Tuesday, March 26, 2013

A Prayer for Tuesday of Holy Week 2013


“Holy and compassionate God, your dear Son went not up to joy before He suffered pain, and entered not into glory before He was crucified.  Mercifully grant that we, walking the way of the Cross, may find it the way of life and peace; through Christ Jesus your Son, our Savior.  Amen.”  UM Book of Worship, #347

The way of the Cross is always difficult for us to envision because often we cannot comprehend the level of cruelty human beings are capable of.  Yet if we were to look around us we would easily find unspeakable cruelty; in the way we gossip about others in attempts to destroy their character and turn others against them, in the way we withhold our tithes to the Lord and our charity to those who are forced to do without, in the way we turn our backs on the least among us because there is “nothing in it for us”.  Cruelty is not always defined by physical maltreatment of those we do not like or care for.

Jesus deliberately aligned Himself with the “least” among those of society because this is what He sought to teach us about the Kingdom of the Most High God.  “Those who are exalted will be humbled; and those who are humbled will be exalted.”  Jesus took on the pain of the Cross to spare us.  Should we not at least take upon ourselves the care of those who cannot care for themselves just as Jesus bore what you and I cannot bear ourselves?

Blessings,
Michael

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