For those of us who have been in the Church of England a long time, the encouragement to 'walk with Christ' through Holy Week and Easter becomes a shorthand for joining a journey which, if we let it, will take us through the breadth and depth of human experience and of God's grace; in order that we may find in it, life beyond what we could ever imagine.

On this journey, we find many things which are familiar to us; a meal with friends, betrayal and regret, grief at losing a loved one, a walk in the garden.

But we also find things which are perhaps strange to those of us who have grown up with the privilege of safety and security for most of our lives: the injustice of an unfair trial; being held captive and ultimately killed for an alleged infraction against a powerful political body.

It can be hard to know how to truly 'walk with Christ' in such unfamiliar territory.

But there are children and adults in this world who are living these devastating realities every day, through war and famine and unsafe homes. They are Alma, and Aleksander, and Ester. They are thousands of unknown and unnamed children who appear on our screens and who we so easily scroll by, just like the countless crowds who walked past a dying man on a cross in the Holy Land two millennia ago.

Christ does not pass by.

Christ is our hope and salvation, not because he escaped the trials of life, because he has walked our pain and can truly bring life beyond it. If we choose to walk with Christ this week, then we cannot help but meet Christ in the face of his children and be moved to walk with them in their need too.

HOLY WEEK AND EASTER

Journey with Christians across the world as we recall the events of the last week of Jesus’ life, known as ‘Holy Week’, and travel through Maundy Thursday and Good Friday to the joy of Easter Day. We are delighted that the Revd Dr Katherine Sonderegger, Author and Distinguished Professor of Systematic Theology at Virginia Theological Seminary, will be our preacher this week.

https://www.universitychurch.ox.ac.uk/content/holy-week-easter