Another
week has come to a close. The weeks are starting to feel pretty familiar and
monotonous now, aren’t they? Fear not, the blandness will be eviscerated this
week. That’s right, it’s about to be Holy Week 2020. It’s one of my favorite
weeks of the year and something that this Coronavirus couldn’t touch. Yes, it
will look different; however, the essence of the week is unchangeable and leads
us to the glorious resurrection that secures for us the possibility of eternal
life. That should give us hope and joy in these uncertain, and quite frankly scary
times.
As
I (and likely every person associated with your Church) pointed out above, this
Holy Week is going to look quite different. Please don’t let that stop you from
your devotions this week. I’ll be trying my best to do my part with content
throughout the week. Much of it is already written, (Take that procrastination!)
including my first foray into poetic writing. Be on the lookout for those posts
over the course of the week.
Of
course, Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday. To prepare for this post, I read the
account of Jesus’s triumphant entrance into Jerusalem found in John chapter 12.
I encourage you to read this passage in preparation for online worship tomorrow
morning. It’s a very familiar passage, but it’s worth reading time and time
again. Stop every few verses and pause to reflect on what you have just read. I
find that in doing this, I am able to pick up on some things that I may not
have been able to otherwise.
The
story of the entrance into Jerusalem really gets going in verse 9. Verse 9 reveals the true motives of those who
had come to see Jesus. They were not there to see Jesus alone, but were also
there to see Lazarus whom Jesus had previously raised from the dead. In other words, these people were more
interested in the benefits of the miracles Jesus performed than who he really
was and claimed to be – the Son of God.
Unfortunately, these motives are introduced way before John 12. We see
the same pattern of behavior back in John 6 after Jesus has fed the five
thousand and walked on water. In John 6:26,
Jesus even calls out the crowd for their motives, saying “Most assuredly, I
say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of
the loaves and were filled.” Jesus goes on to deliver the famous Bread of
Life discourse in which He tries to hammer home the reality and implications of
His divinity.
It’s
really easy for us to sit back 2000 years later and judge those people who
missed the true point of the miracles Jesus performed. But don’t we behave the
same way? If you’re brutally honest with
yourself, there’s likely been countless times when you sought Jesus for what He
could do for you. I can admit that I have done this time after time. Simply
put, we seek to be glorified by the Creator rather than to glorify and worship
the Creator. I’m reminded of question one of the Westminster Shorter Catechism.
It reads as follows:
Question: What is man’s chief
end?
Answer: Man’s chief end is to
glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.
Take just a few moment’s and let
that answer wash over you.
Now
back to some Palm Sunday thoughts. While entering the city in John 12, Jesus is
proclaimed as a true King and greeted like royalty with the branches of Palm
trees. Yet, just a few days later this
same crowd that greeted Christ so joyously will come to scorn and mock Him. Once
again, isn’t this just like how we act as Christians? When things are going our
way, we praise Christ and give Him the glory that he so rightly deserves.
However, I often find that my praises for God in the good moments are still
tinted with an arrogant, self-righteousness. As if I was the true cause of the
good things that came my way. We are too hesitant to give God ALL the glory and
credit. We want to hold on to the notion that we are in some way responsible for
our successes in this life. We just can’t seem to shake the desire for at least
some control over our lives. And this is just in the peak seasons in our lives!
When
things go wrong in our lives, we often instantaneously turn from the Palm
Sunday crowd to the Good Friday crowd and denigrate our King. It’s scary how quickly this transition can
take place. Some of us may be in this state right now with all the uncertainty
floating around due to the COVID-19 virus. We may get angry at God and pelt Him
with endless questions. Why did this happen? Is this a punishment for our unfaithfulness.
When is this going to end? Will life ever be the same again? It’s times like these where we must rest on
the promises of God and the sacrifices His son made for us in laying down His
life in the unfolding of the Holy Week story. When you feel the urge to morph from the Palm
Sunday crowd into the Good Friday crowd, pray that God would give you peace and
allow you to find contentment in Him.
Last
summer, I was present for a sermon by Pastor Mark Proctor on a passage from the Book of Habakkuk. I
feel the passage used that day is applicable to us in the valleys us life when
we are tempted to become the jeering crowd on the road to Calvary. Habakkuk
3:17-19 states, “Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall
fruit be in the vines; the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall
yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no
herd in the stalls: Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the
God of my salvation.”
Fellow Christians, let us
remember always that God is the King in the valley as well on the peak. He is
our rock and our redeemer and will save us from the fires of Hell – if only we
shall believe in Him.
In Christ,
Kendal May
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