Monday of Holy Week
Isa. 42:1-9 I Ps. 36:5-11 I Heb. 9:11-15 I Jn. 12:1-11
Daina Mežecka, Luther Congregation in Torņakalns
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Thus the Lord’s servant, having received His Spirit, brings justice to the nations. He brings it unheard in the streets, and does not break a bruised reed.
He will not cry out or shout aloud; his voice will not be heard in the streets.
He is appointed as a covenant for the peoples, as a light for all nations. He will lead the prisoners out of confinement, those who dwell in darkness.
He will not cry out or shout aloud; his voice will not be heard in the streets.
That year, on the sixth day before the Passover feast, Jesus came to Bethany to share a meal in the home of dear friends. On his way toward Golgotha — a way not understood even by his closest companions — and toward the complete fulfillment of the Father’s will, Jesus wished to experience the closeness of friends…
Much of what happens at the meal makes me feel uneasy. I, for example, do not know how one is supposed to behave at the same table with a person who has returned from death to life. — And how am I to react to that crowd which, not hiding their curiosity, comes to look at him? Nor do I understand what to make of Martha, who once again is bustling about, serving at the table, as if she had forgotten what Jesus said about worrying over many things and the one — other — important thing. And, even stranger, in this meal the previously contemplative Mary is also busying herself. And in a way that seems as odd to Jesus’ contemporaries in Jerusalem as it does to me, a 21st-century Latvian woman. — But perhaps I am a witness to how something until then locked away and stifled is being released in Mary?
He will not cry out or shout aloud,
his voice will not be heard in the streets.
From what the evangelist has written, it seems that on that day a slimy and inescapable evil begins to thicken. It happens through utterly ordinary acts: Judas’ expressed resentment, John’s own harsh verdict on him: “a thief!” and the priests’ decision to put to death not only Jesus but also Lazarus (both — in the name of an idea).
The warmth of friendship and the evil born of pettiness, side by side. The Lord’s servant rebukes Judas for the reproach aimed at the woman and continues on the way… The dust of the everyday on his feet, bringing justice to the nations…
He will not cry out or shout aloud,
his voice will not be heard in the streets.
Monday on the threshold of Holy Week. Where will my way lead this week? From what confinement will You call me out today?
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Illustration: The Broken Reeds. Arta Skuja, 2026
