Journey to the Cross

Pause

Be still

and feel the song

that God sings in your heart,

a song of praise to our God.

Listen

Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion. Sing aloud, Daughter Jerusalem. Look, your king will come to you. He is righteous and victorious. He is humble and riding on an ass, on a colt, the offspring of a donkey.

Zechariah 9:9

Think

Martin Luther King staged a march from Selma to Montgomery on March 21-25, 1965. The demonstrators marched for voting rights in a state where a bomb had killed four little African American girls in Sunday school. The idea of the walk was simple: a crowd of people would walk from the segregated town of Selma to the state’s capitol together. But the walk was earth-shattering because of all it symbolized and the history behind it. Martin Luther King was compelled through his faith in Jesus to stand up and inspire change.

Jesus had marched, too. His travel was also simple — from Bethany to Jerusalem on a donkey. It was a common journey, walked by Jesus many times before.

Jesus was a Jewish man who knew scripture. He knew what the prophet Zechariah had written hundreds of years before. And he realized that everyone around him would know it, too. So Jesus rode into Jerusalem, “humble and riding on an ass, on a colt, the offspring of a donkey,” and by doing so he inspired all to see that he was the king that Zechariah anticipated, and the messiah that Israel longed for.

Following in Jesus’ steps is not always easy or safe, as made evident in the journey to the cross.  But the promise of Easter — for an empty tomb — will always and forever be good news.

Jane Hartwell

Pray

God, open my heart to listen to you leading me. Just as Martin Luther King was inspired by the life and work of Jesus, give me the courage to follow in Jesus' steps even when it is risky. Amen.

Go

Go out and sing the song that God has put in your heart.