On the Road with Jesus - Lenten 2019

The season of Lent is often called the Lenten Journey.  In keeping with that, this Lenten season 2019 we will go on the last journey that Jesus took on the other side of his resurrection. After spending most of his life in his home area of Galilee, he redirected his path toward the south, Jerusalem. Jesus knew he would die at the end of the journey. On the way, he would tell his followers three times that it was his destiny to die a painful and ignominious death as a ransom for many.  

Mark reports Jesus’s journey in a carefully organized and concisely written section of his Gospel, Mark 8:22-10:52.  Again and again, Mark would tell us that Jesus was “on the road” – relentlessly and intentionally headed toward Jerusalem and the cross. Along the way Jesus called people to follow him. And, he taught anyone who will follow him what journeying with him will be like.  Christians have long recognized that, in these three chapters, we receive Jesus’s personal teaching about discipleship, i.e., about what is means to be his followers.

Lent begins with Ash Wednesday.  That is the day that we take to reassess where we are in our walks with the Lord.  Through the Lenten Season, we who love Jesus enter into a time in which we recommit ourselves to his Lordship, listen to his teaching, and thank him for his willingness to die in our place on the cross.  At the end of the Lenten journey, we will remember that, at the end of his road, Jesus showed us all that even the grave could not hold him.

May this journey together as a church family draw each of us to a closer walk with our Lord.