Holy Tuesday
Holy Week draws us into the mystery of a God who redeems through what looks like loss. It holds together sorrow and hope, rejection and glory, silence and promise. What appears fragile to the world becomes the very place where God’s saving power is revealed. As we move toward the cross, we are invited to see beyond the surface but to discern how grace is working even in suffering.
In Isaiah 49, the servant speaks with both confidence and weariness. Called and formed by God from the womb (v.1), His life carries divine intention. Yet, he also voices a painful tension, “I have labored in vain; I have spent my strength for nothing at all” (v.4). Holy Week allows us to sit with that honesty. There are moments when obedience feels unnoticed, when faithfulness appears unfruitful. Yet the servant entrusts the outcome to God. “What is due me is in the Lord’s hand.” The Father responds by widening the mission that is, salvation will extend beyond Israel, reaching “to the ends of the earth” (v.6). What seems small or stalled in our sight may be part of a far greater redemptive story.
Psalm 71 gives voice to the heart that leans fully on God. “In you, Lord, I have taken refuge” (v.1). The psalmist does not pretend that life is easy. Enemies surround. Strength falters. Yet trust remains steady. God is named as rock, fortress, and hope. This language echoes through Holy Week. As Jesus moves closer to the cross, He embodies this kind of reliance, not denial of pain, but confidence in the Father’s faithfulness. “Though you have made me see troubles, many and bitter, you will restore my life again” (v.20). Even before Easter morning, restoration is quietly promised.
Paul, writing to the Corinthians, presses even deeper into the paradox. “The message of the cross is foolishness… but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18). The cross unsettles our definitions of strength. We look for influence, achievement, visibility. God reveals power through sacrifice. The very instrument of shame becomes the means of salvation. “God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong” (v.27). Holy Week dismantles our pride and reminds us that redemption flows from grace, not human striving.
In John’s Gospel, the turning point arrives. As people begin seeking Him, Jesus declares that His hour has come (John 12:23). Yet the path to glory is described through a seed falling into the ground (v.24). Death precedes multiplication. Loss becomes the soil of life. Jesus speaks candidly: “Now my soul is troubled” (v.27). The weight of what lies ahead is real. Still, His prayer is unwavering: “Father, glorify your name!” (v.28). The cross is not an interruption of God’s plan but its fulfillment. Lifted up, He will draw all people to Himself (v.32). What looks like defeat becomes the moment of divine drawing.
Together, these readings reveal a holy pattern:
Purpose may involve perseverance through discouragement.
Trust steadies us when circumstances feel unstable.
God’s wisdom overturns human expectation.
Surrender opens the way for life to flourish.
Holy Week invites us to remain in this light (John 12:35). It calls us to entrust outcomes to God, to anchor ourselves in His faithfulness, to release self-reliance, and to follow Christ in costly love. In the shadow of the cross, we discover that glory often arrives disguised as sacrifice and that through surrender, God is already preparing resurrection.
Reflective Prompt:
Where in your life is God inviting you to trust His wisdom over your own understanding this Holy Week
The Rev. Olufemi Ogundimu
When I Survey the Wondrous Cross
St Andrew's Cathedral Choir
Sydney, Australia
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