Easter 2020

Passion week, Good Friday, and Easter is such a mixture of drama and emotion. When I try to put myself into the story there is much I am unable to understand. Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem was so exciting… People cheering, throwing their cloaks on the ground, shouting out “Hosanna!” (save us), placing palm fronds on the ground, to welcome their King. It’s crazy how soon everyone was willing to turn away…

Jesus’ last Passover with his Disciples. A time to remember how God had worked to redeem Israel in the past – right on the cusp of God working to redeem the entire world through Christ. But the disciples didn’t know that. Jesus must have been so confusing to them sometimes, certainly on this night. Washing their feet? Drink this in remembrance of my blood shed for you? One of you will betray me? The vibe in the room must have been off the charts. I would so love to go back and watch – to see the look in Jesus face with his knowledge of what was coming.

In the Garden (I wrote a song about that just click on “Good Friday 2020” in the menu above – after you’re finished reading…). This is one of the most poignant moments in the Bible for me. I see the divinity and humanity of Christ more clearly than anywhere else. The struggle that Christ is going through right on the verge of all the horrible things that are going to happen. How badly he doesn’t want to do it! Pleading with the Father, multiple times, to find another way. But never wavering in his obedience. Saying to his disciples, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” There have been moments in my life where emotion overwhelmed me, emptied me, terrified me… Looking into the next 24 hours and seeing brutality, the hate, the horror and the death… I can’t imagine knowing what was ahead and going forward. I can only imagine that I would run and hide. If I knew that a group of powerful men were coming to arrest me, torture me, and cruelly kill me – I really don’t know what I would do. I know what Christ did… he pleaded for another way, felt overwhelmed with sorrow, and then walked right into it. Showing humility, compassion and love to those who killed him,

I am so grateful for the sacrifice Jesus was willing to make for me. His love, his mercy, and his grace mean so much more to me than I can even verbalize – at least not in a short post. He has made a way for me to the Father. I have a home that he is preparing for me in heaven. He has given me his Holy Spirit to comfort, guide and teach me – to tabernacle inside of me and make me holy! I can step into the presence of the most High God and just talk to him! I can express my wants, my fears, my needs, my joys, my hurts – I can give him praise and he receives it! Like my praise should mean anything to the one who spoke all things into being…

I am grateful that Christ conquered the grave validating that he has the power to do all that he has promised you and me. What a morning, nearly 2,000 years ago, when the disciples began to realize, to really process, who he was. To know that he had conquered death. To look back and begin to remember all the things that he had been saying. To KNOW… that there he stood. The Son of God. God in the flesh. It must have been fearful to be in His presence.

However you worship this Easter (during the COVID-19 outbreak) I hope you have time to read the scriptures and live in those moments. See, hear and feel the Christ you love. Mourn and celebrate. Easter.