He had it all. Fame, admiration, friendship, all were his. People flocked to hear him talk, thousands mobbed him wherever he went. The rich and influential came to him for help (or sent their servants, at least!), ordinary people jostled to get near him, and even the sort of people that you and I don't associate with ran after him (if they could) and asked him to do things.
Of course, nobody was quite sure who he was. And he often asked people to keep quiet about his help - to tell nobody. But this only made folk ask each other more and more. Who is this man? What's going on?
He brought a message. The Kingdom of God has come upon you. The humble and the meek will have new strength and joy. You don't gain favour with God by carrying out commands and rituals, but by loving and forgiving your neighbour. For God has loved and forgiven you, and has invited you to feast and rejoice in this new kingdom.
And with the message came the signs - signs of the same kingdom. The deaf heard, the dumb spoke, the blind saw, the lame walked, the lepers were cleansed - and the sinful were forgiven and sent on their way to sin no more. That's what it's like when God is at work. That's the Good News.
Not everyone was impressed. There were always people who wouldn't listen. And there were the Other Side - the people who actively opposed Jesus - "the Pharisees", "the Sanhedrin", "the Jews", "the scribes" (and let's be careful here, for Jesus and his followers were themselves all Jewish, his admirer Nicodemus was a member of the Sanhedrin, and many Pharisees would have shared Jesus' view of the law as a love of God and neighbour rather than a set of rules!)
When Jesus entered Jerusalem, riding on a donkey, it seemed to the crowd that the time for God's reign had finally come. Hosanna, they cried. Save us now. Here is God's chosen and blessed King!
How right they were, and how little they understood! So, in the course of what we think of as Holy Week, their support melted away, and their enthusiasm turned to disappointment. Jesus wasn't what they expected.
But Jesus still had his disciples, his closest friends, the ones who had left all to follow him. And they left him, too. First Judas, and then, in the Garden of Gethsemane, his nearest followers, Peter, James and John. Peter even denied that he had ever known him.
And finally, on the Cross, a cry of loneliness: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Ps 22:1) But in that cry, a knowledge that God never forsakes anyone. Psalm 22 is one of those psalms where despair is finally transformed into hope and confidence.
We too must take up our own cross, and tread this path of loneliness. It is lonely because we have to let go of our comfortable world, and truly feel our need to be made whole. We too have to die to sin in baptism, to share Jesus' death in the Eucharist, to live as Jesus lived in our lives.
In our loneliness we are never alone. We move closer to Christ, and because we share with him and in him, we can draw strength from him and from our neighbours. Past the shadow of the Cross, our path leads on to hope, to friendship and to joy - the joy of Easter. For he who died is risen indeed. Alleluia!
HD