Sounds like a new cocktail that has been created to celebrate. How can we celebrate two things on the one day.Both admittedly have passion in them but we seem to have allowed that to sittle away into minor protests that appear to rally no one or change the scene as dramatically as the passion in the one off parade into Jerusalem (Lk .19.28-40). The passionate response of the crowds to this man / Christ, yet not yet, figure as they enter into a central town in the politics of the era and area. These passions of welcome change to a passion for death over the period of a week. What are we to make of this change and how are we meant to interact with this day.
I have spoken over the past two years regarding political protest and the commitment that we need to make before the protest achieves anything. How protest often becomes nothing more than a temporary side show for other to watch. I note that very little has been made of the annual march for refugees this year. Has this style of protest run its course? Has the passion left the field? I see the same sort of thing happening when it comes to the environment. So how do we sustain the passion? The passion that celebrates and the passion that brings hardship and struggle within our lives.
Our passion may hurt us but we will achieve our utmost
It is only when we struggle that we begin to achieve something. Any person learning something new can tell you that unless there is a passion for it you will ultimately fail and lead yourself into depression. By struggle we find the new path that brings life. Christ struggles through this week to bring new life. We struggle as we endure the hardships that are brought about by change. It is through our willingness to interact with the struggle that we actually grow. Through out Lent people have struggled with the course that I have led so that they can better understand God's presence in their lives. This is what it means to have passion and to come to know Christ in our lives. If we cannot enter into Christ then we cannot become like Christ. If we fail to have passion for what we want then we fail in achieving that which is most important to ourselves.
In entering Holy week we enter into the trials and passion of Christ. If we are to enter fully into Christ this is the path that we must take. A path that leads to our death, the death of our lives as we know them so that we can be resurrected into the life of Christ. In this final week before the glory of Easter let us dwell first on the passion of the crowd as it changes and then on the passion that Christ undergoes in order to find new life. We need to understand the same change in us. The wonder and the kick (so to speak) that we get out of our initial becoming filled with the Spirit. This is followed by what appears to be years of struggle and often times years that are spent with those around us seemingly dropping from the path. Yet, it is in this struggle that we achieve our goals and come to understand that death in our lives is often the only way forward. We are reluctant, we hesitate, we become depressed and begin to turn away. We need to grasp the struggle and embrace the change that comes with death in order to embrace the life of newness that comes with Christ. Our passion needs to become fulfilled just as Christ's passion becomes fulfilled.
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