From Mennonite Church USA & Mennonite Church Canada Lenten resources
This week’s theme: Deep in the current: Called to deep hope
This week’s Scriptures: Isaiah 50:4-9a | Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29 | John 12:12-16 | Philippians 2:5-11
As we follow Jesus into Holy Week, we sense the rush of the crowds and seek the deep, steady current of God’s steadfast love, calling us to deep hope in the One who comes in the name of the Lord.
As Jesus rides into Jerusalem in John’s telling of the Palm Sunday story, we feel the pull of seemingly competing currents. There’s the pull of the crowds and their lofty expectations, the lack of understanding of the disciples, and the inevitability of the journey to the cross, which we follow through Holy Week. The path Jesus began will carry him to garden, trial, hill and tomb. As competing expectations swirl on the surface, what is the deeper current that carries Jesus along? How do we identify the movement of God even in the urgent pace of life? The hymn in Philippians and the rejected cornerstone of Psalm 118 draw us into what is deeper, a steady current to give us hope that closed tombs are never the final word of the story.
Through the current of the crowd, Jesus came. The shouts swelled, blurred and hurried, but he remained calm. It is easy to be swept up in a changing current. May we see the current for what it is and be centered in deep hope. Go in the knowledge that the current of the crowd was not the end of the story, but led to a new beginning. May hope in the kingdom of God be with you always. Amen.