Written by Rev. Dr. Lauren Sierra
Thank you for joining us for this Lenten journey! This week marks the final week of TCU’s Lenten Devotional Guide, and we are grateful for the many voices who have contributed.
During this Holy Week, our minds and hearts anticipate Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Resurrection Sunday. Thus, today, I wanted to take time to reflect on the beauty of Jesus’s journey to Jerusalem. I hope you enjoy today’s devotional.
Luke 8:1-3
Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him, and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; Joanna the wife of Chuza, the manager of Herod’s household; Susanna; and many others.
Reflection:
Jesus was always on a journey, “one town and village after another,” a group of ragtag disciples following closely behind, the soles of their sandals collecting dust from each destination. He journeyed to Bethlehem, Bethany, Galilee, Nazareth, Capernaum, cities in Samaria. On his journey, he carried parables and prophecies, metaphors and miracles. He journeyed to desolate places and looked with compassion into the eyes of those forsaken. Those unseen, he saw.
He journeyed to a well at noon and shared a cup with a thirsty unnamed, Samaritan. He journeyed to the home of a tax collector, Zacchaeus. He journeyed from his feet to his knees and wrote in the sand to save a woman’s life. He journeyed to unruly disciples like Peter and a once ailed Mary Magdalene. He was always journeying to those whom life’s heavy burdens were abundant, those afflicted, bound, and feeling broken. And there never seemed to be a person with whom he wouldn’t journey to break bread or clank a glass.
And people journeyed to him too.
They journeyed to him carrying their doubts, their demons, their shortcomings, their pain, fear, questions, desperation. Some with names like “Joanna” and “Susanna,” but “many others” journeyed to him who went by the names like ashamed. “Sinner.” Outcast. Isolated. And he gave them new names like daughter. Son. Child. Friend. The screw ups journeyed to him, coming with cupped hands filled with their need of second and third and fourth and fifth chances. If their pockets were lined with the heavy currency of mess ups, and guilt, and shame, and self-deprecation, he exchanged with them the good-news-currency of his kingdom: grace, peace, and forgiveness.
Journey is an ancient marker of God’s people. They were always wandering around in the wilderness, to the promised land, to Babylon, and back again. Each time, life anew. And we too are a people of journey. In our stages of life, growing, moving, changing, wandering, one town and village after another. Each time, life anew.
Our 40-day Lenten journey begins by literally marking our head with ashes, acknowledging that our days of journey are numbered and thus worthy of reflection in light of the journey of Jesus. We contemplate the places we’ve gone and will go, the people we’ve encountered and have yet to meet, the spaces in our hearts we long to be forgiven, restored, renewed, and to connect with God and one another more closely.
As you contemplate your own journey, I invite you to consider: what have you been carrying that it’s time to lay down in order to make your journey a little lighter? What names have you called yourself that need to change? What questions are you asking, or what fifth chance do you need?
On this Lenten journey, we will follow Jesus on his many journeys, but ultimately his journey to Jerusalem, to his arrest, to the cross, and to his death; the end of the journey for those beautiful, dusty feet.
But on Sunday morning, we will awake with the rising sun and journey to a cave, to a stone rolled away, to an empty tomb. Life anew.
So, as you reflect on whatever heavy weight you’re carrying, whatever new beloved name to call yourself, whatever questions you’re asking, forgiveness you seek, or hundredth chance you need: May the end of your Lenten journey lead you too to life anew.
Let us pray.
Gracious and Loving God,
On this Lenten journey, may you grant us eyes to see and reflect on our journey with you. May your light, life, and love invade our hearts where we most need, and as we journey from one town and village to the next, one stage of life after another, may that same light, life, and love extend from us to those we meet along our way. Amen.