Passion is a kind of waiting - waiting for what other people are going to do. Jesus went to Jerusalem to announce the good news to the people of that city. And Jesus knew that he was going to put a choice before them: Will you be my disciple, or will you be my executioner? There is no middle ground here. Jesus went to Jerusalem to put people in a situation where they had to say "Yes" or "No". That is the great drama of Jesus' passion: he had to wait for their response. What would they do? Betray him or follow him?
In a way, his agony is not simply the agony of approaching death. It is also the agony of being out of control and of having to wait. It is the agony of a God who depends on us to decide how to live out the divine presence among us. It is the agony of the God who, in a very mysterious way, allows us to decide how God will be God. Here we glimpse the mystery of God's incarnation. God became human not only to act among us but also to be the recipient of our responses.
. . . And that is the mystery of Jesus' love. Jesus in his passion is the one who waits for our response. Precisely in that waiting the intensity of his love and God's is revealed to us.
Our Lenten Book Discussion Continues!
Feel free to join us during these last days of Lent as we reflect on the final section of Henri Nouwen's The Return of the Prodigal Son: A 
Story of Homecoming. Facilitated by Brynn Lawrence and Ray Glennon. You are welcome to participate in any way that is spiritually nourishing for you!
READ * REFLECT * SHARE Excerpt from Henri Nouwen's Finding My Way Home: Pathways to Life and theSpirit.
Scripture quotation from New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989, 1993 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America; selected by M. Wright.
Photo of Henri Nouwen by Frank Hamilton. Used with kind permission. Banner image by Sharon Sheehan; used with kind permission.
Additional Lenten Reading
Life of the Beloved
Walk with Jesus
Finding My Way Home
A Spirituality of Homecoming
Home Tonight
A Wondrous Love
The Return of the Prodigal Son
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