Don't Close Your
Eyes
Scripture: Psalm 71:3
A colleague of mine recently
told me about an ancient time, long ago before there were VCRs. His preschool
daughter’s favorite movie was The Wizard of Oz and she looked forward to its
television showing each year. However, finally the day came when my friend’s
family had enough extra funds to purchase their first VCR. And when this
happened, my friend realized he could tape The Wizard of Oz for his daughter so
that she could watch whenever she wanted. The whole family's schedule didn’t
have to stop when it came on TV.
Ecstatic, this dad suddenly had a great epiphany about the recording
tool on his new machine.
Being the protective dad that
he was, he hated to see the fear that came over his daughter’s face when she
watched the scene where Dorothy was charged by the wizard to go to the Wicked
Witch’s house and get her broomstick. All the scary, flying monkeys were weird
and seemed to spoil the light-hearted fun in the rest of the movie. This dad
realized with the gift of the record and stop button on his remote control, he
could create for his daughter an entirely different film, more to her liking.
He could opt not to record the flying monkey at all.
And it worked! From that
point on, his daughter saw what her father re-created: the good parts of the film,
followed by the happy ending of Dorothy and her friends back safely at home.
And, it was really nice, but it wasn't true.
And I believe what this
father did with his daughter’s movie tape is exactly what many of us do with
this story of Jesus. We attend Palm Sunday worship and don't think about Jesus
until Easter, so we have this glorious picture of Jesus as the victorious one
who rides into Jerusalem and then later appears as the Risen Christ, having
overcome the powers of sin and death standing at the tomb. But, we don't sit with Jesus through all of
the dark and scary stuff in the middle. Let this Holy Week be different for all
of us.
Prayer: Lord God, draw
us near to the cross. Help us to watch and wait with you this week. AMEN.
The Reverend Elizabeth Hagan
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