"So, could you not stay awake with me one hour?” Matthew 26:40b
Dear Friends in Christ,
If Easter is to be more than bunnies and candy, then we need to embrace the whole drama of Holy Week. When people hear only a fluffy Easter proclamation of ‘all is well,’ those words will seem hollow unless we deal with the reality of human sin and brokenness. Bunnies and candy do not stand up to shelling whole cities in Ukraine or shooting third graders in schools. If the Christian Good News is truly good, then it must face such evil and account for it.
This is why our participation in Holy Week services is so crucial to the celebration of Easter. Jesus deals with lies, false accusations, betrayal, abandonment, hatred despite his message of grace, expedient injustice, torture, crucifixion and death. Jesus faces down the reality of human evil and answers it not with bunnies and candy, but by giving his whole life to save us.
Come participate in the drama of the Lord’s Supper on Maundy Thursday; come to the cross on Good Friday; come hear the saga of God’s saving acts in history until the darkness turns to light at the Great Vigil. These “Great Three Days” are a necessary preparation for the joy of Jesus’ resurrection on Easter Morning—a joy strong enough to stand in the face of human evil, staring down that evil, confident of our Lord’s victory.
Yours in Christ,
-Tom