The Light At The End Of The Tunnel
Saturday of the Fifth Week of Lent
My dear encountered couples:
Jesus was on the ten most wanted list. I don’t know who the other nine might have been, but it was obvious that Caiaphas, the high priest, and the Pharisees, considered Jesus Public Enemy Number One, and they wanted him apprehended - was it dead or alive? They wanted him silenced. But it wasn’t going to happen until Jesus permitted it to happen. He wasn’t going to be taken by surprise. He would choose the time, the place, the details. Jesus died for us not against his will, but out of love he let happen the evil that was lurking in the hearts of those men.
We may not be in as much control of our futures as Jesus was. Accidents happen that we don’t foresee, illnesses occur when we think we’re at our healthy best, people hurt us when we least expect it. But none of what takes place in our lives is a surprise to God. He has known every detail of every moment of our years since before we were born. The joys we would have, the sorrows we would endure, all the Palm Sundays and Good Fridays of our lives, he knew about them throughout eternity. And he arranged for there to be an Easter awaiting us when it would all have ended.
In today’s gospel Jesus is in hiding, his time had not yet come. Tomorrow he rides into Jerusalem with head held high to face what he knows he must allow to be done to him. He will experience fear, tremendous human fear, but instead of allowing the fear to overcome him, he keeps his eyes on the light at the end of the tunnel, to not only his resurrection and ascension, but to ours that he will make possible by his death.
We should keep our eyes on the end of the tunnel too. Try not to concentrate on the bitter in your life. God has already made plans for getting you through that. Rather, focus on what is planned for you when it is all done and over. Eternal life with Christ and with all those you love.
