Wednesday of Holy Week Hebrews 12: 1-3 John 13: 21-32

I remember how, in the past, I would walk on Dartmoor. It can be quite an unforgiving place as well as being full of beauty. Only the unwary go unprepared, to remain near a car park and within sight of the road is not pushing the boundaries of danger too far. It is when one strides out into the wilds of the moor that care needs to be taken.

Before setting off the rucksack is checked to cater for all eventualities. Then it is picked up and laid down quickly. Far too heavy for the planned walk. Out comes the excess placed in including the proverbial ‘kitchen sink’. Only then can the proposed venture be considered. The handicap which would have weighed us down has been removed.

Paul, in his letter to the Hebrews, exhorts us to run the race that is set before us with perseverance. We are running on a track which does not just meander along its way as a visitor would wander when exploring a new location, but one which has a planned direction and route with a goal which is to be like Christ.

In addition we are not travelling alone. Paul tells us that we are travelling in the company of a great cloud of witnesses. It would be like embarking on a perilous journey, with danger lurking on every side, with all sorts of hazards and traps ready to ensnare the unsuspected, and all of the time surrounded with a host of those who have gone before us, who have successfully completed the path and who are encouraging us on.

This Holy Week Jesus is traveling along the path that will lead him to the Cross. He is doing is with a cloud of witnesses, except here the witnesses include all of those Christians throughout the centuries who, each year look back on those events with grateful hearts. Grateful that, even leading to his death, Jesus obeyed the word of his Father. In so doing he died crying out that our sins may be forgiven us.

Those sins are like the contents of our kitbag weighing us down. Contents which we take out and put to one side no longer needed on our journey. Jesus is there forgiving us our sins as we cast them out. Then we can proceed with our own journey and with our own witnesses looking down on us as we go. Thanks be to God that the heavy burden that we would have travelled with has been removed. We now stand a better chance of reaching the goal set before us.

Collect for the Wednesday of Holy Week

Lord of all life and power,

who through the mighty resurrection of your Son

overcame the old order of sin and death

to make all things new in him:

grant that we, being dead to sin

and alive to you in Jesus Christ,

may reign with him in glory;

to whom with you and the Holy Spirit

be praise and honour, glory and might,

now and in all eternity.