Are you prepared?

Now as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside and said to them, "We are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will turn him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified. On the third day he will be raised to life!" Matthew 20:17-19

The most dramatic event that would ever take place on the world's stage is about to happen and who really knew? I don't think the disciples had any clue about what was really going to happen. As I reflect on all those long ago events I get caught up in the drama myself, and yet life continues all around me, much as it did then. I can imagine how the disciples must have felt, their lives temporarily suspended in time as Jesus took them aside....no doubt dread and sadness filling their hearts as the gravity of the situation took hold.

Sometime later, Jesus and his disciples were at the home of Simon the leper and a woman came in with a jar of costly perfume and proceeded to pour it on Jesus head as he was reclining at the table. The disciples were indignant.....
"Aware of this, Jesus said to them, "Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me. When she poured this perfume on my body, she did it to prepare me for burial. I tell you the truth, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her." Matthew 26:10-13
A woman crashes into the world of men, and does something incredibly bold, and Jesus sees her heart, honors her act. Did she know what was going to happen?

So much drama in this week, against the backdrop of a world that largely goes on just as before....I wonder who really knew besides Jesus what was about to happen? At what point did Judas go from dipping into the treasury to fleeing out into the night to betray Jesus? When did Satan first start whispering darkness into his heart and when did he start to listen? How could he have listened day after day, seen the miracles, the love and still turned away?

His closest friends, the twelve, then eleven.....I feel for them. I can't imagine the depth of their sadness, and yet today, on Palm Sunday I feel their joy!

"Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!"