“You seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.” (John 6:26).
I have recently completed a short course on the shape of stories. In the course, there was an explanation of the nature of storytelling and the ways that stories can be broken down and understood by their very structure and nature.
One of the story shapes that I was taught about was the story that starts quietly and escalates to a climax. In these stories, there is often a section that is used to prefigure the climax before it is reached.
And I have been reflecting on the shape of Christ’s story – in particular through the element of Palm Sunday… You see, today is Palm Sunday. And today is perhaps the most tragic day of the entire liturgical year.
You see on this day – twenty centuries ago – Christ was revered by the multitude as He entered into Jerusalem. And Christ – being God Himself – knew that this reverence would so quickly turn to complete scorn. And still, He smiled at the crowd and loved them. Still He saw past their sins and weaknesses and looked at the love of His story instead.
And Christ had seen this sort of thing before… “Jesus withdrew with His disciples to the sea, and a great multitude from Galilee followed; also from Judea and Jerusalem and Idumea and from beyond the Jordan and from about Tyre and Sidon a great multitude, hearing all that He did, came to Him. And He told his disciples to have a boat ready for Him because of the crowd, lest they should crush Him; for He had healed many, so that all who had diseases pressed upon Him to touch Him.” (Mark 3:7-12).
Christ had been very popular during His short Human Life. He had been followed by crowds and attended to by those who wished to become close to Him. And yet Christ knew that “You seek Me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.” (John 6:26). And even despite that – despite my own weaknesses – Christ still reaches out to help us and to help me too…
And yet, only a few short days later, Christ would be arrested, unjustly judged, tortured, and killed, and there would be no crowd following behind him to revere Him. He would not even retain His own dear friends. Even they would run from Him, afraid of all the things that could happen to them.
And I have been reflecting on this today – as I reflect on the love that Christ felt for me on that Palm Sunday twenty centuries ago – knowing that I was so weak that I would desert Him in the hour of His death. And as I think about it, it seems to me to be a story that is the saddest tragedy that could ever be told. And yet – the storyteller is my Lord and God – and despite all the sadness, betrayal and death – the story ends with LOVE (Perfect Love) and that Perfect Love restores all that is possible to be good in the world…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
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