The week before Easter, known as Holy Week, is as important to us as Christmas in that the baby Jesus we welcome at Christmas is now going to the cross and resurrection as our Lord and Saviour.
From Palm Sunday (last Sunday) to Easter Sunday, Christians remember the journey that Jesus made from arriving in Jerusalem through to the Passover Meal he shared with his disciples, his trial and suffering that led to his crucifixion on Good Friday and his glorious resurrection on Easter morning.
The attitude of the Jewish people who welcomed Jesus into Jerusalem by waving palm branches as a sign of their respect for their Messiah, changed dramatically during the next days as many were incited by the Roman government and Jewish community leaders to plot against Jesus and to get rid of him, because he was teaching the people to live better lives of faith and hope.
Jesus’ teaching and example of prayer, trust in God, healing and sharing faith, went against the leaders’ want to have control over the people, to keep them in poverty and under authority and ignoring the loving God of salvation.
Many people were weak and easily convinced that Jesus was a trouble-maker and so he was cruelly punished and hung upon a cross to die.
But this was not the end. Jesus died for the sins of humanity, but the truth was in his resurrection from the dead so that humanity could share in the glory of eternal life with him.
Please take time this week to remember what a wonderful gift of life Jesus has given to us.
~ Contributed by Rev Wayne Sheean of St Paul’s Anglican Church, on behalf of the Combined Churches of Deniliquin.
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