Life is full of contrasts, especially in Lent, as we come into Holy Week and consider Christ’s passion. There is a contrast of the attitude of the crowd that welcomed Jesus on Palm Sunday as he rode triumphantly into Jerusalem on the donkey. “Hosanna, Hosanna, to the Son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” they exclaimed rejoicingly. Compare this with the crowd on Good Friday shouting out “Crucify him-crucify him! We have no king but Caesar.”
Let us consider Peter and his fluctuating allegiance to Jesus. “You are the Messiah – the Son of the living God” he declares, and later affirms, “I am willing to go to prison with you or even die for you.” Yet within hours he is denying his knowledge of Jesus, for when questioned regarding Jesus he says, “I tell you the truth, I do not know the man,” and according to Jesus’ prophesy the cock crows. Jesus turns and looks at Peter and he goes out and weeps bitterly as he remembers his earlier affirmation to stand by him, come what may. We know beforehand that Judas is going to betray Jesus, and so does Jesus, of course, so that the joy of the Passover meal is tinged with sadness as Jesus declares, “One of you is going to betray me.” As Jesus reveals who the betrayer is Judas leaves Jesus and the other disciples at the Last Supper. We read the telling phrase ‘and it was night.’ Judas was just on his way to betray Jesus ‘the Light of the world.’ It was physically dark, but what darkness was in his soul that night as he pursued his fateful errand? Even greater was the darkness of the realisation that after he betrayed Jesus, with a kiss, in the Garden of Gethsemane, there was no way back, no way to save Jesus, the Saviour of the World. “He saved others – he can’t save himself.” What a paradox! In despair and remorse Judas takes the 30 pieces of silver, ‘the blood money’, the cost of Jesus’ betrayal, and throws them down in the temple and goes and hangs himself. As someone said, “What a pity he didn’t wait till Sunday,” for he would have seen Jesus’ ultimate victory over sin and death, and his willingness and ability to forgive.
Peter has that opportunity for, after Jesus’ resurrection on Easter Sunday he asks Peter three times “Do you love me?” “Yes Lord, you know I love you” affirms Peter three times and receives Jesus’ reply “Feed my lambs,” “Feed my sheep,” “Feed my sheep” thus reinstating Peter and recommissioning him for greater service in the future.
As the light and the joy of Palm Sunday turn to the darkness and sorrow of Good Friday, especially as Jesus hangs on the cross and experiences the sense of abandonment of his heavenly Father, as he bears the full weight of the sins of the whole world Jesus cries out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” There was an uncanny darkness from mid-day until three o’clock in the afternoon. Had God turned his face away from Jesus? No! It was the awfulness of sin that caused the separation. And, in that darkness, as Jesus dies, he proclaims “It is finished (accomplished). Father, into your hands I command my spirit.” Jesus has faithfully fulfilled his Father’s will in the salvation of the world. Jesus, the Light of the World, has overcome the darkness of sin and death. Hallelujah! What a Saviour!
Jenny
