Embracing Easter Week

“… [Jesus] went in to stay with them. When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight. They said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?” And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem.”

(Luke 24:29–33, ESV)

While our snow has been lingering longer than many of us wish, as we watch it melt, we are pointed to what is coming.  This process of waiting for spring is much like the “great waiting” that happened in this holy week between the cross and resurrection.

For us, we anticipate spring; for the months of winter, we look forward to longer days, warmer temperatures, and the ability to be outside with extra layers.  We find this early stage of spring hard as it never seems fast enough; while we can pretty much watch the snow melt most days, we are forced to wait … we cannot make it go any faster.

This is making me reflect upon how the followers of Jesus felt that first Good Friday and the days following His crucifixion and death.  They were awestruck, not in how amazing it was but that it happened; even though Jesus had told them it would happen, they did not actually expect – at least not in the way it happened.  They were sure Christ would be with them for the duration, not taken in what seemed “before His time”.

But it was His time!  Sovereignly ordained, this was His time to carry out the greatest act of service ever given.  His people were left in wait, unsure of what to do.  They just sat together, praying as their hearts let them.  Some left to go home, thinking their journey with Jesus had come to an end.  Others returned to their “day jobs”.  Their hearts were filled with grief, with heaviness, feeling unsure of what to do next.

We join in their heart struggle this Good Friday.  We feel the weight of our sin, of how our sin has broken creation.  We feel the weight of the fact that it is for us – for you and for me – for all of creation that Jesus died.  He came to redeem us; He came to redeem me.  And this coming Friday and Saturday, we sit in this reality, in this grief.

But eventually the snow melts away, the grass turns green, the trees bud out, and we begin again planting gardens and growing crops.  We wait through winter to return to longer and productive days.

For those first century Jesus-followers, there were days of painful reality – but resurrection day came!  The tomb was empty!  Jesus joined them!  His resurrection body was real!  So, we do not dwell in guilt for causing His death but in the blessed reality of forgiveness and redemption!

How will we celebrate this Easter?  Let us enjoy one another, along with good food and fun.  But let us do it all with the humblest remembrance of Christ and all He has done and is doing for us.  Let us be so struck with our redemption that we cannot help but share it by serving one another.