March 27, 2024
It’s Holy Week.
We’ve waved our palms and sung in a joyful parade. Next Sunday we’ll raise our voices again in the Easter hymns. The tones of brass – both from bells and from trumpets – will cascade over us. We’ll rejoice in the resurrection story.
Have you found time in the last couple days to check out what Jesus did in the week between?
Jesus had a lot to say in that last week of his ministry. He nimbly avoided the traps laid for him by religious leaders eager to discredit him and to justify themselves. Jesus began to speak of hard times ahead for the residents of Jerusalem and for his followers. He sat at a table while a woman anointed him with perfume. Jesus said that she had prepared him for his burial.
Tomorrow night, Maundy Thursday, we will follow Jesus from the Last Supper with his disciples to the garden where he desperately prayed, then go to the palaces where he was tried and condemned. It’s called “Tenebrae” or “Shadows,” because the room gets darker and the shadows get deeper as the service, as the night, goes on.
On Friday Jesus died on a Roman cross. Our sanctuary will be open from noon to three for you to spend time in prayer as we mark the last three hours of his earthly life.
You may not need to participate in any of these services. Your Lenten practice or your regular prayer life may have connected you deeply enough to Jesus that these are either unnecessary or give you too much pain.
But if you want to better appreciate the heights of Easter joy, spend some time with the depths of Holy Week. Come into the shadows. Gaze at the cross.
Exult even more in the empty tomb.
In peace,
Pastor Eric
