This is Holy Week: the climax of the Christian year. During Holy Week we walk with Jesus from the day he entered Jerusalem until the morning he rises from the dead. In the process we experience Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday.
This seven day journey gets quite a detailed description in the Bible. John spends 45% of his account of Jesus' life on just these seven days. Mark devotes 38% of his Gospel to these final events. Holy Week is very important to the Gospel writers. It is clearly the main event of the Jesus story.
Holy Week begins with Jesus riding into the city on Palm Sunday as a hero. Five days later those same crowds are screaming for his death.
We hamans are fickle. We turn on our heroes. We often behave badly.
The Bible teaches that human beings were created in the image of God, but soon became flawed and sinful. We humans have great capacity for good, but equally great capacity for evil. We sometimes operate at our best, but often lapse into behavior that represents our worst.
David was a great man of God who also committed adultery and murder. Peter was the leader of the Jerusalem Church but also denied Jesus three times. Solomon was the wisest man who ever lived, but foolishly followed false gods. The people we read about in the Bible were amazingly schizophrenic. They had good days and bad days. They sometimes got it right, and often got it wrong.
And you have the same problem. Your tongue praises God one moment and gossips the next. Your mind thinks inspiring thoughts one day, but is closed and bigoted the next. Your hands may be helpful and generous in some contexts and greedy in others. This is the human condition.
One of the tasks of Holy Week is to ponder these things. So, here are some questions to think about in the days leading up to Easter:
1. In what ways am I hypocritical and deviate from my personal beliefs?
2. In what ways do I betray my God?
3. In what areas of life am I sinning?
4. Where am I wandering from the path?
5. How am I out of control?
Share one area of spiritual inconsistency in your life.
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I know that one area that I find myself "out of control" is how I react negatively to my ex-husband- and what he wants in this life for his son. I find that because he does not have a strong Faith foundation, I feel that this gives me the right to talk about him wrongly - (Not in front of my son!)- but with my husband. I need to pray for him much more than I do now. This will always be an area that I struggle with.
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