INTO HIS OWN CITY

INTO HIS OWN CITY

‘He came into his own’ is an expression we use to describe a person succeeding in their chosen career. Henri Matisse was a French painter who studied under many artists until he found his own form in the early twentieth century. He was driven by a desire to discover "the essential character of things" and to produce an art "of balance, purity, and serenity." His later fame showed that he succeeded. He discovered his talent. Despite the restlessness and tumult of his life he “came into his own.”

How hard it is for so many people to do this! It is largely because of their situation: they lack the basic support system of educational opportunity and economic security. Life is simply taken up with surviving. To kill a person is a crime. But to kill their talent, by denying them any chance to develop it, is also tragic. But it happens all the time.

The desire of our creator from the beginning was that the world fulfils its purpose. Each individual person has a seed within them that requires nourishing and flourishing. Fundamental questions often have little power to hold people’s attention. To ask, ‘Why are we here?’ is an unexciting question. It seems so general and abstract. A more attractive question is, ‘What are you doing this week-end?’ Easter is a moment which invites us to ask questions. We know the basic facts of the celebration but it is quite another thing to connect them with my own life and purpose. The celebration of Easter begins with the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. It is introduced, in the Church’s liturgy, with phrase, ‘Christ entered in triumph into his own city.’

It is a striking phrase. How was it ‘his own’? Jerusalem, the most fought over city in the world, has always been the focus of longing. ‘If I forget you, Jerusalem, may my right hand wither!’ (Ps 137) And Jesus himself said, ‘Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often have I longed to gather your children together … and you refused.’ (Luke 13:34). The city was the focus of Jesus’ longing that the people would accept the reign of God. He had come ‘into his own’ (John 1:11) to achieve the purpose for which he was sent and now is the climax – here in his city.

Easter is the first victory over everything that diminishes us. It is God’s work within each person so that they ‘come into their own’, they achieve their goal. And in achieving it they contribute to the new Jerusalem, a poetic image of the new world God is planning.

29 March 2015                                   Palm Sunday

Isaiah 50:4-7                                       Philippians 2:6-11                              Mark 14:1- 15:47