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.
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Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky.
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In each scene I noticed footprints in the sand.
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Sometimes there were two sets of footprints,
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other times there were one set of footprints.
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This bothered me because I noticed
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that during the low periods of my life,
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when I was suffering from
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anguish, sorrow or defeat,
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I could see only one set of footprints.
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So I said to the Lord,
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"You promised me Lord,
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that if I followed you,
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you would walk with me always.
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But I have noticed that during
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the most trying periods of my life
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there have only been one
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set of footprints in the sand.
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Why, when I needed you most,
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you have not been there for me?"
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The Lord replied,
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"The times when you have
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is when I carried you."
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Let us pray …. Lord, may we always remember in our journey that you are with us. AMEN
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