Holy Monday

Holy Monday is the day Christians begin to focus on Jesus’ walk towards the cross.

Yesterday we celebrated the day Jesus humbly yet triumphantly entered Jerusalem riding on a donkey. We call it ‘Palm Sunday’  because the people who cheered him during His entry, placed palm leaves in front of the donkey as a sign of respect for the Messiah as He rode into the city.

But then on Monday, the very next day, the same people who were cheering for Jesus on Sunday quickly changed their tune and began jeering and chanting for his death.

That’s how fast things can change.

When threatened with any sort of danger, we often become fickle people who quickly change our mind, so easily swayed by the politics of the day.

A significant purpose of the Holy Week stories are not so that we can point our finger at the people who butchered and murdered Jesus – but to recognise that if we were there it would likely have been us.

But even still, how on earth does this relate to folks who have no home?

I’m guessing that people looking from the outside view this annual exercise for Christians to focus on Holy Week as disconnected from real life.

How can we change that?

Well to be honest, I’m not entirely sure.

I know I absolutely love focusing on the Holy Week liturgical process every year. It is deeply meaningful to me. But I also know, if my Holy Week practices become merely a rote theological exercise with no connection to my neighbours or the streets, it is entirely a waste of time and likely an offence to the God I claim to worship.

On Holy Monday, and throughout this week leading up to Easter Sunday, let us never forget to live out the point of the story.

Let us never forget to demonstrate to everyone around us that we live with the assurance that Easter is always coming, there is always hope, we will not be swayed by the politics of the day, and there will always be life after death.

We do this by continuing to strive to be the hand of God in the heart of the city.

Have a blessed Holy Week.
Dion