Entering the closing days of Lent, I feel a profound change of focus. Whereas at the beginning the emphasis is, almost necessarily, on ourselves (on self-examination, on our need for repentance, on self-denial and so on) NOW the focus shifts dramatically to the final week of Jesus’ earthly life – Holy Week. I find this something of a relief, as overmuch introspection has been known, certainly in my case, to spiral downwards into desolation and depression.

It’s as though the challenge now is to become less self-absorbed, in order to become more Christ-centred … it’s the challenge to run counter culture, acknowledging that we are not the centre of the universe after all, that that prerogative belongs only to our Creator God – to our ‘God-made-flesh’. A lyric of a song by Keith Green impacted me strongly back in the 1980s, it went: “it’s so hard to see when my eyes are on me”. A W Tozer, considered by many as a 20th century prophet, adds: “If we are to gaze into the face of God, we must look beyond our present circumstances”.  For all of us those circumstances are less than ideal (and particularly so in the past 12 months) – battling with health, isolation, lockdown fatigue, family concerns and other such serious matters …

One translation of Hebrews 12:2 exhorts us to “look away to JESUS”, which means looking beyond our present conditions, whatever they may be.

Holy Week presents us with that vital opportunity to “look away“, reflecting on some of its stand-out events:

  • how our ‘God-made-flesh’ deliberately (and provocatively) rides into Jerusalem, enacting the ancient prophecy of Zechariah centuries before – that’s what Palm Sunday’s all about
  • how He angrily attempts a spring-clean of the Temple precincts (condemning the commercialisation of His Father’s business)
  • how He courageously engages religious and political leaders (Pharisees & Herodians) in debate
  • how He tells gripping stories of vineyards, of virgins, of celebratory feasts, of sheep and goats, of the Last Days
  • how He shares a Jewish Passover meal with His closest friends, moments of great intimacy, when, among other things, He washes their feet, institutes what we know as the Eucharistic Meal, foretells His betrayal, the denial of Peter, abandonment by everyone and His humiliation on the cross
  • how He agonises privately in Gethsemane, before utterly surrendering to the Father’s Will
  • how He’s arrested, tried and falsely accused, passed between Pilate and Herod, mocked by the soldiers, scourged and crucified … and for too many, that’s where the story seems to end, however …
  • how He rose triumphantly from the dead, appearing to women, apostles and on one occasion to 500 disciples at the same time over a period of 40 days prior to His Ascension and Exaltation

We know the story so well – The Greatest Story Ever Told …

It bids us to “look away” from ourselves, from what St Paul refers to as our ‘momentary afflictions’ and to grasp something of God’s incomparable love for us; to see in our ‘God-made flesh’ the Lamb who removes the stain of sin, guilt and shame; to marvel at the extent of saving grace; to receive and believe and then, to engage in worshipping Him, for worship is a primary activity of heaven … St John, the apostle writes: Then I looked, and I heard around the throne … the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honour and glory and blessing!” And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, “To Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honour and glory and might forever and ever!”

So, in conclusion, I encourage you to be still for a moment; to listen to the music video linked below, and based on a well-known song, entitled: “Turn Your Eyes Upon JESUS”; to consider Jesus, our ‘God-made-flesh’ and to worship Him. May He bring refreshment to your soul, and a renewal of hope and peace this Easter-tide.