Passion

“These things I have spoken to you so that you may be kept from stumbling.” John 16:1

A few short weeks ago, you were invited to engage with the spiritual practice of Lent. To be led by the Spirit to follow Jesus into the wilderness for this season leading up to Easter. Not just to pilgrimage for the sake of a pilgrimage but rather to intentionally step away from some of the noises and things in our world and lives to create space for reflection, a place to notice where we have strayed from God. A place of repentance, for those idols we have embraced, or ways we have attempted to meet our needs in our own ways. And finally, to recommit, begin our journey with God once again but this time from a deeper place of knowing His immense love for us. As you reflect over the last 6 weeks of this Lenten season, what are some of the ways you have encountered God? What has He whispered to your heart? Have you come out of the wilderness empowered, of one mind with the Father… understanding your vocation or purpose with greater clarity and resolve… a renewed passion to be about the Father’s business?

We are well into the “Passion Week” leading up to Christ’s final days of walking the earth. It is more common for us as evangelicals to engage in activities or walk more closely with Jesus during this week than any other season of the church year with the exception of the advent season.  But, have you ever considered why it is called “passion week”? When I think of the word passion, the idea of death and suffering is not what first comes to mind. Webster defines passion as “fervor, ardor, enthusiasm, zeal, an intense emotion, compelling action. Passion applies to an emotion that is deeply stirring or ungovernable”…. That kind of sums it up for my initial understanding…. yet, as I look deeper into the word used by the early church to refer to this week, “passion” is derived from the Latin word passio. This word means suffering or to endure or be acted upon. The expression Passio came to describe the afflictions Christ endured for our sins in the last days of His life…. Take a moment and let that land in your heart…reflect on that…the afflictions Our Beloved King endured for our sins - yours, mine, the world’s. Those we have committed against others and those committed against us. Think for a moment of what you are passionate about, those things that would inspire courage in you to set things right, those things that you would endure incredible pain and suffering for.

This week is also the most significant and well documented period of Jesus’ life. Each of the Gospels speak of this week, the Passion of Jesus, and the time leading up to it with more detail than any other aspect of Jesus’ life or ministry. As we are invited to walk with Jesus to the end, to be with Him in His pain and suffering, there are a few things we notice or glean from these accounts. We see Him enter Jerusalem on a donkey not as a warrior King but a King of Peace. We see him weep over His beloved city and witness His heart and heart ache for those He came to redeem but who were not willing to receive Him. While in the Temple He drove out the wicked merchants and instead healed the lame and the blind that came to Him. He continued to teach all those who had ears to hear and curses the fig tree because it looked good but produced no fruit (there is a whole other lesson here). Jesus allowed Himself to be identified as the Messiah, the One they had been waiting for. Jesus retreats to the Mount of Olives and tries to prepare His disciples through His daily teachings at the temple. He takes time to have dinner with “Simon the Leper” and is anointed by an extravagant expression of love and devotion by an unnamed woman whom He exonerates and defends, leading into the preparations for His final meal with His beloved disciples, the Passover, the sacrifice of the perfect lamb to atone for the sins of the community and restore fellowship with God…. (For a more detailed list of the Passion Week click here.) The disciples cannot begin to fathom what the next hours and days will bring….Christ’s passion is lived out before them and His thoughts are for them and their well-being… Reflect on that for a moment…these last days of Jesus walking among us and His thoughts are not for Himself but those He loves…How very deep and significant this message is for us today!! Resist the temptation to gloss over it or rush through it because of the angst and pain described! (If you

Jesus, through His Spirit, invites us to keep vigil with Him through the remainder of the Passion week in different ways and at different times. It is not in our nature to willingly enter into pain and suffering for ourselves let alone for another. His encouragement to us is to know these things so that we can be kept from falling away or stumbling. Press in my dear brothers and sisters. The Spirit has a fresh message for you even amidst the suffering, the hard-to-be-present parts of the gospel narrative. Just as the disciples were asked to keep watch and pray, so too can we. Just as Mary Magdaline, Jesus’s mother, Mary, John, His beloved disciple, and a few other faithful followers stayed with Jesus until the bitter end - despite the horrors of what they witnessed - so too can we, knowing we are in good company by the many faithful throughout the centuries that have accompanied Jesus in His passion this week leading to all that our faith hinges on...His love, His betrayal, His suffering, His death, and finally His victory over the wages of sin through His resurrection.

One last question I pose… If you knew you had only one week left to live, even knowing there would be great pain and suffering to endure, what things would you be busying yourself with? Reflect on your deep consuming passions, those things you would indeed endure incredible suffering for, that you would set lesser things aside for, that would give you the courage to set things right for, that thing where you would put others’ well-being ahead of your own, your loved ones, the estranged, stranger, or enemy.  What is that thing you are so passionate for… does it have value beyond this life?

My prayer for us: Lord Jesus, my God, My King as I reflect on your Passion for the world and all that was lost, would you reignite my passion for you!! I wait attentively at the foot of the cross challenged afresh by your words, moved again by your love and compassion, and your incredible finished work of salvation available to all…available to me.

Fondly,

Melody

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