"...What she has done will be told in memory of her."

Every year, Hope Lutheran Church offers a program called "Journey to the Cross" to the community. It is an opportunity to walk through the events of Jesus' last week in Jerusalem - from his entry to his resurrection. All five senses are involved as our members tell the story of the various characters who came into contact with Jesus.
Every year, I walk through it as well with my family, but this year something struck me. We were listening as JoAn played the part of Mary - the sister of Lazarus. She was describing how she (Mary) opened up a very expensive bottle of ointment made from pure Nard and annointed Jesus' feet and wiped his feet with her hair while Jesus stayed with them in Bethany. (John 12:1-8) Matthew and Mark's account of the same story don't identify her as Mary, but add these words of Jesus:
"And truly, I say to you, wherever the gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in memory of her."
As JoAn retold and enacted this story, I thought of those words of Jesus. I also thought: Mary, and all the other cast of characters were just ordinary people caught up into, and privileged to be made players in an extraordinary chain of events surrounding God in-the-flesh, Jesus of Nazareth. They were privileged to be witnesses to the extraordinary and universe-changing events of Christ's Passion - his death and resurrection. Mary and those other characters would be absolutely amazed that we would still be telling and portraying their stories. Their stories have been told for 2000 years, and here we are today in the year 2012, still telling her story, just as Jesus said we would.
Thank you JoAn and all the others who have made "Journey to the Cross" possible. Thank you for continuing to tell and enact the story!

"I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you..."

I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.” (Luke 22:14)
“I have been waiting a long time for this moment. And yet it’s been just a moment from when it all began. There, in Eden, that garden that I made for them. It was so beautiful. But there is where my first people chose the wrong way, the way of death. I promised to crush the head of the one who led them astray, and that moment has come.”
“I have been waiting a long time for this moment. And yet it’s been just a moment from when it all began. This Passover meal was instituted just before my people’s redemption and salvation from slavery in Egypt. My people have been celebrating it every year for many centuries and it has all been pointing to this moment. This Passover, the Temple, the sacrifices, all of it, all of it has always been about me and has pointed to this hour, this moment. That Lamb we are eating tonight – that will be me in a few hours – the sacrificial lamb for the redemption and salvation of my people. “
“I have been waiting a long time for this moment. These are all my friends, my students, and soon I will be sending them out into the world as my ambassadors. I love them so much. There’s so much I have told them and shown them during the past three years. And there is so much they just didn’t understand. And there is more I want to tell them tonight. But time is short…time before it’s all over…and also before it just begins for them. Then, then all of them will understand. Yes, they will understand and will experience so much as they proclaim what they have seen and heard. Bringing me to the world will bring them so much suffering – and yet, so much joy. Just like what I have to do so very soon – so much unbearable suffering, and yet, so much joy. “
“I have been waiting a long time for this moment – when I give them my last will and testament – that I will be with them in this meal I am making new in this hour. This is how I will be with them until that moment when I return and when all things are made new. It is time. This is my testament for them…”
“Take and eat, this is my body given for you. Do this in remembrance of me…take and drink, this is blood of the new testament shed for you for the forgiveness of your sins. Truly I say to you, I will not drink of it again until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.”