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Jesus, for the joy set before him, endured the cross, despising its shame … (Hebrews 12:2).

This is the week that changes the world.  Arriving today at Palm Sunday, we are about to enter the week on which our four Gospel writers focus the vast majority of their attention.  It is as if they say to us, “Yes, Jesus did all kinds of wonderful, amazing things, too many to ever fully record!  Yet all of them taken together cannot compare to what is about to happen.  Slow down!  Take your time!  Pay the closest attention!  Every detail matters.  This is the salvation of the world drawing near.”

And Hebrews tells us that, as Jesus entered this week, as he entered Jerusalem aboard a messianic donkey, he alone was without any illusions about what was ahead: the greatest shame, and a joy we cannot fathom but into which we will be invited.

Slow down this week.  Take your time – pay the closest attention.  Every detail provided is freighted with significance.  Draw near to that which is drawing near to you.

Find yourself in the story, take your place, play your role: this is not ancient history, it is your story, my story, the story of the whole world.  Hear your voice shouting in acclamation, your voice asking, “Is it I, Lord?”, your voice crying out, “Crucify!  Crucify!  We will not have a king like this rule over us!”  Watch your feet being washed; watch your feet running away into a dark night.  Listen to your own boasting (“I will never run away!”), your own betrayals (“I don’t know this man, never met him, have nothing to do with him!”).

God is drawing near in a way unparalleled in time and eternity.  The world’s one great high priest is approaching the Temple, preparing to enter the Holy of Holies bearing a sacrifice unlike any other.  Israel’s Messiah and the world’s true King is about to be coronated on a Roman cross and crowned with thorns.  The One who saved others from sickness and uncleanness will allow himself to become an object of revulsion and disgust.  The One who released us from sin and guilt and shame will not save himself from their consequences.  The Word made flesh will stand silent before his accusers, judges and executioners.  The radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of God’s being and nature is drawing near to the depths of Death.  He who is the Son of God is also the Man of Sorrows.  The Living God is entering the deepest darkness of all of our dyings.

Slow down; take your time.  If we will not face into the shame that Jesus bore, it will be hard to enter into the joy.

What is that joy that is set before Jesus, as he is drawing near to Jerusalem, to the Temple, to the crowds who one day acclaim and a week later condemn, to his opponents, to Calvary, to a donated grave?

Is it not the joy of accomplishing, in the perfect union of the Trinity, the reconciliation of the world to God by God?  Is it not the joy of a father racing to meet his returning prodigal son, racing to reach him first in order to demonstrate to the world that he has effected forgiveness and reconciliation?  Is it not the joy of the high priest, emerging from the Holy of Holies to announce to God’s people that new life has come for them?

Is the joy set before Jesus … us?

I believe so.  It seems to make no sense!  What a one-sided matter this is: God in Christ gets us in all our fractured and debased glory, and gives us in exchange the radiance of the glory of God?  God draws near to us that we might draw near to God; God becomes us so that we can become fit to participate in the life of God?  God, owing us nothing, nonetheless giving us everything, giving us himself?  This breaks and flings away every balance scale we will ever know!

What God gets out of this is us; what we get is God.  And this brings God, and us, the greatest, deepest and most permanent joy.

Slow down; take your time; pay attention: God is drawing near to you, drawing you into the incredible nearness of God.

How might you slow down – take your time – pay close attention to this week that changes the world?  Pray about that now.

What particular parts of the story is God inviting you to draw near to this week?

As we continue to pray our way towards Easter, how would you like to pray for our church?  Do that now.