Thursday of the Fifth Week of Lent

Lectionary: 254

Abraham your father rejoiced to see my day;
he saw it and was glad.”

By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance; he went out, not knowing where he was to go. By faith he sojourned in the Promised Land as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs of the same promise; for he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and maker is God…. All these died in faith. They did not receive what had been promised but saw it and greeted it from afar and acknowledged themselves to be strangers and aliens on earth. (Hebrews 11: 8-10, 13)

If Jewish pilgrims approached the Holy City of Jerusalem at the right time of day they saw brilliant sunshine glancing off the golden doors of Herod’s Temple. The vision might have danced in the heat of late afternoon. After many miles and much hardship, what a glorious sight that must have been! They would tell their children and grandchildren how Jerusalem glowed with the light of the Promised Land. “They saw it and greeted it from afar.”

In the Gospel of Saint John, Jesus refined the vision further when he speaks of Abraham, “He saw (my day) and was glad.”

On Palm Sunday the Church celebrates Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem. We are nearing the Week, the Day, and the Hour. Jerusalem is the city of doom and the city of blessing, a scene of intense crisis.

We have heard Jesus eagerness for this moment:

I have come to set the earth on fire, and how I wish it were already blazing! There is a baptism with which I must be baptized, and how great is my anguish until it is accomplished! Do you think that I have come to establish peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. (Luke 12:49-51)

This critical week is very close to the heart of our Christian faith. It flows from the challenge Moses put to his people in Deuteronomy 30: I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live.

We are often tempted to make our religion more palatable to friends, neighbors and strangers. Inclusiveness does not want to exclude anyone, regardless of their ethics or life style. 

Holy Week challenges us to choose with Joshua, “As for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.” (Joshua 24:15)