Holy Week - the Journey

Scriptures: Palm Sunday - Mark 11:1-11; Holy Thursday - John 13:31b-35; Good Friday - Psalm 22:1-18 & John 18:1-19:42; Easter - John 20:1-18
The journey through Holy Week began on Palm Sunday with Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem. By Thursday evening, when Jesus and his disciples celebrated their last supper together, things had changed drastically. In those few days Jesus said and did things that challenged and offended the powerful elites of Jerusalem and of Rome, and they arranged for what they thought would be his destruction. By Friday the crowds who'd shouted "Hosanna" on Sunday were shouting "crucify him", and his disciples fled in terror and grief. But on the following Sunday, on Easter, God proved that the powerful elites of this world do not have the last word. On Easter Sunday God has the last word, raising Jesus from the dead, and raising us with him.
The journey through Holy Week begins with the triumph of human adulation and takes us through a meal of healing love, to betrayal, abandonment, suffering, grief and despair. and finally, to God's ultimate triumph in the resurrection. Wherever life has taken you, may you find hope and strength for the journey in reflecting on these events of Jesus' final journey. May God use Holy Week to lead you to greater wholeness.