LENTEN REFLECTION from our Team Curate, Rev Hannah Lane

LENT, Team Curate's Newsletter, Worship

REFLECTION
This week our Lenten journey starts to draw to a close as we hear of Jesus’ triumphant
entry into Jerusalem. It is a strange Sunday really. We’ve spent the last few weeks in a
state of penitence and now we bear witness to a triumphant entry, but in the full
knowledge of what is to come on Good Friday.

Our Palm and Passion gospels may leave us with more questions than answers when we
examine them closely…
Firstly as we hear of Jesus’s not-so-quiet entry into the city, his intentions are clear to all
around. He is known. His work of ministry has been well documented across the land
and people come out in droves to welcome this man, the messiah. But, witness such as
this can be – and in Jesus’ case, most certainly is – costly. As the tales go on, we hear
how the disciples scattered and left him. I wonder, how do we let others know that our
intention is to be and remain a disciple of Jesus? How do we demonstrate this? But
crucially, what is the cost and are we prepared to pay it?
Maybe you have bigger questions about this whole narrative. How do you feel about
Jesus making such a triumphal entry into Jerusalem? What do you think about the pomp
and circumstance, the courting of adoration? How does this square up with the image of
‘Gentle Jesus, meek and mild’, which some of us were taught in the past? Which is the
real Jesus? Perhaps we need a shift in perspective. Jesus’ procession was not a show of
power or military might that the Romans then, or any nation today, might wish to
portray. The adoration of the crowd seems to have been spontaneous rather than
incited. What was it about Jesus that invited this response?
The main questions that we should leave with today though is where do I see myself in
all this, and how does my life reflect that? Am I amongst the crowd that then drops
away? Am I one of the disciples that scatters as things get tough? Am I able to go back
to Jesus and say ‘I have sinned and denied you, please forgive me’? We alone can
answer those.
Rev Hannah