WHO IS THIS?

We're in the midst of Holy Week, a busy annual time which has many memories for me. For the decades of my pastoral ministry Holy Week meant officiating at specially planned worship services, culminating in the joy of Easter Sunday. But it also brings back memories of unplanned events that made their way into some of my Holy Weeks over the years. 

During a Holy Week my youngest son was born, on Maundy Thursday to be exact. Another Holy Week I spent three days in a treatment center with a dear friend, now with the Lord, who had asked me to be with him during his struggle to defeat the demons of alcohol. Several Holy Weeks brought funerals of people whose families wanted to hear God's Good News during a bad time. One year my young family got the flu and only by the grace of God did I get through the Sunday services before succumbing to the flu myself. 

But Holy Week took on a different meaning after walking Jerusalem's Via Dolarosa. In 1999, Carol and I traveled to Israel a second time and were part of a group of forty Christian pilgrims. One of our elderly friends had difficulty walking, so our guide took us over part of the "Way of Sorrows" in reverse order, to make it easier for him to walk the uneven streets. 

This change brought us into the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at a rare time when it was nearly empty. This most popular destination in Jerusalem is usually jammed with jostling people, prodding guides and flashing cameras, so little of the place is actually seen. But this time we were nearly alone. We quietly walked up the steps to the Armenian chapel built over the remnants of Calvary, unhurriedly went in and out of the memorial tomb and saw details inside the Chapel that few ever see. For half an hour in that place which normally held a thousand anxious tourists, we were the only group there, and the quiet was amazing. 

Jerusalem was certainly not empty or silent during the first Holy Week. In the mayhem of the annual Passover, Jesus' trial and crucifixion were less noticed by the crowds than we think. Some of the hundred thousand or more Jews and Gentiles there saw Him carry His cross through the streets, but only a few heard Him speak His eternal Words or watched Him hang on the cross and die.

However, the death that day of Yeshua ha Nosari (His Hebrew name) has become indelibly woven into the fabric of human history, and His resurrection two days later changed the world forever. Because He died and now lives again, the world's people have hope. Christians have a living Savior. All who trust Jesus as the living Son of God are blessed with a future in the joys of heaven. 

"Who is this?" The crowds said, "This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee." (Matt. 21:10-11)