I didn’t grow up acknowledging the Easter bunny. I never received an Easter basket with candy or gifts, and I truly didn’t know I was missing anything. On Easter morning before church, we ate Hot Cross Buns for breakfast, the ones topped with crisscross lines of sugar to symbolize the cross of Jesus. That was tradition! (I still search grocery stores every April for that annual treat). And those paint stained hard boiled eggs that looked too gross to eat without their shells. For afternoon tea, my mom would put out a few dishes of malted eggs or jelly beans for the family to share. And that was the extent of it.
Easter was all about the church services we attended on Good Friday and Easter Sunday. And it was truly meaningful, even in my youth. Memories of the church passionately singing, “Christ the Lord is risen today, Allelujah!” and “Up from the grave He arose with a mighty triumph ‘ore His foes, He arose the victor…Now He lives forever, Hallelujah! Christ arose!” resonated deeply in my little heart. Easter always left me amazed at the goodness of God in choosing for His Son to die so mankind could know life. And that coming back to life again?!! Wow! That gave my young faith meaning!
Easter remains my favorite holiday of the year, for it reflects the reality of sharing resurrection life in our resurrected Savior. It grows in significance as I grow in my love and passion for God. But how can we keep Easter weekend services from just becoming a traditional practice in our busy multi-dimensional lives? Is there value in really grappling with the significance of what we are commemorating?
Maundy Thursday: I never heard of Maundy Thursday until my husband and I moved to the States. What in the world does the word ‘Maundy’ even mean? It comes from the Latin word Mandatum which means ‘command.’ Scripturally, Maundy refers to Jesus’ command to his disciples (and us): “A new command I give to you: Love one another. All men will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.” Luke 13: 34-35
Maundy Thursday commemorates the Last Supper meal, a Passover Seder between Jesus and his disciples to celebrate God’s orchestrated exodus of His people from slavery in Egypt. However, this Passover meal was directed by Jesus, the true, prophesied Passover Lamb, as he prepared to spill His blood so all mankind could be freed from the weight of their sins. He even foreshadowed His death during the meal, saying, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God.” Luke 22: 15-16 To further demonstrate His servant heart of love, of giving Himself fully for His disciples, Jesus chose to wash His disciple’s feet, an expression of humble leadership and an example to them of just how to love and serve others. John 13: 1-17
After the meal, “Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives” (Luke 22:29) to pray. The disciples, who just shared in an intimate meal with their Lord and all boasted they would never disown Him, followed close behind. (:29) Jesus told Peter, James, and John that his soul was overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death, and asked them to keep watch and pray while He went a short distance further to speak alone to His Father. He needed the emotional and spiritual support of his closest friends near Him as He faced the unleashing of Satan’s attack against Him. Jesus’ full humanity was exposed in that garden conversation. He immediately fell to the ground in deep emotion and cried out in anguish to God, “Abba, Pappa!” He pleaded as a son to His Father, “Take this cup from me.” In His humanity, His will was different than the Father’s. But He was quick to speak from His divinity and unity with God in saying, “Yet not what I will, but what you will.” Mark 14: 32-36 Three times He “prayed the same thing,” (:39) three times He wrestled with His Father over the suffering He had to face, and three times He walked the journey alone. Each time, he found His closest friends heavy with sleep and unable to post vigil with him in prayer.
Oh, the lessons we can learn from Jesus on how to pray authentically. God welcomes us to come close and call Him ‘Pappa,’ to share our deep emotions, anxieties, burdens, and fears. He doesn’t measure if we speak with the right words, but rather, that we have a humbly positioned heart. It is good to pray with raw honesty, to know He welcomes us to just come and call upon Him. He promises to give us strength and love to endure the hardships and crosses in our lives. By persevering in prayer like Jesus, we learn to fully trust His presence and grace. Even our laments are as worship to Him.
Maundy Thursday went beyond the Lord’s Supper and the garden. An armed crowd sent by the Jewish religious leaders came to arrest Jesus, though He was innocent of wrong. He was betrayed by one from his inner circle – with a kiss. And his disciples, the ones who said they would never disown him? They all deserted him and fled. And so, the interrogation began – the accusations, mocking, and beatings, and He silently took it all with divine love and purpose.
Good Friday: The day that commemorates Jesus’ brutal sufferings and death on a cross can hardly be termed ‘good.’ The events of that day were indeed horrible! His own race turned against Him out of jealousy over the influence and power of His teaching. They brutally mocked and tortured Him to the point of no recognition, then demanded a hardened criminal be released in His place, so His death could be justified. How can this be good? And yet it was, and continues to be.
Jesus had to suffer because He is Savior of the world. He had to earnestly wrestle in prayer with God in the garden (“Take this cup from me”), to fight feelings of abandonment (“Could you not keep watch for one hour?”), to struggle in his humanity (He fell to the ground and prayed :35; his sweat was like drops of blood Luke 22:44). In so doing, He submitted fully to His Father’s will (“Not my will, but yours be done” :42). Hebrews 2:10 states, “…It was fitting that God….should make the author or our salvation (Jesus) perfect through suffering.” It was God’s divine plan that His sinless Son be perfected through the brutality of the cross, so we may know salvation from our sinfulness. What a paradox! What grace! “Now he has appeared….to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.” 9:26 “He learned obedience from what He suffered, and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him…” 5:8-9. His suffering for our freedom! His pain for our salvation! His death for our life!
What an example He is to us in our suffering. We can be assured He fully understands and helps us in our weakness and struggles, because He experienced such depth of suffering himself. “For we do not have a high priest (Jesus) who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in our time of need.” Hebrews 4:15 He willingly experienced brutal suffering and death for our good. It’s the beauty of His sacrifice that certainly makes Friday ‘Good.’
Easter: Easter and Good Friday go hand in hand. We desperately need the hope of Easter after the inhumane suffering and death of Friday. When we understand the depth of Jesus’ suffering for us on Good Friday, we can rejoice all the deeper in His resurrection on Easter. The One who proclaimed Himself to be the promised Messiah conquered sin and death, not only in dying for the sins of the world, but in rising back to life in “the power of an indestructible life.” Hebrews 7:16 “Because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore, he is able to save completely those who come to God through him….Such a high priest meets our need – one who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens.” :24-26
Jesus Himself declared, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.” John 11:25-26 For Jesus will work the same resurrection power in each of our souls as we come to faith in him. “In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ form the dead.” I Peter 1:3 Furthermore, we have the promise of eternal resurrection from death into eternal life with Him. We live in the reality of His resurrection every day!
Easter reflects the love, grace, goodness, and victory of God! Jesus has risen from death! We serve a risen Lord! It’s definitely a day worth celebrating. And so, our children and their dogs will come up to the acreage and together we’ll share in a wonderful traditional Easter meal together. We’ll linger together with stories and laughter over food and drink, and even some chocolate eggs and jelly beans. They’ve long outgrown our annual Easter egg hunts. But we never outgrow our love for one another and our awe of our risen Savior. And so, together we continue to celebrate resurrection life!