It seems odd. This Holy
Week I find myself thinking about parades.
The rather shabby little parade
we would have in the middle of Nome for the "Midnight Sun
Festival." (We didn't know it was a rather shabby little parade. In
our small village in northwest Alaska, it looked rather spectacular!)
The much more impressive
"Christmas Parade" our family watched last November march down
Michigan Avenue in Chicago was on a bitterly cold night. Olivia was on my
shoulders as we watched the bands march by, the radio and tv personalities
perched on floats, the spotlights moving left and right across the crowds and
the skyscrapers that seemed to be leaning in towards us. We were stuck
back behind the crowd, but then people invited us forward. Gave up their
spots for us so we could see better.
As we step into the Christian
celebration of the last week of Jesus' earthly life, as we allow ourselves to
be drawn into the middle of the Passion Story, I always find myself thinking
about parades. Because this week begins, John 12:13 tells us, with a
parade into the city of Jerusalem.
There will be other processions
during this week that involve Jesus. There is the walk with the disciples
to a room where they can celebrate one more meal together. There is the
walk out of the city, down across the valley east of the city, and up the hill
towards the olive orchard known as the Garden of Gethsemane. It is there
that Jesus is arrested. He is tied up and bundled away to a hearing in
the middle of the night. There is then a procession through the streets
of the city to Pilate...to Herod...and back to Pilate. Finally, he is
sentenced to death and there is the bloody march out to the edge of the city
where the executioners await. It seems like Jesus is on the move through
the entire story. Until he is nailed to the cross by the Romans.
How does this parade end?
What do you do when the last "units" roll by? What will you do
with the Galilean carpenter-turned-teacher who has died with a prayer of forgiveness
on his lips?
When the last unit in the
Christmas Parade went by, we scurried back to the warmth of the hotel.
Moved on with our lives.
What will you do after this
parade in Jerusalem is finished? Will you go back to the warmth of the
ordinary, or will you see God...the world...and your own life...in a new way so
you nothing will be ordinary ever again?
In Christ and for Christ,
Mark Fenstermacher
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