Summary
All In: Holy Week and the Marathon of Discipleship
Paul often pictures the Christian life as a race 1 Corinthians 9:24-26, and Holy Week is a fitting place to learn what kind of race it is. A marathon runner moves through a recognizable arc of emotions—anticipation at the starting line, euphoria when the gun fires, then boredom, doubt, and anger as the miles wear on, followed by bargaining and despair, and finally a renewed fortitude that carries the runner across the line into the afterglow. The disciples who walked with Jesus into Jerusalem moved through that same arc, and so do we.
The triumphal entry Luke 19:29-40 is the starting line. Everything in Scripture has been leaning toward this week: the promise in Genesis 3:15 of the one who would crush the serpent's head, the covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15, Moses leading the people out of bondage, the promise to David in 2 Samuel 7 of an everlasting throne, Isaiah's suffering servant, and Micah's ruler from Bethlehem Micah 5:2-4. When Jesus rides the colt down the Mount of Olives, the long anticipation breaks open in shouts of "Hosanna." The crowd is euphoric, certain they know what kind of king has come.
But the triumphal entry magnifies a tension that defines the whole week: the gap between the earthly Messiah people expected and the heavenly kingdom Christ actually brings. The disciples are "all in"—Thomas even says, "Let us also go, that we may die with him" John 11:16—but their commitment rises and falls with circumstances. Within days, the same crowd that laid down cloaks will strip Jesus of his cloak, his dignity, and his life. Peter, so sure he would die with Christ, will deny him with curses. When Jesus does not turn out to be the warrior king they wanted, doubt festers and the silent Lamb is led to the slaughter Isaiah 53:7.
We are no different. Our emotions ebb and flow with our circumstances—a job lost, a relationship fractured, a death that was not supposed to come—and we, too, are tempted to bargain, to deny, to quit. The Pharisees tried to leverage their earthly authority against Jesus; Satan tried to leverage death. But Jesus is not to be bargained with. Unlike us, he does not ebb and flow with feeling, because he is God: steadfast in love, steadfast in justice, steadfast in mercy Lamentations 3:22-23.
This is the heart of the matter explored in "All In" 3-24-24: Jesus was all in before the foundation of the world. Ephesians 1:4-5 tells us he chose us in Christ before creation, destining us for adoption according to the good pleasure of his will. That good pleasure was to empty himself, take the form of a servant, and be obedient unto death Philippians 2:5-8. He entered Jerusalem knowing exactly what awaited him at Calvary, and he went anyway—all in for the forgiveness of your sins and the salvation of your soul.
In Holy Baptism we are called into this marathon, and by grace Christ both trains and sustains us through his Word, the promise of forgiveness, and his own body and blood given in Holy Communion. He knows we will falter. So he gives us brothers and sisters to run alongside us, to encourage and pray and remind one another of the One who was all in from before time. Satan thought death was his to leverage, but on the third day Christ rose triumphant, crossing the finish line for us and dragging us across with him by his grace. The marathon ends not in collapse but in afterglow—singing God's praises now, and more fully in the presence of his glory eternally.
Video citations
- "All In" 3-24-24 — If you would please open your Bibles to the Gospel of Luke, the 19th chapter. If you're using a Pue edition of the Bible, you can find this on page 72 in the New Testament. The Gospel of Luke, the…