Meditation for MAUNDY THURSDAY

Not Without Grief * 

“The cords of death encompassed Me; the torrents of destruction assailed Me; the cords of Sheol entangled Me; the snares of death confronted Me.” Psalm 18:4-5

“Therefore (Christ) even sorrowed in death, & God loosed these sorrows by raising Him.”

MY MEDITATION

Remember what Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane that fateful night? He asked if what was possible for His Father to deliver Him from the torture & death that would be His. He also prayed to do His Father’s Will, & He walked resolutely into the hands of those who came to arrest Him. And He stood before the Jewish Council & then Pontius Pilate, accepting His fate, because in His great love for humankind it was the only path to walk that would lead to our forgiveness & salvation. Holy Week has a way of pointing me to my own aging & ultimately to my own death. The message of the cross & the empty tomb is that while we may sorrow over our earthly fate, our ULTIMATE fate is to be raised from the dead to follow our Savior into eternal glory. And that is a reason for peace & joy.

A Hymn of Prayer **

"When we seem in vain to pray, & our hope seems far away, in the darkness be our stay:  Hear us holy Jesus."

* I am posting a meditation for each day of Holy Week, plus Easter MON; I am also continuing to draw insights from Dr. Martin Luther.
** Adapted from:  Lutheran Service Book, "Jesus in Your Dying Woes, #447, St. 11 (CPH, 2006)