EDITOR’S NOTE: Beginning this weekend, your Prepare for Worship newsletter will be delivered on Saturdays, around 4 PM (or so we intend). Historically, that is when it was delivered, but during the time we had a Saturday evening service, the newsletter moved to Friday. Since that service no longer is held, we’re moving back to Saturdays. Thanks!
Hey Church!
In only a matter of hours now, we will begin our journey through Holy Week in which we will walk with Jesus through His suffering, death, burial, and resurrection. This Sunday is Palm Sunday, named in memory of the palm branches (which were, themselves, symbolic of royalty and victory) that were waved and laid in the road in celebration of Jesus’ entry to Jerusalem six days before Passover. The King of kings and true Lamb of sacrifice came to conquer and subdue His enemies and ours, not perched aloft a mighty horse or chariot of war but on the back of a donkey, a symbol of humility and peace. We can only wonder if anyone in the crowd recognized this ironic and “triumphal entry” to be the very words of Zechariah’s prophecy coming true.
“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your king is coming to you;
righteous and having salvation is he,
humble and mounted on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” (Zech. 9:9)
On Palm Sunday, we will greet Jesus joyfully, as the people in the city of Jerusalem did that day, shouting, “Hosanna [meaning, “Lord, save”]! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” On Thursday of Holy Week, we will gather around the table with Jesus and His disciples to share in a communion meal and receive from Him a “new mandate” (maundy in Old English, from Latin mandatum). On Friday, we will see the spiritual shadows deepen as Jesus is betrayed, tried, tortured, and executed on a cross. We will gather at His tomb on Saturday night to mourn our sin and ask the Father to grant us grace and renew our hope in the resurrection. Finally, on Easter Sunday morning, we will behold our risen King!
It is a curious thing, to me, that we can be so content to rejoice in the victory of Easter Sunday without first attending the sorrows of Thursday through Saturday. Imagine choosing to arrive at the theater eight-and-a-half hours into the nine-hour Lord of the Rings saga expecting to shed a tear of triumph during the closing credits. We are invited to participate in the greatest drama the world has ever known this week. Don’t miss it!
Join us at 7:00 PM in the worship center for services next Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night. Easter Sunday will be the same times as usual, 9:00 and 11:00 AM. But I can promise you that it will be anything but another ordinary Sunday if you enter into the story from the beginning, with Palm Sunday, and then participate in the drama of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday.
For your sake (our souls need this!), I truly hope to see you all there.
Your brother,
Ryan