Holy Week Wednesday - Remembered

Recently with an online gathering of friends, we discussed some of our ancestors and how we remember them. In some cases it was our own experiences with our ancestors (like the grandfather and his practical jokes) and other times it was the stories passed down to us. There was the adventure of the two brothers who had once been tried for murder (and acquitted), possible American Indian relations, tales of traveling on foot or wagon to new towns. We remembered the ancestors who fought is past wars, both for the winning sides and for the losing sides. The lawman who gave his life for his community. The ancestors who farmed land that later became part of one of the largest cemeteries in the region, and who were buried in the land they had once farmed. 

We then talked of how we might be remembered by our grandchildren and their grandchildren when they see our faces in the old pictures, or carry-on the stories that have been passed down.

On what may have been the Wednesday of Holy Week we have a story of Jesus returning to Bethany for a meal with his friends. During the meal, a woman came into the room and anointed him with an expensive perfume.  If this sounds familiar to our Saturday story (the one John tells us in his account of the Gospel), it may be the same incident placed at a later time during the week by Matthew and Mark, or it may be a similar but separate meal and anointing (middle Eastern writers often wrote thematically rather than chronologically).

In either case, Jesus responded with grace to her act of sacrifice for him.  

“She has done a beautiful thing to me...She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.” (Mark 14:6,8-9)

We may not know the name of this woman, but we remember what she did. She is remembered every time we tell the story of Jesus.

Holy Week Tuesday - Stones

“Some of Jesus’ disciples were remarking about how the temple was adorned with beautiful stones and with gifts dedicated to God. But Jesus said, “As for what you see here, the time will come when not one stone will be left on another; every one of them will be thrown down” (Luke 21:5-6).

Back in 2017 we had the opportunity to visit the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. We stood near the base of the temple complex, walking alongside and touching the great foundation stones that were placed to support the platform on which Temple stood.

We also were later able to walk on the Temple platform itself, seeing the buildings and mosques built many years, decades, centuries after the Temple was destroyed.

The stones that provide the foundation that supported the Temple are still there for us to see. As for the Temple itself, as Jesus had said, not one stone of the Temple He and the disciples saw was left standing, and the rubble was later removed and newer places built.

On that Holy Tuesday, Jesus didn’t just speak of the soon-to-come loss of the Temple. He also taught his disciples about being wise and preparing for the final days. He taught them to be faithful to God and to what God was entrusting to them. Jesus taught his followers to take care of the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the needy, the sick, the prisoner. Jesus gave of himself for his followers to build on His foundation. 

A foundation that would last long after the teachings of the leaders of that time had crumbled.

“For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 3:11).

Holy Week Monday - Burdens

Remember, “two weeks to flatten the curve”? That was 55 weeks ago.

One of the images I recall that, for me, symbolize the change this brought on us is this one. Celebrating our granddaughter’s birthday via a technology few of us had ever heard of before March 2020. Zoom.

And what about Easter 2020? Skipped, Zoomed, Live-streamed. If ever there was a year that we needed Easter it was 2020. Perhaps that is why when Christmas-time approached after months of “flattening the curve”, so many began celebrating with decorations many weeks in advance. We longed for joy and for the times when it easier to approach each other and to celebrate our Lord and Savior.

When Jesus entered the temple on the Monday before Passover he saw the selling of lambs and doves for the sacrifice, and the exchanging foreign currency for the local Temple currency. The area of the temple for this activity was dedicated for non-Jewish followers of God to worship. And it was through this section that the Jewish followers of God had to pass to reach the courts closer to the Temple.  What Jesus saw was an activity that while perhaps intended to help the public, was putting up obstacles, putting burdens on them as they sought to worship God.

Jesus said to us, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30).

Are our choices, expectations, requirements creating obstacles to God? Or are we helping make the burdens light?

Palm Sunday - Gratitude

Often when we look at the beginning of Holy Week, Palm Sunday, we look at Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. What it must have been like to see that. The cheering crowds, followers of Jesus, praising him and laying down their cloaks and palm leaves along the path of the donkey on which the Son of God rode. I wonder what was in their hearts:  Awe, admiration, love, ambition maybe, perhaps thanksgiving for the coming of the king they longed for.

In some ways, the start of this Holy Week for Jesus began not just on that first day of the week, but the evening before at a dinner held in his honor in the nearby town of Bethany. Bethany was the home of Jesus’ close friends, Lazarus, Martha and Mary. The same Lazarus that Jesus had recently raised from the dead. The same Martha who often opened her home and served Jesus, and had confessed to him, “I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.” The same Mary who listened at Jesus’ feet.  

This time Mary did more than listen. John tells us, “Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.”

Mary was grateful for what Jesus had done for her brother and for their family. This act of kindness, or as Jesus put it, a precursor to the preparation for his soon to come burial, was not appreciated by all. Judas criticized what he saw as a waste of resources.

We should certainly help the poor, and using some of what we have to show gratitude to our Lord is always appropriate, too.

The next day, in the midst of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem with the praises of his followers, their gratitude was also criticized. “Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!”

Gratitude shows up in different ways:  An act of sacrificial kindness, spoken words, simple gestures of love. 

Once my daughter, young at the time, saw me coming into a restaurant for a reunion after being away for awhile. She ran to me and jumped into my arms, grateful we were together again. It didn’t matter who was watching or what others may have thought. She wanted to show her love for her Dad.

I pray I will always be ready to be thankful and show my love, no matter who is watching or what may be said.

“I thank my God every time I remember you.” Philippians 1:3