Wednesday Wonder

“Gratitude keeps you grounded. Hope keeps you moving.” (Cheryl Sutherland)

We are now in the middle of what the Church calls Holy Week. It is that time between Palm Sunday and Easter morning. During this week we have Maundy Thursday, which reminds us of Jesus washing the feet of his disciples before having his final meal with them. He emphasizes being a servant. He wants his disciples to be ready to serve after he is gone.

Holy Week also contains Good Friday. It is the most solemn day of the year for followers of Jesus, the Christ. It is the day that we remember his actual suffering and death. Many people avoid Good Friday services because, as I have been told, “It’s too depressing.” That is sort of the point. If we think of it this way, imagine how the disciples and the women who travelled with Jesus during his ministry felt!

The quote above made me think about Good Friday. We know the end of the story. We know that Friday is not the end, but just an in between time. It is in between gratitude and hope.

On Palm Sunday we celebrate the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. It seems that everything is going his way. People are choosing to come and celebrate him as Messiah, rather than going to the other side of the city to welcome the Roman governor. This is choosing God’s love over Roman warrior empire. There is so much hope for the disciples and other followers of Jesus that day.

I am sure that as Jesus and his inner circle gathered at the end of the day, there was much gratitude for his reception and much hope that despite what Jesus has said about his future, everything is going to work out okay.

As the days go by, Jesus continues to ground his disciples in gratitude. He wants them to be grateful for the service he is doing, the love he is giving. He wants them to see hope, even as he knows they are going to struggle to find either of these in the days and weeks to come. Jesus is grateful to have had time with them. Jesus has hope in them for the future of the ministries they will be called to do.

Ultimately, Good Friday will arrive. Gratitude and hope will be in short supply for the followers of Jesus. It would seem that power and might have overcome love.

Jesus is willing to give everything he is to show that love will triumph in the end. How difficult for his followers to understand that in his giving, is his power.

“Sacrificial love is unconditional love of the other, even the enemy.” (George R. Brunk III) Jesus is the true example of this. His sacrifice showed the love that God has for each of us. This gives us hope. It should also inspire gratitude. It hopefully also inspires us to live with hope and gratitude giving of ourselves.

This is where Holy Week leads us. To the cross and to hope. Because we know the end of the story, we live in hope for Easter morning.

Until then, may we consider all that Jesus did and gave, all that he taught and how he lived. And as the sun rises on Easter morning, may we consider how he lives. For he lives in us.