It’s Holy Week!
Not every week is the same; some require more attention and intention than others. Good Friday and Easter are the celebration of Jesus Christ changing the universe, our lives included, forever. As we look forward to the coming weekend, we have an amazing opportunity during Holy Week to prepare our hearts for what God might want to show us.
To that end, I thought that we could look at Holy Week through the lens of the Star Trek movies. We might as well use our love for Jesus and Star Trek to better focus our hearts on this holiest of weeks.
Holy Week kicks off today with Holy Monday. In the Eastern Orthodox tradition Holy Monday focuses on Jesus’s cursing of the unfruitful fig tree. If our lives don’t bear the fruit of repentance then we will suffer the same fate as the fig tree.
Captain Kirk wasn’t able to repent and turn from his anger towards the Klingons. Commander Kruge and his men had killed David, but Kirk’s anger was directed towards all Klingons. He expressed his anger in a personal log, words that eventually came back to haunt him during his trial for murdering Chancellor Gorkon.
Kirk chose not to repent from his anger and resentment; they implanted themselves deep within his heart and soul. Instead of releasing his bitterness and finding healing, he was cursed to carry the weight of his grudge. It wasn’t until his anger almost cost him his life that he was able to repent and let go, setting course for an undiscovered country of peace and reconciliation.
Freedom from sin and death is not the only fruit borne by repentance. When we turn to Christ and repent of our brokenness, we also experience freedom from so much more.
Kirk experienced freedom from anger and resentment.
When we turn to Christ and repent of our brokenness we can experience freedom from addiction.
We can experience freedom from worry.
We can experience freedom from broken relationships.
We can experience freedom from doubt.
We can experience freedom from feeling worthless.
The fig tree experienced Jesus’s curse. But if we repent of our brokenness and turn to Jesus then will we experience his blessings. Jesus wants our lives to be fruitful and he knows the greatest fruit comes from repenting of our own lives and taking hold of his.
That kind of repentance may not take us to an undiscovered country, but it will definitely lead us to the full life for which we were created.
What fruit have you experienced from repentance?
By the same token, in the Babylon 5 sequel series, Crusade, the character of Galen the Technomage, had his anger buried deep in his heart: “I thought you said you don’t hold grudges”. Galen: “I don’t! I have no surviving enemies……..at all.”