The Last Week

Think about Jesus in the last week of his life. In the Garden of Gethsemane, we see Jesus agonizing over his imminent physical death and the estrangement from

God that goes with it.

Think for a moment! The jubilant Palm Sunday crowd had turned into a lynch mob before the week was over. And nowhere in the Gospel record is there a sign that one single person in the crowd spoke up for Jesus when he was arrested. The religious leaders had administered one cheap shot after another all week long. They came to him with difficult theological questions -- not because they were interested in the truth but because they were trying to get him to say things they could use against him. Jesus' best friends already were caving in. Peter, the Rock, couldn't even stay awake when Jesus asked him to watch. And before the week was over, Peter would deny three times that he even knew Jesus. Judas was one of twelve, and what can hurt more than the betrayal of a trusted friend! And the Roman officials, who had no quarrel with Jesus, already were planning to execute him in a cruel and very painful way. They had all turned against him! Consequently, it is not hard to see his agony in the Garden of Gethsemane. At this point we need to remind ourselves of one of the basic themes in the teachings of Jesus. He tells us overand-over again how much God loves us and how He is ready always to forgive us our trespasses and how our experience of this forgiving Love of God is the source of our wholeness of life. But he also warns us overand-over again that this forgiving Love of God becomes real to us only through our willingness to lovingly forgive others. Jesus hits that theme very hard, time and again until, finally, on the Cross, he gives us the supreme example of what he is talking about. I suggest to you that the best preparation you can make for Holy Week and for Easter Sunday is to be sure that you do not have some unfinished business in this area of your life with anyone! Is it Your spouse? Your child? A parent? A friend? Someone you work with? Neighbors? Fellow Church members? Think your way through your network of relationships and if you find persons there whom you need to forgive and who need your forgiveness, remember that God's amazing, liberating Grace cannot be real for you until you resolve that unfinished business. The temptation to be scorekeepers in our relationships is alive and well for many of us. We carry grudges and we harbor resentments and we tally them up in the hope that the day will come when we can "get even and settle the score." In order to identify with the Cross of Jesus Christ we must be willing to relinquish the scorekeeper's role and get rid of our tally sheets. Only then can we identify with the crucified Christ.