Thursday of Easter week was big. Jesus celebrated the Passover meal with His disciples. He tied the traditions and prophesies of the Old Testament to the birth of the New. He demonstrated the importance of servanthood by washing the feet of those who would run away and deny him within 24 hours. He prayed with an intensity that pushed blood through his skin. He contemplated the betrayal and the most horrible of deaths to come.
We love Easter or as we call it now, Resurrection Sunday. Well, we should. Who can resist the victory over sin and death, the hope of eternal life, the bright sunlight on the rolled away stone?
We would do well not to skip over Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. They represent the struggles of a life of following Him. Our parades of homage are brief and rare. We are prone to honor Him one day and forget Him the next. His examples of servanthood are easy to trivialize and forget. The memorial of his body and blood is likely to become routine and habitual. Suffering and death are the things we most ardently and unsuccessfully avoid.
In the days before the joy of Sunday, let’s remember with Israel the years of hopeful waiting, the servanthood we are called to, the cross we are to take up, and the cold lonely tomb which too often mirrors our spiritual lives. Sunday is new life party time; all the more appreciated if we carefully and prayerful walk through the days that precede it.
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