Have I been paying attention well? The events of our daily lives all week draw and demand our attention. Our schedules become filled to the brim with things to do, and really it's an inconvenience to our modern culture to take part in Holy Week, or to simply pay deeper attention.Yet it is what we need to do more than anything this week.
The journey through these days demand our attention as well. Jesus enters Jerusalem riding a colt on Palm Sunday. What does that mean? He enters the temple the next day, and overturns the money changers' tables. What does that mean? The following day, Mary empties her bottle of expensive ointment for Jesus, creating a beautiful moment. Then, the last supper and Jesus washing the disciples' feet takes place on Maundy Thursday, leading up to the darkest events of Good Friday.
When we ask ourselves what these things mean, we look more deeply into the meaning behind the actions. When we spend some time in these events, we begin to look at ourselves and ask - what am I going to do about it?
We have this advantage of looking back to the story from our place in time, already knowing what happens, and when the journey to get to Easter is forgotten, we are left with an empty celebration that never journeyed through pain and darkness.
My prayer has been to not jump from Palm Sunday to Easter, but to be in each day this week, knowing what happened every day leading to Easter. There is sorrow waiting there, and sadness, darkness, and doubt. But here is where we can see where Jesus relates to us always. He experienced all these things, just as we do sometimes.
Then, on Easter morning we can truly rejoice and sing " He is risen!" with a joy-filled spirit because we have journeyed through the darkness and into the light of His resurrection! And a whole New Creation has begun!
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