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Today, most churches will mark Palm Sunday, which marks a time for deep reflection and prayer as we remember the last days of Christ leading to his resurrection on Easter Sunday.
Many churches in the community are marking the week with special services, especially on Easter Sunday, when sunrise services are a special date on the calendar.
For many, it is time to celebrate by coloring Easter eggs and having Easter egg hunts. Many churches in the community plan Easter egg hunts, making it a special time for children. However, for Christians, this final stretch of the Lenten season, which began with Ash Wednesday, is reserved for prayer and abstinence — an ideal time to practice faith and devotion to Jesus Christ.
For several years, the First Free Will Baptist Church held a sunrise service on Lynn Mountain at the site of the three crosses. Some groups travel regularly to the three crosses on the hill north of town for prayer and services.
Lent prepares us to live the Paschal Triduum — that is, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday.
The date for Easter changes each year because of the lunar calendar. This way, Easter Sunday always lands on the first Sunday after a full moon following the spring equinox.
Palm Sunday celebrates the triumphant entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem, when the Jewish people recognized him as king. From the scriptures we learn that the people had cloaks and palms, and as Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, they shouted: “…bless the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Long live the king of the Jews!” This is how that first Holy Week began.
On Maundy Thursday, we commemorate or remember when Christ took the 12 disciples and washed their feet, as a sign that he chooses us not to serve him, but to serve others, as it was the Jewish tradition. We also observe the Last Supper, which symbolizes the mandate of love and service.
On Good Friday, we celebrate the Crucifixion of Christ. During Good Friday, the seven words that Christ pronounced before dying on the cross, his crucifixion and his death are all celebrated.
Many churches celebrate Easter Sunday with a sunrise service. As the Bible says, on the third day after being crucified, Jesus arose again, proving that he is the Savior of the world.
We view the events of Holy Week from the secure perspective of nearly 2,000 years. Crucially, we have the benefit of hindsight. The bizarre incidents in the gospels fit into a sort of order, and we know how the story ends.
The followers of Jesus — women and men — experienced it from within.
They didn’t know that this would be the climactic week of three tumultuous years. Events that are literally iconic for us looking back were breaking around them. How were they to make sense of the madness? Jesus’ spontaneous act of vandalism in the temple; frenzied crowds; a secretive supper party riddled with opaque symbolism; violent abduction by an armed mob — terrifying stuff was happening hour by hour. They must have worried for their safety and their sanity. They may have been pining for the peaceful families they had left behind and wondering whether the whole Jesus thing was turning out to be a chaotic and humiliating mess.
How’s your week going? As we reflect on the meaning of Easter, there’s no weird stuff with fig trees or Roman soldiers at the door. We are not living in a basement in Ukraine or a refugee camp in the Middle East, or even being deported as an immigrant.
But even in our sheltered lives, there are too many loose ends for our liking. There are relationships needing attention and commitments that we should probably not have taken on. We have friends who are sick, and others who have died far too soon. The planet is groaning and world events seem out of control. Some nights we go to bed feeling buffeted and wondering whether it all makes sense.
For many of us, our culture is less physically threatening but no less bewildering than it was for the first followers of Jesus. In the melee of Holy Week, we have no option but to live life forward. We may not understand what is happening to us and around us from day to day. But we are called to follow faithfully through the mess and the muddle, knowing Resurrection Day is coming for the followers of Christ.