Last Leg

Heathrow is heaving. Today is Maundy Thursday, and everyone seems to be going somewhere else. I just want to get home.

Beside me a family has an animated discussion in some other language. Across from me a mother and daughter bicker: daughter wants to shop, mum wants her to hang out together. Now they sit in sulky silence, daughter scrolling through her phone, mother munching something in silence.

The noises are overwhelming and powerful. Trolleys beep their way through the crowded concourse. Television news drones from a large screen; voices constantly overlap with boarding announcements, warnings, and passenger calls.

Jesus entered the temple in Jerusalem and offended the Pharisees by overturning tables of money and sacrificial animals. In today's secular society, one might suggest that a place like Heathrow is its sacred temple. I see from a revolving billboard that it has been voted best airport in the world for shopping, for the seventh year running.

What would Jesus say or do here? Most people here are probably unaware of the significance of the day. Or if they remember, they maybe think of the story of Jesus as an archaic legend.

The challenge for those of us who know Jesus is alive and walks with us, is to figure out a way to introduce him to this distracted generation, in a relevant way.