‘We know God is with us’ in the dark times
We celebrate the final week of Jesus’ life on earth from Palm Sunday to Easter calling it Easter week.
On Palm Sunday, we celebrate with the children and adults who waved palm branches while Jesus rode on a donkey into Jerusalem, a completely different kind of King.
In many of our churches, palm crosses are distributed to be taken home and placed somewhere prominent as a reminder of this special day.
On Maundy or Holy Thursday, we celebrate the Last Supper which Jesus held with His disciples.
At the end of the Sacrament, some churches invite pre- selected members to come forward to have their feet washed by the Minster or Priest as a reminder that we are to serve each other, to put others before self.
In other countries, I’ve heard that after the Sacrament altars are stripped of their hangings to remind us of Jesus striped of his clothes by the mocking Roman soldiers, before they scourged Him.
Prisoners to be executed by the Romans were made to walk to their place of execution to serve as an example to others. Misbehave and this too will be your fate.
If you visit Jerusalem nowadays, you can walk along the Via Dolorosa, a medieval route which allows pilgrims follow Jesus on his way from his trial carrying that heavy cross to his place of execution at Calvary outside the walls of the city.
The roads of Jerusalem are narrower now that they were in Jesus’ day. Even then there were busy shopping streets, and the shops would have encroached on the road until only a narrow pathway remained.
Just imagine Jesus, the Son of God in great pain from the scourging he received, walking along, listening to the cat- calling of the crowds lining the street, carrying a heavy cross to his death.
Mark chapter 8 recounts that Peter affirmed his faith in Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of God after which Jesus had predicted his death to his disciples.
That He would have to suffer many things, be rejected by the Elders, the Chief Priests and the Teachers of the Law, that He would be killed and after three days rise again. Jesus followed this by saying “whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.” ( Mark 8: 34)
Good Friday is for many a day of darkness and great very dark and frightening times. Covid-19 has taken over our lives, homes, communities and indeed the whole world. We hear news reports that the death toll is rising and our Taoiseach has called on us to stay in our homes.
Our lives are turned upside down and inside out.
Life as we know it will never be the same again.
This helps us to imagine how the disciples must have felt on Good Friday. Surely they recalled arriving in Jerusalem a few days earlier. How could it have ended like this?
Had it all been in vain? Were they next? In their panic, they forgot that Jesus said He would have to die and that after three days He would rise again.
We have the gift of enlightenment through the work of the Holy Spirit dwelling within us.
We are going through dark times. We know that God is with us, walking beside us as we carry our individual cross, be it fear, pain, bereavement or anxiety. We know Jesus rose again, through which we have the greatest comfort, the gift of Hope.
In words of Bill and Gloria Gaither, ‘ God sent His son, they called Him Jesus He came to love, heal and forgive , He lived and died to buy my pardon, An empty grave is there to prove my saviour lives.
Because He lives, I can face tomorrow. Because He lives, all fear is gone Because I know He holds the future And life is worth the living, just because He lives.’
May The Risen Christ fill your heart with Joy, bring you new hope and bless you with peace.
Amen.