Red Letters – Broken for Me – April 1

RED LETTERS
April 1, 2021

Broken for Me

Luke 22:19-20a. ‘And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is My body given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” In the same way, after the supper He took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is poured out for you.”

‘Then the multitudes who went before, and those who followed, cried out saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David! ‘Blessed is He Who comes in the name of the Lord!’ Hosanna in the highest!” And when He had come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, “Who is this?!” So the multitudes said, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee.”’ (Matthew 21:9-11, NKJV)

I hung back from the crowd that day, hidden behind the guise of my shame and marred by life’s choices. I had been following this Jesus of Nazareth wherever and whenever I could like a rat tramping after the Pied Piper. He was like an unquenchable thirst on a hot, dry day; the message from a loved one held over in a distant land. We hungered for any word that fell from His lips as if it were precious jewels, intoxicating wine, the finest of foods. My feet were tired and chapped from all the miles; the heels cracked and the dust beneath my nails like packing material. It had been one long journey, to say the least, but the course of its trajectory had just taken a turn.

We had entered the city on a high roll. There had been a triumphant feel, an aura that absorbed the streets as this Jesus arrived, balanced on the rump of a foal. A buoyant expectancy throbbed as the heart of the city pulsed around the multitudes of people just like me and everywhere palm fronds formed a welcome mat. This, THIS, Jesus, the healer of lifelong diseases and the raiser of the dead, the answer to all our questions and the lifter of our heads, THIS JESUS, our reconciler and Redeemer and restorer. Once honored and adored now adorned with a mockery crown of thorns and plastered in blood and sweat; His wounds holding our sorrow and disbelief in stripes of raw flesh. I couldn’t take it anymore as they drug Him from the city courts and strapped a cross made from a tree He grew to His back, and whipped Him, as wearily, He faced the mountain in front of Him. It was just, like, yesterday—wait! it was yesterday—that they had followed Him in awe and spectacular admiration. Today…this?!

I hid, rolled into a finite ball, far enough away to not see, close enough to see. The dust was just settling as the throngs of jeering people rounded the hill. A piece of me fell to the mud formed by my tears, the cry in my throat caught in a tangle of dirt and dying dreams. For as long as this Jesus had been my Leader, He too had been everyone’s Leader, multitudes straggling behind just to hear a word from His mouth. Now, He followed in their stead, to the sounds of their mockery, chanting ‘King of Jews’, spitting backwards in His face. How could this be? and I buried my face in my hands and wept. This was not how it was supposed to end.

I’ve been reading RED LETTERS all my life, but never with my heart.
During the month of April, let’s JOURNEY where JESUS journeyed,
and listen with our hearts to all He came to proclaim.