

Lord, lend me your joy and help me to hear the cheers of my sisters and brothers until I finish the path you have set before me. Amen.

An Unusual Meal

THURSDAY (Maundy), April 14
Corinthians 11:23-26

Every Sunday at my church we speak these words from 1 Corinthians to one another. I hold a loaf of freshly baked bread in my hands, only to suddenly tear it in half. I hold a clay pitcher and cup, pouring out crimson and listening for every drop to drain. As I lift the bread and the cup, Paul teaches me that I proclaim where Jesus is going. He is going into death. Strangely, our eating and drinking—the basis of sustaining our life—also proclaims death. Chewing and swallowing preach a strange gospel: death has become life. It is a hard mystery to behold, but it is the truth. It is the fact that nourishes us, and we remember that eating and drinking this death sustains us until Christ comes to set a new table and a new feast.

Lord, help me to eat, to drink, and to proclaim the mystery of your death until you come again. Amen.

The Path to Paradise

FRIDAY (Good), April 15
Luke 23:13-49

The Scripture today ends with the disciples standing far off, watching these events unfold at a distance. But unlike those disciples, we are brought into the midst of three crosses where three men are slowly dying. It looks as if this is the place where Jesus said he must go, and where the disciples could not follow. And yet, Jesus hints that the journey is not over. Even as he suffers and suffocates under his own weight, Jesus still holds hospitality to a fellow, dying man. He embraces the faith of the one judged to be a criminal, promising that he will be able to follow Jesus. So we watch the condemned man, the first one who makes it to the place we hope to go. Jesus will lead him there by entrusting them both to the Father who loves them, even in the dark hour death.

Lord, remember me in your kingdom and teach me, too, to trust our Father. Amen.

Let Us Draw Near

SATURDAY, April 16
Hebrews 10:11-25

On this Holy Saturday, we reflect on where Jesus has gone. Through his broken body and with his poured-out blood, Jesus has entered the Most Holy Place. And having gone there, he will come back to us tomorrow to say, “Now you can come with me.” Jesus will return to his friends, and he will share his Spirit so that we, too, can draw near to God.

But it will be hard to keep walking on this well-worn road. So let us take time together to consider how we can help one another to love God and love our neighbors. Let us cherish meeting together with Christ’s whole body, until that day when we are finally at home together in the light that no darkness can overcome.

Lord, as we wait for your glory to dawn, teach us to share grace and hope with the weary. Amen.