Monday
Matthew 21.4-5 “This took place to fulfil what was spoken through the prophet: “Say to Daughter Zion, ‘See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’”
A humble king demonstrating soft power. We don’t associate gentleness and power. The word Matthew uses is often translated meek; but that word is also used of the ox harnessed to a plough, and so means strength harnessed to purpose. Jesus comes to Jerusalem with strength and purpose. Here he will confront the powers that be, from religious authorities who fear him, to a Roman Governor who pities him.
Tuesday
Matthew 21.12-13 “Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.”
Strength harnessed to purpose, remember? Money-making in the holy place; the noise of bartering and selling and the clinking of shekels drowns out the psalm singing and the prayers. Those tables stand for all the business and busyness that leaves no time or space for God in our lives – and they should be overturned!
Wednesday
Matthew 21.15-16 “But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple courts, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they were indignant. “Do you hear what these children are saying?” they asked him. “Yes,” replied Jesus, “have you never read, “‘From the lips of children and infants you, Lord, have called forth your praise’?”
One way or another, the vice jaws of power will crush the upstart Nazarene. WE now read the story knowing how it will end. The signs are ominous. Those who have the power to prosecute (Chief priests) and execute (Pilate) are already moving into place. And Jesus denies nothing. Instead he says the children simply shout the truth. Holy Week is about the confrontation of truth with power, the truth of who God is confronts the truth of what human beings are capable of.
Thursday
Matthew 26.26 “While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying “Take, and eat; this is my body.”
The simplicity of the action is completely normal, but made emotionally stunning; its meaning heart-breaking as it dawns on his disciples. Jesus knows this is the last meal he will share with them. Then the wine, “This is my blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sin.” When we take communion, we replay the reality of those words, real then, real now, for us.
Friday
Matthew 27.31-2 “After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him. As they were going out, they met a man from Cyrene, named Simon, and they forced him to carry the cross. They came to a place called Golgotha (which means “the place of the skull”).
No matter how often we read this story, it touches deep into who we are, and what we believe about God. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son.” Unlike Simon who had no choice but to carry someone else’s cross, Jesus calls us to take up the cross and follow him. “Were the whole realm of nature mine that were an offering far too small. Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.”
Saturday
Matthew 27.59-60 “Joseph of Arimathea took Jesus’ body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away.”
Silence. It is finished. Nothing is happening. Hope is extinguished. The rock thuds into place. What now? Holy Saturday is the day that seems to last forever. Twenty four hours in which the whole creation groaned, awaiting its redemption. The darkness that fell on Golgotha has deepened, inside and outside the grave. Death has won, the powers that be get their way. They always do. Unless…No, “It is finished.”
Sunday
Matthew 28.5-6 “The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.”
Ah, now it is finished! The unfolding drama of redemption comes to its climax in front of an audience of the two Marys and a couple of Roman soldiers knocked senseless by events a universe outside their experience! Life is let loose, and has invaded and conquered the darkest prisons of death. This is a world where resurrection has happened, where love and life and light can finally and fully eclipse hate and death and darkness. “Thine be the glory, risen conquering son.”
Leave a Reply