Author Holly Reimer
Mark 11:1-11
Reflection: v. 9, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’
Folks saw Jesus. They welcomed him into Jerusalem with cries of praise, shouts of joy, and offerings at his feet. Yet did they really know him when they saw him? There are different kinds of knowledge: head and heart. They ‘knew’ Jesus in their heads, knowing his name and possibly what they’d heard him doing and preaching. But to really know something or someone resides in the heart.
It is something that you internalize into your very being, something you experience and feel from the inside-out. The crowds ‘knew’ Jesus in their heads, but it hadn’t been internalized. They didn’t recognize that God was before them, showing them not just a way to Jerusalem, but to life. Do we know Jesus, in such a way that goes to our core? Have we been transformed in such a way that we have experienced Jesus’ compassion as it extends to the vulnerable woman who has been fearful of the men on the street lurking her way, finding her a safe space to take refuge? Do we know Jesus in such a way that we take time to sit with a stranger, to learn their name and to look them in their eyes? Do we know Jesus in such a way that we care for people on the margins, even though it may push us to the margins as well? As we come into Holy Week, I encourage us all to take a deeper look at our knowledge of Jesus Christ. To us, Christ should never be someone whom we recite accolades about. Christ is incarnate—lived in us.
Prayer God, as we read of Christ’s entry into Jerusalem and reflect on what we know, may it be a wisdom and a knowledge that is formed deep in the depths of our souls. May we be a way that others can know Christ, too. Amen.