Daily Office Reflection: The World Has Gone After Him

MONDAY OF HOLY WEEK

Psalms 51:1-18(19-20) * Psalm 69:1-23; Jeremiah 12:1-16; Philippians 3:1-14; John 12:9-19

The Gospel writer John gives Jesus no voice in this section of the Gospel. The crowds greeting Jesus, singing praises and yelling Hosanna are given voice. And the Pharisees are given voice saying "You see, you can do nothing. Look, the world has gone after him!" I'm not sure if this is prescient or wishful thinking or griping. Perhaps a bit of each.

Not one of those people greeting Jesus, nor his disciples following along with him, nor the leadership of Jerusalem understood who this guy on the colt of the donkey embodied: or to what torture and then new life he was headed. We are still trying to understand, figure out, allay doubt, believe, who that guy on the donkey colt was and is. And that is okay. It is part of our journey on Holy Week to walk beside Jesus and try and figure this out as best we can, to believe as best we can. The miracle, and the mystery, of our faith is that we can have those doubts, not be able to figure out, struggle to understand, raise an eyebrow to our desire to believe, and yet still have faith that in following along after Jesus, we are doing exactly the right thing. And in that following we are leading the whole world along with us.

Faith is a funny thing. All empirical evidence may point us in one direction, and yet our faith says, nope, our hope is that way. This Monday of Holy Week, listen for the faith-voice to point you toward the path that Jesus trod, and take a step on that road.

jfd+

Copyright 2011, The Rev. John F. D wyer. All Rights Reserved.

Photo: Magnolia Blossom at Cathedral College, 2006, jfd+