Planning properly and wisely for the future and acting accordingly is never easy, even for the wise and well intentioned. How much harder in a world where most people only have their own interests at heart. God’s way forward for human beings turns ideas of success and failure on their head.

This week's news 

Journeys don’t always reach their intended conclusion. Future plans rarely have universal support or understanding. This week the Chancellor has to admit that the debt reduction that all the austerity measures has been to promote is as far off as ever. Other parties quarrel with the way he has taken and think he should turn back. 
President Obama travels to Israel. All sides in the conflict have different hopes for the future and see different plans for the journey ahead. 

The Australia government is apologising for removing babies from mothers the government thought were unfit. No doubt they thought they were acting for the best but they are having to admit the way they chose has caused a legacy of pain. 
The EU and the Cyprus people and parliament are at odds about the bail out package; all sorts of people are being involved in the renegotiations for the way ahead. 

Reflection

Jesus sets out on the short journey that precipitates his passion with enigmatic instructions about getting a donkey. He was perfectly capable of walking into Jerusalem, he had walked it every other time he went in. But this time was different, he knew it, the disciples knew it. 

The donkey was the signal: the prophecy of Zechariah was to be enacted. The king was coming, gentle and humble, but king nevertheless. What hopes must have risen within the disciples as they heard the instructions: how excited the crowd proved to be. Not all of them would have been sure what Jesus was about but it had to be better than Pontius Pilate’s brutality. 

This journey gets better and better: first stop the Temple (well according to Matthew Mark and Luke, in John, the cleansing of the Temple happens when Jesus goes up to Passover the first time after his baptism (John 2.12). Jesus takes on those who make the ritual sacrifices extraordinarily expensive and therefore out of reach of most ordinary people. What hopes they must have had. No doubt as many ideas about the way ahead as there were people in the crowd but all of them, I expect, triumphalistic and successful. 

Jesus had done his best to explain to those who followed him what he was to expect in Jerusalem (Luke 18.31) but I doubt any took that seriously anymore once they had seen Jesus reception on his way into Jerusalem. Even Jesus’s sad prophecy to Jerusalem (Luke 19.41) didn’t seem to dent the crowd’s enthusiasm. By the end of the week Jesus was dead and the disciples were broken men. It was only something that no-one could plan for that revealed the totally unexpected way ahead and showed how, in God’s topsy turvy ecomony, the humble and gentle become king through suffering and service.

Prayer

This could be put on the sheet to take away with the palm crosses for people to use in Holy Week. 

Loving God, 

the peoples of our world seek power, wealth and domination

You offer fellowship, service and humility.

Loving God, 

we in your Church seek position, influence 

and respect in our wider communities.

You counsel fellowship, service and humility.

As individuals, 

we want the best for our families 

and financial security.

You call us to walk the way of the cross.

In this Holy Week, 

you startle, frighten and demoralise us 

with the radical nature of your call.

Break our self-satisified and limited hopes 

before the horror of the cross

so that on Easter morning, like Jesus, 

we will be ready to receive our life from you. 

Amen.

Questions

• Imagine Jesus and a few friends standing at a bus-stop on the outskirts of a major city. He catches the bus and rides into town. Where would he go to confront the powers that be and what would he say?
• Which parts of Jesus’ teaching are most relevant for us in the developed world today? Make sure you reference Jesus’ actual words, not ‘Christian teaching’.
• What parts of Jesus’ teaching do you find hardest to understand or obey?

Action

Jesus was able to stick to what he knew God required of him because he prayed each step of the way. We all have different lifestyles and commitments and the pattern of sitting down in a quiet place for a time of quiet isn’t something we can all fit it. But Paul says pray continually (1 Thessalonians 5.17), so think of specific strategies to help you pray on the go. Choose a prayer companion, not necessarily someone you can be with and pray with but someone who also wants to learn to ‘pray continually’. Share your strategies with each other and check in with each other regularly. Be honest with each other about what stops you praying on the go and think together about how you can work round the obstacles. You might not always be able to meet together but email, Facebook and texts offer so many ways of keeping in touch and offering support.

Young People

It is good to be enthusiastic and whole hearted when you are young but the challenges and problems of life can often undermine our determination to follow Jesus. Sometimes we learn wisdom as we grow older; sometimes what Jesus asks seems too hard. Ask some of the middle-aged and older members of your congregation to come and tell you about the ways in which they have found it hard to put their Christian faith into practice and ask for their wisdom and advice as to how to do it differently.

Joanna Penberthy is vicar of Charlton Musgrove, Cucklington and Stoke Trister in Somerset.

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