Easter People - a meditation
In the lovely hymn “Brother, sister, let me serve you,” the second verse begins with these words:
”We are pilgrims on a journey”. For some that journey began on a “Road to Damascus” when God broke into our lives and called us to faith. It may have been a dramatic experience, or it may have been a gradual awareness of God’s constant nudging until the call was answered.
However, sometimes we think that when we come to faith and make a commitment to following Jesus Christ we have arrived, when in fact we have onl
y begun our journey.
On that Pilgrimage of faith we travel along many roads. As Holy Week and Easter approach I would like to invite you to walk along the Road to Calvary. While I was working in England I remember one Good Friday, joining with Christians from the other churches in our town, to follow the journey Jesus made on the road to Calvary as we walked prayerfully round our local Roman Catholic church following the Stations of the Cross. In a sense we were walking with the women who followed Jesus, and in a very real way feeling something of the terrible sufferings of our Lord, even before he reached Golgotha, to be nailed to the cross. Having visual images helped us focus and ponder each stage of his journey and somehow enter into it in a very meaningful way.
In Holy Week and in particular on Good Friday you might like to read St Matthew 27: 27 -55 and in your imagination walk that road with our Lord, hearing the mocking, the scourging and the nails being driven into his hands, asking him to deepen your love for him as you do so.
At Easter you might join Cleopas and his friend on the Road to Emmaus, as you read St Luke 24: 13 -33, sharing their questioning and deep disillusionment as they talked with the “stranger” on the road – yet feeling their hearts warmed. Then in the home at Emmaus watch the “stranger” take the bread, give thanks, break and share it. Allow the amazing fact of his risen presence fill you with joy and wonder, until all you can exclaim is “Alleluia – the Lord is risen indeed, Alleluia!”
Remember, we are Easter people and Alleluia is our Song, for the risen Lord walks with on every step we take as we continue our pilgrimage of faith.
Can I suggest 2 hymns you might like to ponder - 234 and 253 in the Church Hymnal.
(This meditation was prepared by Rev Elizabeth Harron, who is a Methodist minister.)