Lord, keep us steadfast in the living Word Jesus Christ our Lord who became obedient unto death even death on a cross. Let us hear the fullness of the Good Friday and Easter story in their unity, both darkness and hope. Amen.
This post has us approaching Palm Sunday and Holy Week and steadily moving towards Easter. We will have one more Sunday in Lent then the Sunday of the Passion or Palm Sunday. Then we will be in the midst of Holy Week with the Maundy Thursday, Good Friday Holy Saturday Triduum.
After these busy days of religious worship, reflection and our spiritual journey to the cross and the grave Easter breaks forth with the dawning of the eighth day. At Easter Sunrise in the dim light of dawn we will celebrate once again the promise of eternal life and our healing in Christ’s resurrection.
Annually, I remind folks of the importance of keeping these days together because it is not possible to understand one without the other. Good Friday without Easter has no hope but Easter without Good Friday is reduced to superficiality of Easter egg hunts, new clothes, and no spiritual depth so that both become as forgettable as Groundhog
Day.
Beginning with the Sunday of the Passion we are reminded how fickle human hearts are and how quickly we can go from the joyous celebration of the entry of Jerusalem to the screaming crowd, the hoi polloi, before Pilate screaming, “Crucify him!” because he has disappointed us and our expectations. It is this depth of betrayal by our own hearts for our Lord Jesus that lies directly at the root of the cross. We do not need to debate whether it is Rome or the Jews or the crowd or the disciples because at its root it is about us and all the ways we let our lives with Christ slip through our fingers in the name of relevance, of busyness, of convenience and why bother and we skip forward to Easter.
In that seemingly trivial choice of convenience we lose everything that Christ died for in our broken lives proving ourselves, you, me, as dependent as ever upon God’s love poured out on the cross.
What is Easter if one does not understand what it means that Jesus died for one’s sins and that the message of the whole season of Lent and repentant turning towards God is is abandoned just short of the finish.
When we fail to understand the darkness of our lives without a vision of God and God’s willingness to die for us in the person of Jesus what can the resurrection mean. Resurrected from what? A bad day? A family squabble?
Or is celebrating Easter understanding that God raises Jesus and us with Christ to a completely new way of living? As Easter people we are encouraged to let go of all our fears and to engage God and each other in new ways that push us beyond inconvenience into pouring out our lives for God in worship and praise and in serving our neighbor in all their struggles and needs. Easter means that not only does God move us beyond bad days and family squabbles but God moves us even beyond the fear of death. Beyond a fear of cancer, ALS or MS. Beyond the loss of a spouse or even a child as Luther writes in A Mighty Fortress. God moves us forward to living in the midst of death, fearlessly and
courageously.
When we understand the depth of our brokenness and sinfulness the importance and the necessity of Easter is all the more palpable. Stopping to see the emptiness we capture a glimmer of the real light and hope wrapped in the sunrise of Easter.
Don’t cheat yourself this year. Set apart time for Holy Week and the power of God’s story to remind you of how much you need God and God’s grace in Christ. It is a rich story with rich blessings when you experience it in totality.
This post has us approaching Palm Sunday and Holy Week and steadily moving towards Easter. We will have one more Sunday in Lent then the Sunday of the Passion or Palm Sunday. Then we will be in the midst of Holy Week with the Maundy Thursday, Good Friday Holy Saturday Triduum.
After these busy days of religious worship, reflection and our spiritual journey to the cross and the grave Easter breaks forth with the dawning of the eighth day. At Easter Sunrise in the dim light of dawn we will celebrate once again the promise of eternal life and our healing in Christ’s resurrection.
Annually, I remind folks of the importance of keeping these days together because it is not possible to understand one without the other. Good Friday without Easter has no hope but Easter without Good Friday is reduced to superficiality of Easter egg hunts, new clothes, and no spiritual depth so that both become as forgettable as Groundhog
Day.
Beginning with the Sunday of the Passion we are reminded how fickle human hearts are and how quickly we can go from the joyous celebration of the entry of Jerusalem to the screaming crowd, the hoi polloi, before Pilate screaming, “Crucify him!” because he has disappointed us and our expectations. It is this depth of betrayal by our own hearts for our Lord Jesus that lies directly at the root of the cross. We do not need to debate whether it is Rome or the Jews or the crowd or the disciples because at its root it is about us and all the ways we let our lives with Christ slip through our fingers in the name of relevance, of busyness, of convenience and why bother and we skip forward to Easter.
In that seemingly trivial choice of convenience we lose everything that Christ died for in our broken lives proving ourselves, you, me, as dependent as ever upon God’s love poured out on the cross.
What is Easter if one does not understand what it means that Jesus died for one’s sins and that the message of the whole season of Lent and repentant turning towards God is is abandoned just short of the finish.
When we fail to understand the darkness of our lives without a vision of God and God’s willingness to die for us in the person of Jesus what can the resurrection mean. Resurrected from what? A bad day? A family squabble?
Or is celebrating Easter understanding that God raises Jesus and us with Christ to a completely new way of living? As Easter people we are encouraged to let go of all our fears and to engage God and each other in new ways that push us beyond inconvenience into pouring out our lives for God in worship and praise and in serving our neighbor in all their struggles and needs. Easter means that not only does God move us beyond bad days and family squabbles but God moves us even beyond the fear of death. Beyond a fear of cancer, ALS or MS. Beyond the loss of a spouse or even a child as Luther writes in A Mighty Fortress. God moves us forward to living in the midst of death, fearlessly and
courageously.
When we understand the depth of our brokenness and sinfulness the importance and the necessity of Easter is all the more palpable. Stopping to see the emptiness we capture a glimmer of the real light and hope wrapped in the sunrise of Easter.
Don’t cheat yourself this year. Set apart time for Holy Week and the power of God’s story to remind you of how much you need God and God’s grace in Christ. It is a rich story with rich blessings when you experience it in totality.
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