Where in the world is the Easter Bunny? In a normal year, depending on where you live, this would be the time for egg hunts, giant chocolate eggs, coloring egg shells in beautiful patterns, or some other tradition related to bunnies and eggs. But, this is not a normal year, is it? This is the year of Covid-19, and with the numbers of infected and deceased mounting globally, we are finding little time for candy, bunnies, or egg hunts. Have you ever considered that this may actually be a good thing?
What If?
What if Holy Week this year could become the holiest in a long while? What if people re-focused their celebration from cute bunnies to the gruesome passion, death, and glorious resurrection of Christ? What if our salvation became once again the center of Holy Week?
Leaders
Leadership is influence, and one sure thing you and I can do this week is help lead people to the cross, help them contemplate the horrific sacrifice that Jesus made for us on the cross, when he carried on His innocent shoulders the weight of our sin and bore in His own skin the wounds that our own sinfulness should have inflicted upon us.
Where to Begin?
Of course, it starts with me – and with you. What if we focused on deepening our own intimate relationship with God during this week? What if we allowed that deeper awareness of God’s presence, love, and mercy to flow out of ourselves, in the words of Jesus “like rivers of living waters”? Here are four things you can do this week to go deeper in your celebration of Christ’s passion, death, and resurrection.
Fill your Brain with God’s word, reading every single account of the events of Holy Week. Check out Old Testament prophecies. Each of the Gospels provides a slightly different account of the week. Read Paul’s writings on the work of the cross. How can you find all of this? Of course, google it.
Flood your senses with music that describes and celebrates the Cross. Amazing Grace, When I survey the Wondrous Cross, The Old Rugged Cross, In Christ Alone and All Hail King Jesus are only a few. Again, a quick search on YouTube will give you multiple versions of more songs that you can hear during the course of this week. Go for it!
Find a way to celebrate Holy Communion this Thursday. I know in some traditions this is a little tricky because of “rules” about who can do it. Check out with your Spiritual leaders about appropriate ways to relive Christ’s last evening with the disciples. If you are a pastoral leader, you can actually find a way for your people to celebrate. Last Sunday, I saw many churches celebrate communion from home.
Share the message of Easter in your social media feeds. What if the Church could flood the Internet with the message of the Resurrection? After all, it is the heart of the Gospel.
There will be no other Holy Week like this one, for several reasons. Let’s make sure one of them is that countless people were awakened to the reality of the resurrection during this season.
… And of course, Happy Easter to all.
As broken people, sometimes we try to fix the small things here and there, when in reality, we need Christ to make ALL things new! Read how Christ wants to be the Master Builder for your life..