Holy Week Begins

“There is a day
when the road neither
comes nor goes, and the way
is not a way but a place.”
– Wendell Berry, from Sabbath Poems

Jesus’ travels bring him to Jerusalem on this Palm Sunday weekend. The events of this holy week will bring him to his death on the cross. Jesus’ family and friends will carry him to a tomb and roll the burial stone into its place. On Holy Saturday, it will look like Jesus’ travels are over.

On Easter Sunday morning, women will travel the long road to that tomb to properly anoint Jesus’ body for burial. Over those sabbath days, the women, the disciples, and all the friends of Jesus must have thought that the way, the roads Jesus walked, all led to an end.

Then the good news will ring out from the empty tomb: resurrection and new life. We will experience what Wendell Berry ponders in this small section from his Sabbath Poems. We will see that place, that empty tomb, is embodied by the risen Jesus. We will hear of hope renewed when our experience is often that “the road neither comes nor goes.” When the way seems lost, the good news is that “God’s home, God’s place is among humanity” (Revelation 21).

As the followers of Jesus, our home is in God and God’s home is in our lives. We enter these final days of the old journey to the cross and empty tomb on roads that neither come nor go, and the way is not just another way, but a place prepared for you and me.

Yours in Christ Jesus,
Pastor Peter