Walk a Week with Jesus
Walk a Week with Jesus by Rev. L. John Gable
April 14, 2019
In January of 2012 I had the opportunity to visit the Umoja Project in Kenya. I know I have told you many stories about my experiences visiting that partner in ministry as they care for the needs of orphans and vulnerable children, but one story I know I have not told you was about my flight from Amsterdam to Nairobi. I always choose a window seat whenever I fly and that day I was glad I did because the sky was crystal clear, so from 30,000 I had a magnificent view of the earth passing below me and it was like taking an 8 hour geography class. Leaving Amsterdam I first noticed the rise of the mountains and the snow-covered peaks of the Alps; then I watched as we flew straight down the coast line of Italy with its picturesque boot heel, then out over the azure blue of the Mediterranean. Farther down I saw the mouth of the Nile as it entered into the sea, then the ribbon of green cutting due south through the gray-brown deserts of Egypt; at last over the vast plains of Africa as we followed the Great Rift Valley before landing in Nairobi.
It was a spectacular view, but interesting and memorable as it was, I realized soon after that I didn’t learn a thing about those lands or the people who live there. I could just as well have been looking at a globe while sitting at my desk.
We don’t really learn or experience anything from 30,000 feet going 450 miles an hour or even at 2.5 feet going 70 mph. Our real learning comes when we get down on ground level, when we slow down, when we actually meet the people who live in those lands or in those houses we so easily fly by, when we trade expediency for encounter.
In a sense that is what we have attempted to do this Lenten season and even more so this morning in this Palm Sunday service as we enter in to Holy Week. Rather than skim reading our way through the Gospel story, flitting from the shouts of “Hosanna” on Palm Sunday to the shout of victory, “He is risen” on the Easter day without really experiencing any of the drama of the real life in between, we have chosen this morning to walk a week with Jesus, to slow down a bit in order that we might experience, or at least appreciate in some greater measure, something of what He experienced.
I have twice had the opportunity to visit the Holy Land and the city of Jerusalem, so as I read these passages my mind is filled with vivid images: sights and sounds and smells. One of the things that caught my attention the first time I visited was how relatively small the old city of Jerusalem, where much of this story takes place, actually is. Even in the few days I spent there each time I felt as though I got to walk much of it, and you always notice more when you walk. Walking forces you, or better allows you, to slow down, to feel the street beneath your feet, to hear the sounds of the shopkeepers hawking their wares and of the children laughing and talking on their way to school. The distances between any two given points in this story may not be very far, but if we slow down a bit we discover between the two there is a lot of life to be experienced.
So, let’s walk a while with Jesus. At the beginning of the week He is staying in the sister villages of Bethany and Bethphage, most likely with the sisters Mary and Martha, and their recently raised from the dead brother, Lazarus. Bethphage is 1.5 miles east of Jerusalem, a good 30-45 minute or so walk which leads straight through the Mount of Olives on the way to the city. Knowing what Jesus knew at the time it makes you wonder what they talked about as they walked, doesn’t it? Any picture you have ever seen of the city of Jerusalem is likely taken from the vantage point of the Mount of Olives which rises above the city. It is a magnificent view, but it surely must have been a daunting one for Jesus that day.
The walk from the Mount of Olives to the city is almost straight down hill in to the Kidron Valley. It is only about .5 a mile, but it takes about an hour to walk it because the path is an old donkey trail which serpentines its way down to the city, past Jewish cemeteries, through the Garden of Gethsemane. Somewhere along the line the crowds picked up that the Messiah Jesus was coming in to town, so began the chant, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” Surely that must have changed the mood of their entrance and slowed down their descent into the city. Jesus knew what He was coming to the city to do – to suffer and die, so it makes one wonder if their chanting was an encouragement to Him, or a distraction?
We didn’t read much of the narrative of what He did in the city that week, although it is likely He either returned to Bethany and Bethphage at night or perhaps camped out with His disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane. Needless to say, everywhere He went He walked which gave Him plenty of time to talk and think.
We pick up the story again on Thursday. As did other pilgrims to the city that night Jesus wanted to celebrate the Passover with His disciples, so He sent them back into the city to find a room and make preparations. He knew His celebration of this traditional meal would establish a new covenant in His blood rather than in the blood of goats and bulls. Is that what He was thinking about as they walked to the city that night to share the feast?
After the meal, during which Jesus announced both that He would be betrayed and denied by two of His closest friends and followers, He walked back to the Garden. While the pace of the story is quickening did the pace of His walk quicken as well (“Let’s get on with this!”), or did it slow down, His knowing that He would likely never walk that way again under His own direction?
The arrest took place in the Garden and now under guard He is walked or perhaps dragged to the house of the High Priest Caiaphas, surely less than a mile, but the journey must have been agonizing, and this was only the beginning of a long night of trial and questioning and abuse. Today the Chapel of St. Peter of Gallicantu sits on the site of the High Priest’s house, with images of roosters adorning it. This is where Peter denied Him.
At the break of day early Friday morning, having found Him guilty of blasphemy deserving death, the Sanhedrin dragged Him across town through the city, little more than ½ mile to the Praetorium to face trial before the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate. While Jesus was largely silent throughout the ordeal it would have been torturous for Him, enduring the chants of the crowd, “Crucify Him” and the taunts of the Roman soldiers, ending in His being found guilty, sentenced to flogging (being whipped with leather straps laden with shards of rock or lead or glass) and then condemned to death by crucifixion, which by law had to take place outside the city walls.
The walk from the Roman Praetorium to Golgotha is today called the Via Dolorosa, the way of suffering, the way of the cross. It too is only about ½ mile as it winds its way through the city, along rough cobblestone streets and narrow arched passageways. The way is clearly marked today with the 14 stations of the cross clearly laid out, the last five within the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, but the walk that day must have been anything but leisurely, much less devotional, for Jesus was not a pilgrim or a tourist; He was a prisoner, the tortured. Beaten and flogged He was forced to carry His own instrument of death on His already bloodied back until He was no longer able to do so when a man named Simon, a visitor from Cyrene, was conscripted to carry it for Him. One can only imagine how long it took to make that walk that day. Surely time must have been measured not by minutes or hours but by eternity. And there, on that hill, He suffered and died.
Why is it important for us to walk this week with Jesus? We notice things when we slow down and walk, things we otherwise would have missed. But even more than that, when we walk more slowly through the Gospel story we experience something of what Jesus experienced, or perhaps we come to appreciate it more. When we walk a week with Jesus we come to appreciate that this is what He has done for us. As Paul writes in his letter to the Philippians, “Though He was in the form of God, He did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:6-8)
Jesus left the glories of heaven to become like us so that we might become like Him. On the cross of Calvary He traded His life for ours in order to secure the way of our salvation; expediency for encounter. He slowed down and came down from 30,000 feet to ground level in order to walk with us, so that we might walk with Him, so it is only appropriate that His first and eternal invitation to us is this, “Come, follow Me.” Amen.