I know a man of such
mildness and kindness it is trying to
change my life. Mary Oliver, Thirst
Christ is the visible likeness of the invisible God… For the full content of divine nature lives in Christ, in his humanity... and you have been given full life in union with him. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross. Colossians 1:15, 1:19-20, 2:9-10)
Christ’s entry into Jerusalem, Hippolyte Flandrin
You see Jesus and you know what God is like
With Jesus’s Palm Sunday procession into Jerusalem it feels like Jesus is making a poignant statement, a bold gesture, and in the face of great threat and grave danger. Jesus fully accepts and knows who he is and the crowd's body language echoes that conviction. To and for this King, the throne, mitre and robes are a donkey, its foal and strewn clothes, and for a crown a round of spikey thorns. His prior instruction not to Lord it over one another is reinforced by this personal, striking and authentic illustration.
The whole series of lenten gestures - from washing the disciples’ feet, to riding on a donkey lauded as a King to hanging helpless on a cross - attempt to overturn popular, often unhelpful and, in some cases self-serving, notions of God.
He came in peace, riding on a donkey, to make peace.
‘Don’t be afraid Jerusalem, your king is now coming, riding on a donkey’. This can seem so utterly ridiculous, and such a reaction may be very revealing. I feel at the same time both sombre and strangely excited. ‘Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called sons and daughters of God’, Jesus had said, and here we see him walking his talk.
Suggested walking prayer
Go to a local spot which has a tree lined grassy or paved avenue. Walk by and under the trees that lift their branches in praise or sense their rootedness. If you don’t have one or can’t get out use this photo.
Imagine the trees as the communion of saints, examples in their various shapes and sizes of those who have and are journeying with you. Imagine this as a walk of peace. Where would you want to see peace in your world, and the wider world? Walk with and alongside Jesus. What are you moved to do, say or pray?
