Here we are on Palm Sunday, the "gateway to Holy Week," and the liturgy of the Mass seems strange or jarring. One minute we're hailing Jesus as the Messiah while singing All Glory Laud and Honour and the next shouting out Crucify Him!, as we hear the Passion. It's as though we've been catapulted, in mood, from Easter to Good Friday. But of course we understand the connection.
Christ's kingship as the anointed holy one of God rests upon the Cross, his throne from which he establishes sovereignty over sin and death. He could, in that week leading up to his death, have chosen worldly power; the temptations in the wilderness surely returned with demonic intensity.
Stones to bread? Yes indeed, literal bread for himself and the world, to say nothing of spiritual bread in the form of the righteous wisdom he could have given from the gleaming, thunderstruck fastness of Mount Zion.
Instead of being scourged and nailed to a cross by Roman soldiers he could have ordered the angelic host to his defense, lest he dash his foot against a stone. And the kingdoms of the world? His for the asking, with all the glories therein.
Christ says no to this and by extension to the Devil himself. He follows a different path, the way of the Cross. What qualities took him there? Humility, for sure. He emptied himself, taking the form of a servant or slave, even to an agonizing, shameful death. Likewise obedience.
Recall the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus prays that the chalice of suffering and death would be taken from him, but he continues, "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass away from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou willest." (Matt. 26:39) This utterly faithful submission to the Father's will takes him to Golgotha, where he lays down his life in a perfect act of love for the forgiveness of our sin.
Humble, obedient, loving faith. The way of the Cross and the way to the empty tomb and everlasting life. It comes at a cost, obviously, but consider the reward, the green pastures of paradise.
I pray we're given the courage, by the grace of God, to acknowledge Christ as our King and follow him through the "grave and gate of death" to eternal life.
God Bless,
LSP
8 comments:
They're not making many of those shoes. You'd think they'd be a big seller.
I pray we're given the courage, by the grace of God, to acknowledge Christ as our King and follow him through the "grave and gate of death" to eternal life.
Yes
Kid, I'm glad I'm not a member of the design/pr committee that approved those sneakers, or the board which approved them.
Satan has a way of claiming his own.
Such a powerful week, Adrienne.
God bless you.
Parson, I still don't understand Luke 10:18, which you've quoted before. I understand Satan's fall from Heaven, but "as lightning"? Does it just mean swift, rapid "at the speed of light", or am I missing something?
All of that, drjim. And cast down in electric fury.
Thank you, Parson.
As an "Electrical Guy", it has added meaning now.
Well, that's it for Nike for me, from here on.
I lack sufficient vocabulary to think of the word or words that would describe how arrogantly bankrupt of morals it must be to have thought up a design like that, to have approved it, to have a picture of one's self taken with it, never mind to hijack the meaning of the scripture for profit. I can't even conceive of sitting on the line when those came thru, and not running screaming for the door. "Get thee behind me, Satan."
To have sold one's soul for a pair of sneakers, when the entire world was available. How embarrassing it must be to have negotiated that poor exchange. I wonder if he even knows.....
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