John 12:20,21,23,26 (NRSV) What Happened Tuesday?
Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. They came to Philip…and said to him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus” …Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Whoever serves me must follow me….”
Jeremiah 15:10, 15 (NRSV)
Woe is me, my mother, that you ever bore me, a man of strife and contention to the whole land! I have not lent, nor have I borrowed, yet all of them curse me…. O Lord, …remember me and visit me, and bring down retribution for me on my persecutors…. know that on your account I suffer insult.
Devotion
Today is Tuesday of Holy Week. Holy Week was an exciting time. On Palm Sunday, as throngs of cheering admirers lined the roads, Jesus made his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, fresh from raising Lazarus from the dead. On Monday he drove the money changers out of the temple.[1] On Thursday Jesus arranged for the Passover meal which would start at sunset. Overnight he was betrayed, arrested, taken before the high priest, dragged before Pontius Pilate, mocked, whipped, and forced to carry his own cross while wearing a crown of thorns. Friday afternoon he died the most agonizing death imaginable. We remember all this with wonder.
But what about Tuesday and Wednesday? What did Jesus do then? He did what he always did. He taught, both his disciples and gentiles who came to see him from far away. And what did he think, knowing that he was to die. Did he think of himself as Jeremiah did, that it would be better not to have been born? No. While he wished the cup of death could be taken from him, he was prepared to accept his Father’s will. We don’t know what he thought on those intervening days. What we do know is that he taught, and he accepted.
What can we learn from this on our own journey toward the cross? Perhaps that we must be steadfast in the face of calamity, even in the realization that we shall die. We may hope for an easier death than Jesus, but death is certain. When we face death, we should continue to do what we have always done because we should always be doing our Father’s will.
Prayer
Almighty God, help us to live each day as though it were our last, knowing that beyond the cross lies the resurrection and eternal life.
Linton Brooks
[1] John sets the money changer incident in an earlier visit to Jerusalem, not recorded by the other three evangelists.