As they led him away, they seized a man, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming from the country, and they laid the cross on him, and made him carry it behind Jesus. A great number of the people followed him. (Luke 23: 26-27)
On Palm Sunday the city streets were ringing with the praises of the people as Jesus rode into town upon a donkey, declaring his Messianic kingship by doing so. Yet within the space of less than a week those same streets were witnessing a very different procession, that of a condemned criminal stumbling to his death, so incapable of carrying his own cross that a bystander has to be forced into helping.
A few years ago I was visiting Jerusalem on a Friday, and trying to find my own way around the Via Dolorosa, the traditional route that Christ is supposed to have taken to his death. At first I was disturbed by the noise, hustle and bustle of the city. The Via passes through the market with many different people calling out and selling their wares, shopkeepers arguing with customers about a good bargain, and delivery boys trying to push barrows through the crowd. I wanted a quieter, more prayerful atmosphere to mark the gravity and holiness of these streets. Then, suddenly my eyes were opened and I realised that it would have been exactly the same in the first century. Heads would hardly have even bothered to turn at the procession of yet another condemned criminal. The streets would have been noisy, dirty, smelly and busy. Yet it was within these very mundane and noisy streets that something extraordinary was happening; the passage of a procession that would change the world and our futures forever.
Pause for thought
Have I ever sensed the presence of God in unexpected or busy places?
There are some events that we only realise the significance of much later.
Give thanks for those events and the things you have learned from them.
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