Skip to main content

Journeying with Jesus

This week that we are entering what could be called the ultimate week ! This week, holy week when we remember Jesus’ journey to the cross we will go through a journey of emotions. I don’t know about you but it seems as if Lent has only just started and now here we are going into the final week of it.

I remember a number of years ago coming across a picture of someone walking on a beach in the sand with footsteps next to them. There were words written across which said – Holy week – walking with Jesus.

To be honest we are always walking with Jesus, or at least we should always be trying to walk with Jesus but in this week as we hear all the readings so we journey with Jesus.

Someone said to me the other day that as we are Christians everything is always a journey. It was a throw away comment but actually we are on a journey. We are journeying with Jesus, walking with Him and the joy is that in any of our sorrows we are walking with the One who has walked this way before and who will never leave us.  

The week begins with Jesus being welcomed into Jerusalem,hailed as a King with people praising Him and finding anything that they can to welcome Him. I always think of this as a very noisy time. 

It could almost be like a long journey with lots of children who are very excited at first, noisy but enjoying themselves. Then, they get bored, tired, fed up as the journey goes on.

It is like us, when things are going well we are ready to be full of rejoicing and praise for God. When everything is good all we want to do is smile but then as life gets more difficult so we find it harder to praise God. Then we start to need to pray even more, to seek God’s strength even more.  We are on a journey.

In our epistle reading (Phil.2:5-11) we heard of the ways that Jesus gave up all His glory, and all the people praising Him so that He could die for us. Our holy week journey moves from rejoicing to pain as we come towards Maundy Thursday, the night when Jesus was arrested and then of course Good Friday when we remember Jesus’ death on a cross.

This part of the journey is the difficult times in our lives, the times when we find it hard to praise God. We are on a journey, we are walking with Jesus and the great news is that at the end of this week of drama we will be able to praise again and to rejoice as we think of Jesus’ resurrection. It’s going to be a long and emotional journey, it will be a journey when we are not only walking with Jesus but He is walking with us.

To walk through this week is to remember both all that God has done for us and keeps doing for us.

I want to finish with a very well known reflection which will help us on our journey not just this week but always.

The reflection written by a young girl called Mary Stevenson in 1936  is Footprints…


One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord.
Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky.
In each scene I noticed footprints in the sand.
Sometimes there were two sets of footprints,
other times there were one set of footprints.

This bothered me because I noticed
that during the low periods of my life,
when I was suffering from
anguish, sorrow or defeat,
I could see only one set of footprints.

So I said to the Lord,
"You promised me Lord,
that if I followed you,
you would walk with me always.
But I have noticed that during
the most trying periods of my life
there have only been one
set of footprints in the sand.
Why, when I needed you most,
you have not been there for me?"

The Lord replied,
"The times when you have
seen only one set of footprints,
is when I carried you."


Let us pray …. Lord, may we always remember in our journey that you are with us. AMEN


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Characters around the cross reflection

Today I want to think about some of the characters involved around the cross. Some played important and good roles, others were those who turned on Jesus, and sought to hurt him. I want to begin with a short reflection about Jesus written by Gregory of Nazianzus, A.D. 381 “Who was Jesus? He began His ministry by being hungry, yet He is the Bread of Life. Jesus ended His earthly ministry by being thirsty, yet He is the Living Water. Jesus was weary, yet He is our rest. Jesus paid tribute, yet He is the King. Jesus was accused of having a demon, yet He cast out demons. Jesus wept, yet He wipes away our tears. Jesus was sold for thirty pieces of silver, yet He redeemed the world. Jesus was brought as a lamb to the slaughter, yet He is the Good Shepherd. Jesus died, yet by His death He destroyed the power of death.” The Power of Numbers...The Crowd Mark 11:1-10 : When they were approaching Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany, near the Mount of Olives, he sent tw...
Post a Comment
Read more

Marriage thanksgiving

Today we have dedicated this service to giving thanks for the gift of marriage… All of us I’m sure will join with me in offering prayers to ask God to continue to bless married couples everywhere, but marriage itself can never be taken in a vacuum. The Bible tells us and human nature dictates that actually we are all part of a much bigger family, married, unmarried, old or young, and as such each of us have commitments to each other. And that commitment must surely be to love… If you have a sense of humour, and I’m sure you all do (!) you may like to hear some of the things the Bible says about love in marriage. In the book of Genesis (29:20) we read that Jacob worked for seven years for Laban to earn the right to marry Laban’s daughter, Rachel. We’re told that the 7 years of work seemed to him just like a few days because he loved her so much! He worked seven years for her father so that he could marry her. I am tempted to say he had it bad! Moving on a little, The Song of Songs in ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Philemon!

  We don’t often hear readings from Paul’s letter to Philemon—and that’s largely because we’ve just heard almost the entire letter this morning. It’s one of the shortest books in the Bible, but it’s packed with meaning and challenge, as well as grace. Paul wrote from house arrest in Rome to Philemon, a wealthy Christian in Colossae. Philemon’s slave, Onesimus, had fled to Rome and there, he encountered Paul and was led to faith in Jesus. Now Paul writes to ask Philemon to receive Onesimus back - not as a slave, but as a brother in Christ. And Paul doesn’t just ask - he offers to pay back any debt that Onesimus owes.  There are several themes that rise from this short letter. First, the issue of slavery. It’s troubling to us of course, and rightly so. Though it was accepted in Paul’s time, we know that no one should ever be owned by another. And tragically, slavery still exists today - in forced labour, human trafficking, and exploitation. But the gospel speaks into this. It pr...
Post a Comment
Read more