Lent IV, March 6, 2005
“See, we are going up to Jerusalem”
Matthew 20:17-28
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Are we there yet? The perpetual question of the child in the backseat of every horse-drawn carriage, station wagon, minivan and SUV since time immemorial: Are we there yet? Well, are we? We’ve already had three weeks of this Lent stuff: somber music, no Hallelujahs, ashes and sackcloth, repentance and sin. Like children who know the destination is the grandparents’, or the campground, or Disneyland, we know that the destination is Easter. Pastel colors, Easter eggs, candy, green grass, and rabbits—and, by the way, the resurrection of Jesus.
When you were a child, did you ever wish you had a time machine or a supersonic jet to speed you to the end of your time strapped in a car with your siblings and parents? Perhaps six weeks of Lent is too long, leaving us claustrophobic and exhausted by the time Holy Saturday rolls around. Maybe we need a Lenten time machine that will move the days more quickly to the end of March, to a reprieve from all this purple and black and solemnity. Are we there yet?
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