Today is the Sunday that begins a week. About two thousand years ago this week, Friday, a very special and wonderful event happened in the history of mankind. It was the Passion of Christ. He was God made man, crucified on the cross. He died to redeem mankind from the judgment of sin, the consequence of which is death as in Isaiah 53:6 “We all, like sheep, have gone astray; we have turned each to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.†But His suffering and death did not stop there, but He was resurrected on the next Sunday Day, conquering sin and death to give to anyone who believes in Him the eternal life.
One religion has named this week Palm Sunday as a reminder that Jesus Christ entered Jerusalem and the people spread branches and leaves on the road to welcome Him. People call this the Passion Week of the Lord. So every year during this week they abstain from many things, along with eating meatless foods. Although we are not like these people, we should still calm down and reflect on God "s boundless love through His suffering for our sins. Jesus" crucifixion was an extremely brutal event that He had to endure with much pain and humiliation. If we are a human being with a compassionate heart, we cannot avoid feeling pain and emotion. So, as Christians, what should we reflect on this Passion?
Perhaps we should not be sad or live a life of asceticism because of the Ceremony of the Passion, but should bring our love and respect to Him through our lives. Because once we have a heart of love for Him, it is easy for us to obey Him on the journey to the promised land that begins when we believe in Him, a journey with many temptations and challenges. With a heart of love for God, Christians do not need to live in sadness or asceticism, but live with joy and trust in Him. About sixteen hundred years before the Feast of the Last Supper, the Jewish people sinned, rebelled against God in the desert, and were bitten by poisonous snakes and died in great numbers. God told Moses to make a bronze snake and hang it on a wooden pole and told the people to look up at the hanging snake and they would be saved from death even though they were bitten by poisonous snakes. Why did God tell them to do this? I think God wanted to teach them a lesson of believing and obeying Him. A glance at the bronze snake did not save them from death, but faith and obedience to God did. Therefore, before Jesus Christ was crucified on the cross, He said to Nicodemus in John 3:14-15 “14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in Him may have eternal life.†This is a source of boundless blessings He gives us through His Passion. This is God’s will to remind us to believe in Him to receive forgiveness and salvation.
So, this year, when the Ceremony of the Last Passion comes again, let us not be sad but reflect on His love and suffering for us. So that we may respond with trust, gratitude and live by obedience to Him – What a blessing that is! Amen.
