This week is a familiar week.

Yes. It is Holy Week. At the same time, it is a holy week. 

For folks like me who have been around the church practically since birth, it is a week that comes with familiar patterns, well-worn words, soothing songs, meaningful moments, haunting heartbreak, and cheerful celebration.

If I am not careful, this week can become like a train, set on immutable rails. A train that chugs relentlessly toward its foregone and well-known terminus. 

It can be very easy to overlook the fact that this holiest, most pivotal of weeks in the history of the world was made up of a series of CHOICES. Choices made by first century religious leaders. Choices made by their Roman overlords. Choices made by his disciples. 

And choices made by Jesus. 

I wonder if we sometimes forget that. I wonder if the familiar Holy Week narrative sometimes tilts us a little too heavily toward the “100% divine” side of Jesus’ nature, blinding us to the agonizing choices faced by Jesus’ human side in this final week of his earthly life.

He chose to “set his face toward Jerusalem,” (Luke 9:53, NRSVU) where he knew he would meet conflict and resistance. He chose to parody the Roman victory parades by riding into the city on the back of a donkey. He chose to fling over the tables of the merchants and moneychangers in the outer court of the Temple, ruining their businesses and berating them as “a den of thieves.” He chose to take off his outer robe, tie a towel around his waist, and wash the dusty feet of his followers. 

And on that holy Thursday night, he chose to celebrate the Passover with those same close friends, including the one who he knew was planning to sell him out for thirty pieces of silver. 

All of Jesus’ actions that week… all of his words were choices. Choices that led to a horrible, inevitable conclusion the next day. 

But they were also the choices that led to a new world and new life for you and me. 

I emphasize the choices Jesus made throughout his life and ministry because that is one place where you and I intersect with him. WE also face choices every day. Small choices and large choices. And as was the case for Jesus himself, our presents and our futures are shaped by the choices we make right now.

So how do you choose? What informs your choices? Which values rise to the top as you sift through myriad options and try to decide between them? 

And then… what role do you allow God to play in your choices?

If you are anything like me, you can look back at your life and see both good and poor choices strewn along the path. Some of those choices probably carried huge consequences while others barely registered. 

The great thing about choices, though, is that we have the chance to make new ones all the time. We can’t choose the circumstances we face, true. But we can absolutely choose how we will respond to those circumstances.

Today, on this Holy Thursday (also known as Maundy Thursday, deriving from the word “mandate” as a reminder of Christ’s Last Supper mandate to “do this in remembrance of me”) I invite us each to exercise a new level of care with the choices we face.

I invite us to “dream forward” about the ramifications of those choices. I invite us to think broadly of all the people those choices might affect.

But mostly I invite us to try and pattern our decision-making a little more after Jesus’ own. His sole counsel was God. His sole point of reference was God’s will. The only audience he sought to please with each choice was an audience of ONE: his Heavenly Father. In fact, so intertwined was Jesus’ mind with God’s that he said, “The Father and I are one.” (John 10:30, NRSVU).

No, it won’t make your choices any easier or the consequences less painful. But it just might bring you a peace that passes all understanding.

Abundant blessings;