Easter Hopes and Fears

I often wonder how Jesus felt as he entered Jerusalem at the beginning of what we call Holy Week.

He was met by triumphant crowds who saw him as the person who was to save his nation from domination by the Romans. Yet as the week went on we saw a man who shrugged off the adulation of the crowds, spent time with his friends, sought refuge outside the city for peace and respite and then gave the Passover meal with his closest a new and everlasting meaning. It did not end there as he was tried and in some people’s eyes found guilty and cruelly executed.

These are all things we know and in some ways take for granted. Yet surely it begs the question – How did Jesus the man feel inside himself? I guess he must have been fearful about what he was about to face. As Jesus, the Son of God, he knew how it was all to end as he made that utterly self-giving act on Calvary’s tree.

How do we feel as we approach Holy Week and Easter in 2020? With hopes and fears like him? Fears, for ourselves and others, as we see the likelihood of the Coronavirus continuing to spread throughout the world and in our own country. Fears that we and those we love may be affected. Fears that our lives may be disrupted or even worse!

Yet we surely must have hope – hope as Our Lord himself had that his death and resurrection would lead to a better world. Our hope must be that we will get through this situation and come closer together as a caring nation – one where we may not put our own desires to the fore but may try to ensure others are cared for in every way and allow the love of Our Lord to surround us day by day.

May we all be able to be together in prayer and celebrate the joy of Easter in our hearts and in our homes as we go forward in faith and hope having cast aside our fears.

Revd Canon Alan Woods