Daily Devotions for Holy Week
Holy Tuesday
—John 12:46
Jesus says, “I have come as light into the world.” It is a world of his making, St. John tells us in the Prologue to this gospel: “He was in the world, and the world came into being through him, yet the world did not know him.” (John 1:10) It is a world that is confused and disoriented, a world in which it is hard to perceive what is good and true and lovely. And it is a world that belongs to the One who brought it into being.
Oddly enough, Holy Week, for all of its moments of violence and ruthless politics, is also a time for remembering that Jesus comes as Light into this world. He comes into those moments in our lives when things are suddenly fraught with forces beyond our control, when we sense we may lose our grip on reality, when everything seems alien to our yearning for a world in which respect and kindness predominate. “The light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it,” writes St. John (John 1:5)
Jesus is tried on trumped up charges, found guilty by a corrupt political system, and put to death because he challenges the powers that be. Many are complicit in his death, and few stand with him at the end as he dies. Yet in this wrenching sequence of events, there is light. There is the promise, through Jesus, of God’s enduring and inescapable presence in every valley of the shadow of death—those of our own making and those that come despite our best efforts to hold them at bay.
May the Light of the World be known to me and through me this day, in my life, in my household, in my community, in my actions. Amen.
Copyright © Mary Earle.
