“Hosanna!”
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
“Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!”
“Hosanna in the highest heaven!”
Mark 11:9-10
Jesus entered into Jerusalem on what we call – and just celebrated – Palm Sunday.
Those that went ahead of him and those who followed did so with shouts of praise and adoration, celebrating Jesus’ triumphal entry. They were full of excitement and all kinds of expectations of what their much anticipated Messiah would do.
Yet Jesus enters on a donkey, humbly and in preparation to give his life so that we might have life, life abundant.
Since Ash Wednesday, we have been preparing our hearts to celebrate these significant events in Jesus’ life and our apprenticeship journey: the crucifixion, burial, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. During this season of Lent, we have had the opportunity to hear gospel stories read by some of our own ECC family. We shared one chapter of the gospels of Mark and Luke at a time to help us remember and focus on Christ’s life, ministry, sacrifice, death, and to prepare to celebrate His resurrection. Lent 2024 (see link below to access the Lent 2024 resources)
It’s easy to rush through this last week of Lent, to race to Easter and the celebration of Christ’s resurrection. But we will miss so much if we do. The true impact of Holy Week will be missed if we fail to move at a slow enough pace through the events of the week for them to sink into our minds and hearts and impact our lives.
The journey to Easter is through the cross.
There is no resurrection, no Easter celebration, without Jesus’ obedience and sacrifice.
Yes! Easter is coming!
And we will celebrate – we will raise our joys and triumphs high! We will celebrate the resurrection of Jesus on Sunday together.
Until then, I invite you to allow yourself to feel the weight and significance of the journey to Easter. Consider how the people involved experienced these events and where and how can you relate. Ask what God is revealing to you about himself. About yourself. Invite God to remind you of the depth of His love for you. Make space, in whatever way is most meaningful to you, to journey through the events of Holy Week:
- The triumphal entry and the high praise and even higher hopes and expectations
- The cleansing of the temple
- The Last Supper
- Jesus washing the feet of his disciples. Including the feet of his betrayer
- Jesus’ prayer for his disciples and for us
- Jesus, again, telling his disciples what is to come
- The sacrament of communion
- The Garden of Gethsemane
- Jesus’ anguish and sorrow
- Peter, James, and John’s inability to stay awake with Jesus
- Jesus’ surrender out of His great love for us
- Jesus’ arrest
- The abandonment of His followers
- The trials
- The mockery, the false accusations
- The crowds shift from shouts of praise just days earlier to shouts of condemnation - their “hosannas” turned to “Crucify him!
- Peter’s denial
- The crucifixion
- The burial
Yes, we have the luxury of knowing “Sunday is coming!”, knowing the promised resurrection is a glorious part of Jesus’ story, and ours. And still, there is no Easter without His life, suffering, crucifixion, death, and burial.
This intentionality to sit with Jesus through the events of Holy Week can be another part in our apprenticeship of Jesus together. It’s another way to discover more of who Jesus is, get to know Him, and allow the Holy Spirt to form us more into His likeness.
As we journey through the events of Holy Week through the cross to Easter, may we be reminded of God’s great love for us and that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus enable us to live purposefully and abundantly in the Kingdom, here, now, and forever!