Sunday, March 29th, 2026

Meditation

If you have ever taken a road trip, you know the feeling of finally pulling out of the driveway and those first few moments when you begin to drive down the road. The bags are all packed and loaded up, inside the house the trash is taken out and the doors locked, in the car everyone is present and accounted for. After all the planning and preparation it is now time to begin taking the trip you have been looking forward to for weeks or even months. You have an idea of what you will be doing, you may have even taken this exact trip many times, but you are still filled with a sense of eager anticipation and you begin to put miles between you and your home, between you and the ordinary.

As we come today to the beginning of Holy Week, we have this same sort of feeling all around us. This week, and all the things we will see Jesus do in it have been planned by God for generations and centuries. Jesus had come when everything was right and in the fullness of time, Jesus grew up and taught, performed miracles, and even raised the dead. But there was one more important thing He had to do, the impact of which we still feel today. He had to make one final trip to Jerusalem and die, just as God had planned from the beginning of time. Luke 9:51 puts it this way, “When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem.” So Jesus went, and we follow along with Him on this journey.

And although we know this journey, and have likely taken it many times before, we come to it again this year filled with humility, awe, and a profound sense of thanksgiving for all Jesus has done for us. And like all good road trips, we don’t do it alone. Instead we join together with Christians from around the world, and especially those here at St. John’s, as together, we join Jesus for a remarkable week, following Him to along palm branch strewn streets, to upper rooms, and eventually outside the city walls to a place of death so that we can see through Him, the life we now have through Him.

Prayer

Almighty God, have us set our eyes and hearts to Jerusalem along with Jesus this week that we may see in Him Your great love for us. Amen.