Where Joy and Sorrow Meet
This year we're collaborating with writers across the Augustine Collective, a network of student-led Christian journals, to bring you a series of short devotional articles during this season of Lent, the 40-day period prior to Easter. Find this series also published by UChicago's CANA Journal and UC Berkeley's TAUG.
by heaven franklin, uc berkeley
“Hosanna, hosanna!”
Shouts of praise rippled through as the crowd followed Jesus into Bethpage, the Mount of Olives. People hurried along the road, and while a couple searched for a donkey for Jesus to ride on, others laid out their cloaks on the ground. They plucked branches from the trees and laid them, too, on the ground. Dust and excitement clung to the air, and everywhere you looked, there was a sense of wonder. Celebration. Expectation.
Though what may have looked like a parade beheld something deeper.
Jesus received praise for arriving in Jerusalem, all while knowing the suffering that awaited Him. Jesus would suffer something horrific. He would be falsely accused of blasphemy, mocked, spit on, nailed, and slowly lose His life on a cross by Roman authorities and Jewish leaders. No one knew what was coming except for Him. The crowd didn’t know their Messiah would soon no longer be walking among them. The crowd didn’t know He would willingly lose His life for them. Why exactly did Jesus have to die this way?
1 Peter 2:24 says, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.” Jesus carried the burdens we couldn’t carry. Because we were born with a sinful nature, after Adam and Eve disobeyed in the garden, we deserve the consequence of death for our sins (or wrongdoings that don’t honor God).
Yet, we have received forgiveness for every sin we’ve already committed and will commit. He chose to bear them all, not because we deserved it, but because He loves us. His death was an act of grace, so that we can be made new. He died for you and me, imperfect people who don’t deserve His mercy, but He bestowed such mercy upon us by dying on the cross.
That is why this moment in the Bible holds sorrow and joy.
It’s just like how we can feel joyful because we just got an internship, but also sad because perhaps we have to move away for it. We know it’ll be a great experience, even as we know we have to leave something behind. There’s this odd tension of feeling like we have to choose one feeling over the other. And sometimes, we don’t know what to do with it, so we try to rush past it or ignore it altogether. But maybe we were never meant to. After all, Jesus didn’t.
Jesus prayed to His Father, “...if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” [1] He knew that this was God’s will, but knowing how much He would have to suffer still overwhelmed Him. He knew He was doing this for all of mankind, so that we may know Him and His love. He didn’t turn away and stepped forward for us, which is why we don’t have to be afraid to hold onto joy and sorrow at the same time. We can bring both to Him, trusting Him to walk us through the tension.
What looked like the end was not. What looked like the beginning of loss was leading to something greater: Jesus rising from the dead. Through His resurrection, death was defeated, and now we can know God and live a life with Him forever. What appeared as loss was the path to victory over sin, leading to the redemption of all mankind. Even when we can’t yet see the full picture, God is at work. The moments when hope is entangled with fear give us an opportunity to deepen our trust and grow in our faith. We don’t have to make everything make sense because God will meet us right there, in the in-between.
If you’re a Christian, I pray you’re reminded of why we celebrate Easter. Of why there’s something to still rejoice about, even though Jesus’ resurrection happened so many years ago. His death and resurrection are why we can have a relationship with Him and live for Him. How does this change your view of Jesus and your relationship with Him, knowing that He walked willingly into suffering?
If you don’t consider yourself a Christian, I pray you’re left with something to sit with. At the center of this story is a man who walked straight into suffering, fully aware and willing, for a people who didn’t understand why He would. What do you make of a love that chooses sacrifice, even when it’s not fully understood?
Because even here, between the celebration and the cross, His love for a broken people is evident.
Heaven Franklin is a third-year English major at UC Berkeley who consumes too much matcha.
Source
[1] Matthew 26:39