Holy week is here! Holy Week is the oldest celebration in the life of the Christian Church. This is a week that invites us to remember Jesus and all the events of the last week of His life.

As a minister, this is an incredibly busy week and I fear that in the “stuff” of this week I may lose the sense of wonder and awe this week should contain.

So, I pause to write this morning. I write in order to better remember. Yesterday was Palm Sunday – the day Jesus enters Jerusalem and sets in motion the rest of the events of this week. I was challenged in a sermon by Dan Hutchison regarding living the Lordship of King Jesus. Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!

For our Lord, Monday of Holy week was quiet – at least as far as we know in Scripture. But, there were a few events that took place. As Jesus is on his way back, after spending the night at Bethany, he sees a fig tree that has no fruit on it. Mark reminds us that it was not the season for the tree to have fruit, so it was an unusual comment by our Lord.

If we do not connect it to the next scene – that of the cleansing of the temple – Jesus appears to be simply a petulant man, angry because he was hungry. But the fig tree is connected to the cleansing of the temple. As temple worship had become barren and empty, so too the fig tree.

I read these words from Brian Coulter a few years ago in a devotional called “Be Holy.” He writes: “…Jesus asks us to keep alert in the midst of this uncertainty. He tells us to keep this kind of holy focus…Often, though, we are pulled into the anxieties and distractions of our world. We stop trying to be holy because we are busy…or we’re scared.”

As he concludes “we do not know with certainty what the future will bring, we do know with certainty that our God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.” So, let’s keep awake and alert and look for opportunities to serve as our Lord did not come to BE served, but TO serve!