Holy Week Devotional Contest: Andrea Marino
Passionate Love
Jesus did much to reveal the Kingdom of His Father. Here was God in flesh, speaking parables and displaying extraordinary feats so people could grasp a reality beyond what their natural eye could see. On the night of His betrayal, Jesus washed the disciples’ feet to impart a message. Aghast at the idea of his Lord performing what was a lowly service, Peter adamantly declined. Unless a person is washed by Jesus, he cannot have a part of Him (John 13:8). An exposé of spiritual significance is this foot-washing ceremony of Jesus, right before His death. Since a believer’s body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, he is already clean; yet his feet can take him to places God would rather he not go. Hence, the cleansing of one’s feet, a depiction for daily purification and which is ours through Jesus. All of the Lord’s actions are a model of humility in love. We will be brutally tempted by the enemy, challenged to walk as Jesus did, rather than by the inclinations of our flesh. “Father, if it is Your will, take this cup from Me; nevertheless, not My will but Yours be done.” Luke 22:42 NLT.
Holy week is all about the love of God, and began with Jesus’ triumphant entrance into Jerusalem on a donkey. Amid a myriad of swaying palm branches, shouts of hosanna filling the air, crowds of people lined the streets to hail their King. Within days of Palm Sunday, however, the people’s faith in Jesus died. Initially recognizing this Man, sent by God to save them from oppressive tyranny, Holy Week began to look nothing at all like this. As Moses lifted up a snake in the wilderness, the Son of Man would be lifted up so that everyone who believes in Him would have eternal life (John 3:14). Indeed, Jesus coming to earth, shedding His own blood – not the blood of others – seemed too strange a way to save them.
We are to be separated from the world system. Holy Week makes clear Jesus was. We who have come to receive Him know His suffering, while we were yet sinners, had a definite purpose. God was pleased to crush His only Son on our behalf so that we could be made righteous (Isaiah 53:5, 10). Agonizing as life can be for us, now within a sin-polluted domain of evil, we embrace our relationship to Jesus, as a fellowship in His suffering. We accept our monetary light afflictions as producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory (2 Corinthians 4:17). God invites us into His great mysteries. These mysteries hold everything pertaining to life, as it was in the beginning in the Garden of Eden.
For the joy awaiting Him, Jesus endured the cross (Hebrews 12.3). Holy Week culminates with Easter morning, our Lord’s resurrection. Christ in us is the hope of glory. Such hope is one able to transcend the current world of evil. Fixing our eyes on Jesus, we see God’s Kingdom in our midst. Even more than streets paved with gold – where our feet will walk upon one day – is having the deepest longings of our heart for true love, joy, and peace satisfied now. Somber as Holy Week is in reflection of our Lord’s body being sacrificed in death, we who belong to Him rejoice in all He accomplished for us on the cross. Death could not hold Him in the grave; Jesus is alive! The promise we hold and look forward to is one glorious day when our King will return to earth and dwell with us forever.
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Meet Andrea
Andrea is mom to four great kids and Grammy to four adorable grands. Passionate about Jesus and spreading His Good news, when Andrea is not blogging, she is somewhere cycling along wooded roads with her Lord.