The season of Lent draws to an end and the Christian church enters Holy Week. Palm Sunday blows in with the cheering and waving of palm branches as Jesus enters Jerusalem. ‘Hosanna to the Son of David’, the people cry – believing that here is the Saviour they’ve been waiting for. Repression, oppression and hardship will cease and all shall be well.
But the events of Holy Week take a twist. The authorities are upset by Jesus and what they see as his subversive actions. Determined to do away with him they bring about his arrest, fake trial and execution. All seems lost…
Good Friday is one of the most painful days in the Christian year. Betrayal, loss, grief and bewilderment – just some of the emotions felt by the family, friends and followers of Jesus as they stand at the foot of the cross and watch him die. So many people have endured these emotions over the last year as they have seen the effects of Covid-19 on family and friends. It’s tough to experience; hard to understand why such bad, sad things happen. None of us can bypass the cross. But even as we stand there, weeping, God is with us. Even as he died, one of the last thoughts of Jesus was for his mother and his much loved disciple, as he commended them to each other’s care. His love never ends.
Jesus dies and is laid in a tomb. All seems lost. Holy Saturday comes in as a quiet, sad and reflective day when the earth seems to cease turning and all life is suspended in a kind of disbelief.
But then a new day dawns, Easter arrives, and with it a jubilant message of death being overturned. New life bursts forth with the risen Jesus – just as he had promised. A new story begins…
Each of us can take hope from this. In the last book of the Christian Bible are written the words, ‘Behold, I make all things new…’ (Revelation 21:5.) Spring arrives, and with it comes an explosion of new life springing forth. Now is the time for us to delight in the signs of spring and to remember that age-old promise expressed so delightfully in the Book of Psalms, ‘weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning.’ (Psalm 30:5.)
