This week, we walked towards death.
We journeyed with Jesus as he said His final goodbyes to His closest friends and confidants. We traveled with the Messiah as He prepared to leave behind the life He once knew to say yes to the Divine.
What a week it must have been for Him, knowing that by Friday, He’d be hanging from a cross, His mother wailing at His feet, the hope of the world seemingly dashed.
He would spend all week walking towards His death. He would see those who loved Him the most betray and deny Him. He would ask his friends to pray for Him only for them to lose motivation in the eleventh hour. He would proclaim the truth as the Son of God only to be called a liar.
In His humanity, Jesus walked towards death – in His divinity, He walked towards a life eternal.
Walking towards death can be a frightening experience. It can call us to question the very relationships that once held us up, require us to press through pain when the weight of the world is upon our shoulders, and ask us to relinquish everything we thought to be true to walk into the unknown.
As we pick up our cross and follow Christ, we, too, will walk toward a proverbial death. Meeting us there will be both those who mourn for us and those who may accuse us. Waiting will be those who believe in God’s call on our lives and those who laugh at the idea that God could use someone like us.
But on the other side of Calvary lies the hope and expectancy of a new resurrected life. The redeeming power of Christ’s death and resurrection offers us the ability to face our fears and anxieties head on; we are starkly reminded that because He walked towards death, even in fear and trembling, we can too. Rest assured we can believe that despite what pains us on this side of Calvary we will be redeemed from it all to live a full life with Christ.
As we take time to consider Jesus’ redeeming power during the solemnness of Holy Week, remember what is on the other side of death: the power to save, atone, and redeem.