It is now the end of term and all of us are looking forward to a well-earned break. You are probably buying Easter eggs for your family, even hoping for some yourself. If you are a gardener, you will be getting out your mower and sitting down to some serious weeding. What is the reason for all this? Well, next Sunday (27 March) is Easter Sunday and, leading up to it, this week, is Holy Week.
That was last Sunday (20 March). In churches last Sunday, people were given a palm cross and processed into church (or out of church), waving their palms as they sung hymns like “Ride on, Ride on in Majesty” and “All Glory Laud and Honour”. The procession may even have been led by a donkey.
On the first Palm Sunday, Jesus rode gloriously into Jerusalem ….. on a donkey. The people of Jerusalem thronged his route, lining his way with palm branches, creating for him an impromptu red carpet, and, as he rode past, they cried, “Hosanna in the highest!”
It was a joyous occasion, but yet a solemn one. Jesus entered Jerusalem, in humility, knowing – and accepting - that the Jewish authorities in Jerusalem wanted to put him to death. He told the gathered crowds, “”My light will shine out for you just a little while longer. Walk in it while you can.” Palm Sunday effectively drew a line under Jesus’s teaching ministry.
This is the day of Last Supper, the first Eucharist. The disciples met in the Upper Room to celebrate the Jewish feast of Passover. During supper, Jesus took bread, gave it to his disciples, and declared, “This is my body, given for you. Eat this in remembrance of me.” Again, after supper, he took the cup and declared, “This is my blood. Drink this blood which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins.” Every year, the Jews made sacrifices to in the Temple (generally, dove and pigeons), as a means of “paying for” their sins. What Jesus had in mind was a once and for all sacrifice on a much bigger scale.
After eating, Jesus went into the Mount of Olives to pray. His humanity prayed, “Father, if you are willing, please take away this cup of horror from me.” But his divine nature added, “But I want your will, not mine.” Minutes later, Judas arrived with soldiers, and Jesus was arrested. Jesus commented that it was hardly necessary to bring soldiers to arrest him, as he had been out and about in the Temple all week. Peter was so angry that he slashed off the right ear of Malchus, the High Priest’s servant! But Jesus told him not to be angry: everything was proceeding according to God’s plan.
Why do we call it “Good Friday”? Surely, this must be the saddest day of the Christian year and go to church on Good Friday and you will find it dark and forbidding, stripped of altar cloths or any flowers…….. but read on.
Jesus was taken to the Jewish chief priests, who attempted to try him but they couldn’t find any proper evidence. The chief priests took him to Pontius Pilate, the Roman Governor, because they wanted needed Pilate’s authority to inflict the death penalty. They said that Jesus had tried to lead a revolt against the Romans and exhorted the people to stop paying their taxes, but Pilate was less than convinced. He suggested to the chief priests that he should have Jesus scourged (beaten) then released, but the chief priests, by this time, had stirred up the crowd to demand that Jesus be crucified. Pilate tried again. At Passover, it was the custom for the Governor to release one prisoner as an act of clemency, so he would release Jesus, but the crowd, now “warmed up” by the chief priests demanded the release of Barabas (an insurrectionist and a robber). “What shall I do with Jesus, who calls himself king of the Jews?” Pilate then asked.
“Crucify him!” cried the crowd. So Jesus was taken away to be crucified. As he hung on the cross, the soldiers mocked him placed a crown of thorns on his head. Whenever we are mocked, we should remember that whatever humiliation we suffer, Jesus suffered more. Standing near the cross were Jesus’s mother, Mary, and also Mary Magdalene. What was Mary, his mother, thinking? That Jesus should have stuck with carpentry. And that he ought to have married a nice girl, not be associated with this prostitute standing next to her. No, this is not a trite comment. Mothers, who stress over their sons, do think of Mary watching over Jesus on the cross.
In the middle of the afternoon, Jesus died on the cross, one perfect sacrifice for all our sins. No more need for pigeons and turtle doves.
Go to church on Easter Day and you will become part of the happiest day in the church year, spring sunshine (usually!), Easter lilies, and the hymns are jolly and triumphant like “Jesus Christ has Risen Today. Hallelujah!”. People will have relatives to stay and there will be a happy buzz of chatter. There may be an Easter garden, with a suitably empty tomb, telling the story of the first Easter day ………
Early on the Sunday morning, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb where Jesus had been laid to apply traditional ointments but, to her horror, found the tomb stone rolled away and the tomb empty. Immediately, she suspected that someone had moved the body, so she rushed back to get John and Peter, who also looked inside the empty tomb. Suddenly she saw two angels, who asked her, “Why are you crying?”
Then, glancing over her shoulder, she saw someone else behind her, a gardener, she supposed, so she demanded, “Sir, if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him.”
But he replied in a voice she recognised at once, “Mary!”
Jesus rose on the first Easter Day. He made one sacrifice for all our sins on the Cross. All we need to do is to acknowledge him as our Saviour.
If you don’t know this Easter story very well, or have not thought about it for a long time, it is quite a lot to take in. Why do I need to bother about forgiveness of my sins? In any case, what sins? Well, we are all sinners actually and, if we are honest, that bit is not too difficult to accept at all. Anyway, suppose I have sinned, I’m not going to die yet. Probably not, but it’s never too early (or too late) to accept Jesus’s sacrifice.
(All the quotes here are from The Living Bible. The Living Bible does not appear to be online in its entirety, but the official Living Bible site is at http://www.newlivingtranslation.com/default2.asp)
| Charlie Brittain | |