This is Holy Week – one of the most special opportunities for spiritual reflection during the year. It began on Palm Sunday which commemorates the procession of Jesus into Jerusalem amid cheers and cries of, “Hosanna!”. In just two days we will have Good Friday, which commemorates Jesus being betrayed and taken before the crowd amid ridicule and cries of, “Crucify Him!”
At the beginning of this week, I had a dear friend who shared with me his biggest struggle about the Biblical events of Holy Week. He said that he just couldn’t believe that people would change that quickly in their actions against Jesus. To be cheering for Him in one moment and calling out for His death in the next.
It does seem inconceivable. How can people love a person and just a few days later come to despise him?
But as I wrestled with this, a different question came to me. How can anyone who falls to a state where they are betrayed and despised, still love the same people? How could Jesus see the people cheering one moment and then screaming at him just a few days later? How could Jesus be betrayed and denied, beaten and forsaken, humiliated and crucified – and then cry out, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”
Jesus could continue to love all of those people because He is Emmanuel, God with us. God came to be with us in the example of Christ to show us that nothing would change His love for us.
Nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. This Holy Week reveals that truth over and over. Take time this week to remember Christ’s incredible love for you – and then have a wonderful Resurrection Sunday!
