It’s finally Holy Week. Lent is over. In our church calendar, Jesus has processed into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey. The scene is set. Today is the final pause before the beginning of the Passion. Tomorrow is Spy Wednesday, or the day that the church remembers the betrayal by Judas and celebrates the Tenebrae service.
In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus, once again, predicts his own death—and this time, he’s met with a voice from heaven. In his teaching to the crowd, Jesus reminds his followers that this whole purpose for coming to earth was for the moment of his crucifixion. He came to earth so that “the ruler of this world will be driven out” and he can draw all people unto himself.
I think there are two other interesting details from this reading—we’ve seen earlier in the Gospels that Jesus (at least at first) would tell those who were “Greeks” that it was not yet time for them. Perhaps one of the most baffling stories to modern ears is that of the Syrophoenician woman that was recently in the Daily Office readings. But here, instead, we’re told that some Greeks came to His disciples, and they allowed them to hear Christ’s message of his coming crucifixion and redemption of the whole world.
Second, Jesus tells his disciples that they have just a little longer with the light of the world. Tomorrow, in the church’s celebration of the Tenebrae service, the lights are extinguished one by one as Jesus makes his way to the events of the last supper and the long night before the Crucifixion on Good Friday.
Jesus made death into life. Let’s remember his sacrifice as we prepare to conclude our journey to Resurrection Day.
Matthew Taylor
Links to the appointed readings and prayer for today:
