Our Need for Easter

Holy Week @ 2nd

Greetings friends in Christ,

As we head into the holiest days of the year for Christians, we know things are going to look very different this year. However, this is still an important time for us, maybe this year especially. Due to overly full schedules and increased commitments, the services and observations during Holy Week are often overlooked. Many of those in worship on Palm Sunday usually are not there again until Easter Day. To go abruptly from the joy of the entry into Jerusalem to the joy of Easter, without sitting in the pain and darkness of Good Friday and Holy Saturday, without sharing in the suffering of the passion and cross of our Lord, is to impoverish our experience of the Gospel. Easter means as much as it does precisely because of Good Friday. There is no crown and triumph without the suffering and the cross.

We are in the midst of our own national and global suffering. The death toll is rising and we are told it is going to get worse before it gets better. The peak of the COVID-19 pandemic is predicted to come in a few weeks. Sickness and the promise of death quite literally surround us. This year, more than any other in recent memory, we need the promise of resurrection, the hope and triumph of Easter.

So perhaps having the time to walk the lonesome road with Jesus during Holy Week will be exactly what we need this year. Perhaps we will be able to enter fully into Jesus’ suffering in order to make sense of our own. Perhaps staying at home will be our opportunity to experience Holy Week in a different way, giving us time to read our Bibles and join together in worship on both Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. Perhaps we will have the time and inclination to fully embrace the sadness of Holy Saturday, praying for the light of the Lord to come, so that we can be ready to hear and receive the promise of life and resurrection on Easter morning.

This may sound frightening and even a bit off-putting, an invitation to anxiety or depression. Yet, the angel said to the women at the tomb,  "Do not be afraid." These words are for us, as well. Easter reminds us that darkness is not the final reality, that pain and suffering are not the end of the story, that death does not win. I don’t know about you, but that’s a message I need to hear.

Grace and peace…

Pastor Tim