Maggie: Jack, you listen to me! Never let him make you forget! Never forget mommy and daddy!
Jack: Maggie…..
Maggie: Think of a way to run home, Jack! Run home!
This was an unforgettable scene from one our very favorite family movies, “Hook”. Captain Hook was enticing Jack to believe his father had failed him by not saving him on the ship, and that he (Hook) would be the father of his dreams…..Jack’s sister, Maggie saw through the deception and called to Jack to remember….remember his parents and to “think of a way to run home, Jack! Run home!”
The middle of Passion Week is sometimes referred to as “Silent Wednesday” because there isn’t anything recorded in the “time line” of Jesus’ events necessarily. We know that the next day will be Passover and this would have been a day of many preparations for that major event. We also know this is the day that Judas conspired with the Sanhedrin to betray Jesus, but do you know what absolutely stood out to me with a county-fair sized spotlight as I read through scripture again tonight? This was the last day and night Jesus spent in Bethany – a place that had become….home.
All week, Jesus had been going into the city and returning home in the evening. There was the parade of palms as he entered triumphantly into Jerusalem, then back at night to Bethany. Again in Jerusalem to weep over the city he loves, to teach and to clear the temple of thievery….then back home. The next day, again a walk to Jerusalem for more teaching on faith and the cursing of the fig tree and after a long, difficult day….he made his way back home. It appears he spent this mid-week day in Bethany for what would be his last day with his friends in the home that was the closest to his own he would ever know. It would be the last night to sleep in the bed he so frequently borrowed. He had to have known….that this was his last night in a place that felt….familiar….safe….where he was so very loved.
But tonight I’m wondering if in those drowsy moments before sleep, if indeed any even came that night, he wasn’t thinking about another place – another…..home. I won’t even attempt to describe what “home” was for Jesus before coming to earth for those 33 years, but I’m believing as much as he loved all of us….he was ready to go home. He knew there was a path of betrayal, hatred and intense physical and emotional pain he would have to endure before he could finally return in victory, glory and majesty, but don’t you think he was longing to return? He had to have been! He had come so far since being born in that stable in Bethlehem – he had run the race set before him, secure in the knowledge that he had remained faithful and true to the plan – that he had done his Father’s will, and soon would be going home.
So, I’m sitting here in Panera, wiping tears from my swollen eyes, trying to swallow my passion fruit tea past this lump in my throat because tonight I’m just so glad to be….home. OK, so I don’t mean I live at Panera Bread (though, come to think of it, that would be pretty magical….) But, after so many long, lonely months of struggling through the pain of loss and heartache, I realize somewhere along the road of healing, of listening to all of the hours of music and even through this time spent each evening of Lent writing to dear friends, some of which I may never know….I’ve come home again – to the One who’s been a shelter over me every moment, even when I haven’t been aware.
The race may seem long….and hard….and sometimes we run it through foul weather and injured hearts….but it’s worth it. It’s so worth it!
I don’t know why my thoughts have gone this direction on Day 37 – it’s not what I had planned – but I think it’s important for someone….even if it’s just me! As we prepare our hearts for the last few days that Jesus lived among us, I just want you to know that love knows no time or dimension. The love that Jesus had for us 2000 years ago is still just as real – as intense today as it was then. And the longing we have to be with him – to be home – doesn’t have to wait for eternity to be shared. When we allow him to love us – just love us and teach us what it is to share that love with others….we’re home. <3
Homeward Bound
Kristene DiMarco
I will run, I will run this race,
And I will do it all for love.
Your love compels me forward,
Your love controls my heart,
And I just can’t, I cannot get away.
So I will fight this good fight of faith,
And I will do it all for love.
You are my great reward,
You’re so worth fighting for
And I can’t wait to see Your face.
So I will run, I will run this race,
And I will do it all for love.
Your love compels me forward,
Your love controls my heart,
And I just can’t, I cannot get away.
So I will fight this good fight of faith,
And I will do it all for love.
You are my great reward,
You’re so worth fighting for
And I can’t wait to see Your face,
And I can’t wait to see Your face.
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
Hallelujah
