Happy Birthday Chris - may God grant you many more years!

Christ is Risen!

Struck through the last few services of the question of who Jesus is. I'm certainly not the first person to stumble across this, but it seems front and center to me this year.. In the story for Lazarus yesterday, it was intriguing to me that the disciples have rich faith that if Lazarus was sick, he'd get better. Then Mary met Jesus on the road and said that if Jesus had gotten there sooner, Lazarus would have been healed by Jesus. Then Jesus says that Lazarus will rise again, and Mary still has great faith to say that yes, she knows her brother will rise in the resurrection. Such great faith of these people, but they still don't understand who He is. It's at that point that Jesus says, "I am the Resurrection and the Life."

Then today in the scripture, even after the triumphal entry into Jerusalem, Jesus commands the fig tree to wilt, and his disciples are amazed. They understand He's a great teacher and performs miracles and are even seeing him as the Messiah entering Jerusalem, but these people of incredible trust and faith in Jesus, who have spent years interacting closely with Him, just don't get it.

In his homily yesterday, our priest noted that there's nothing special about the crucifixion because lots of people were crucified, and that it's not the pain and suffering that Christ bore that brings about our healing and forgiveness. The critical element is Who is crucified. On Wednesday night Christ will institute the feast of the last supper, saying "this is My body and this is My blood..." Thursday, when Pilate asks if Jesus the King of the Jews, Jesus will give His answer as "I am as you say I am". And Peter himself will deny Christ three times.

God help us to recognize our Christ for Who He is. A blessed Holy Week to all of you.