Holy Week
“ His disciples did not understand these things at first…” John 12:16a
Each year we come to this season where it is a conglomerate of things to come. It seems like this season gets busier and busier each year due to what is to come. It starts the warm weather, the sun gets up earlier and settles later, the birds are chirping all day long, the play time seems to increase more and more, Baseball is back in full swing, The NFL draft is coming up shortly, Hockey season is winding into the playoffs, March Madness is just about to end and best of all, its Masters Week. Throw in the new practices, game schedules, play practices, recitals and school winding down…you have the making of just a season of chaos….and it happens all within a month time!
But what about Easter…..you know that time we come to each year to remember and celebrate the man Jesus that sacrificed himself on a tree for you and for me?
Where does that fit in to the schedule?
Coming in to this Holy Week, I personally feel the burn of busyness. I am reminded by the to do list and tempers flaring at home. But is this what Holy Week should be like? Is this how we should remember the sacrifice?
The disciples probably felt the same way. These men and the women that were taking care of them and with them always are walking into the last week of Jesus’ life, not knowing what is to come, not knowing what their responses would be, and for sure not knowing what Jesus was about to do.
In John chapter 12, we see all sorts of things that are going in Jesus’ life – there is a plot thickening to kill him, there is a plot to kill Lazarus( a man that Jesus just rose from the dead ), Jesus is anointed with oil at Bethany the day before he is to arrive into Jerusalem to begin the long agonizing walk to his death, and then we find Jesus talking with both Jews and Greeks during a feast:
” Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: ” I have glorified it and I will glorify it again.” The crowd stood there and hear it said and it had thundered. Others said, ” an angel has spoken to him.” Jesus answered, ” This voice has come for your sake, not mine. Now is the judgement of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And I when I am lifted up from the earth will draw all people to myself. He said this to show by what kid of death he was going to die. So the crowd answered him, ” we have heard from the Law that the Christ remains forever. How can you say that the son of Man bmust be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?” So Jesus said to them, ” The light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.” John 12: 27-36 esv
Holy Week leads to a heaviness of soul for Jesus.
The first line in this section shows how ever-present Jesus is to the situation or people that are around him, all the while continuing to be present and prayerful with his Heavenly Father. Jesus’ soul was troubled in this moment, probably due to the coming pain and suffering that he would endure for not just the people that are surrounding him now, but also all that come after them. Jesus’ soul was troubled because not only was he preparing the people around him for his death and giving them instruction, he had to convince them that what is saying is true. Jesus is a masterful teacher and when we think about Jesus’ teaching in the sermon on the mount when Jesus says seek first the kingdom of heaven and then here in John 12 Jesus says, ‘ walk while you have the light with you, so that you do not fall into darkness’.
Holy Week leads Jesus to his human side a lot.
The primary illustration of Jesus asking God to take this cup away from him is in Luke 22, but here in John 12, we see another instance where Jesus is crying to his heavenly father to take this away from him. How many times have we asked that of God?
God, take this fight with my spouse away…
God, take this problem at work away….
God, take this hard task of parenting a pre-teen away…
God, take my sorrow away…
God, show up in a way I don’t expect….
God, take this cup away from me…
Jesus though, knows that this is the reason that he is here. This is the reason that Jesus was sent to this earth. Jesus knows the Holy week leads to the purpose of him being away from his Father. So not only does Jesus walk back his prayer with ‘ Father, glorify your name.’ God tells Him, “I have glorified it, and I will again.” What if we received an answer from God from the heavens when we prayed those prayers of desperation or of need?
Holy Week leads to responding to the Light.
Jesus says, the light is only here for a little while longer….so stick with that light unless you want the darkness of the day to overtake you. Stay with the light so that you may become a son of light when the light is gone.
Holy week can be our response to the light that is betrayed, tried, beaten, mocked, and dragged up to a rock shaped like a skull where the light is hung on the tree for you and me and the light goes out…….
This is just the beginning…of Holy Week and what our response could be to the light.