Dear Friends,

 

The cartoon on the right shows a couple leaving church on Easter Sunday and shaking hands with the pastor. The man says to the pastor, “You’re in a rut, Reverend. Every time I come here, you preach about the Resurrection.”

 

We chuckle at that, but sometimes even those who faithfully come to church more regularly than on Easter have a similar attitude. We want to have a devoted attitude, but instead we fall into, “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead. I know all that. Same story. Different year.” It’s tempting to turn the most fantastic event of human history into something routine. We cannot let this happen.

 

Each year, I find I need to slow down and reflect on the events of Holy Week so that I can absorb its wonder. Sometimes just walking through those familiar events stirs my heart to remember all that Christ did for me. Holy Week begins this coming Palm Sunday, which celebrates Christ riding into Jerusalem in great triumph. On this day, all of those following Christ must have been elated. The way the crowd responded to Jesus’ entrance that day was the response they would give to royalty. It truly was cause for celebration. But as we will experience on Sunday as we worship, we will move from this triumphal entrance towards the tragic crucifixion. We will experience again how the crowds quickly changed their shouts of “Hosanna! Lord save us!” to “Crucify Him! He is no king of ours!”