Lent

We are now well into the Lent period and between now and Holy Week we will journey with Christ towards Jerusalem. In Luke 9:51 we find the gospel writer reflecting on Christ’s attitude as he faced the result of his preaching truth. We read, “Now as the time drew near for him to be taken up to heaven, he resolutely took the road for Jerusalem.” Note this is only chapter 9 of 24  found in the gospel, yet the die seems already cast. 

Of this verse, Dr Shiela Cassidy who had faced her own arrest and torture at the hands of the Chilean authorities for treating a revolutionary, says “Luke gives a vivid picture of Jesus outspoken teaching on justice and the increasing hostility of the Jewish elders.” In her book Good Friday People, Dr Cassidy quotes Archbishop Romero’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech:

“The words of the prophets of Israel still hold true for us: there bare those who would sell a just man for money and a poor man for a pair of sandals. There are those who fill their houses with violence, fill their houses with what they have stolen.  There are those who crush the poor…..while lying on beds of the most exquisite marble.”

Yet didn’t Jesus also say, “he has sent me to bring good news to the poor, freedom to captives, to bind up hearts that are broken and to set the downtrodden free.” Surely this is the essence of Christ’s resolute journey towards Jerusalem.

In the Middle East today, split between Jews and Palestinians, travellers  must be careful what stamp they allow on their passport. At some frontiers tourists are in trouble if they are seen as being friendly with the enemy. Jesus met that attitude in his own time. The Samaritans rejected his party because they saw them as pilgrims going to the Temple which they hated. The disciples were furious and wanted revenge. Jesus said No.

This begs the question, how resolute are we on our Lenten journey towards Jerusalem?

Master of all, great and small, we thank you for your people.

We praise you for the courage of apostles and martyrs for those who shine like beacons in dark and troubled lands. Seize our hearts, we beg, and set fire to them, that we too may resolutely cast your light upon the road to Jerusalem. Amen