I opened my bleary eyes this morning, and looked past the half-opened curtain. I couldn't believe my eyes. My thoughts were interrupted from "Oh look. Fog" and "Good morning, God." by disbelief, and, to my dismay - anger. "God?" I said. "You're a little late on your April fools joke this year. Snow? It's the middle of April! Last week, I got sunburned! and now...this? Really, God? Really?"
Most of me WANTS to have good intentions. I'm just angry on behalf of the farmers. Or maybe, "But the buds? What about the buds? What about the trees?" But the realist side of me that has no good intentions whatsoever is just shouting, "GET ME WARM NOW! THIS IS NOT FAIR, GOD!"
How foolish of me. And yet, I don't give up on my tirade. I feel I have something to contribute to the rest of West Michigan who are probably all yelling the same thing. Alas, I don't.
Welcome to Holy Week. In some ways, this is really symbolic. This is the week in which we look forward towards the ULTIMATE new life. We look forward to Resurrection Sunday, also known as Easter. We look forward. But at the same time, we remember - during this week, we suddenly see ourselves nailing the Savior on the cross to take our blame. Many times we celebrate that it is only by the blood of the Lamb that we are saved. Hallelujah! But we forget the first part of the Romans 6:8-9, "Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him."
We LOVE thinking about the fact that Christ was raised (Hallelujah! Praise be to God Almighty!) for that means that we get to live forever too! We HATE thinking about the fact that Christ died. We tend to gloss over that fact. If we were going to put this verse in the way we'd speak, it would be this: "NowifwediedwithChrist we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised fromthedead he cannot die again; death has no mastery over him!."
Do you catch my drift?
To put in other terms: Why are Maundy Thursday/Good Friday services sparsely attended while Easter morning, church walls can hardly contain the people who have come? It's because we want to think happy thoughts! We want to celebrate! Death is uncomfortable to think about, especially because each and every single one of us are murderers. We don't want death to hit us. We don't mind being emotional in church as long as it doesn't include feeling exceptionally sorry for our sins. We don't mind emotions in church as long as they make us "feel good."
Before we get to Easter, we MUST pass through Maundy Thursday/Good Friday. There's no other way. We must deal with the fact that Christ was nailed upon a tree (and according to Deuteronomical Law, cursed is anyone who hangs on a tree), shed blood for us, was whipped and lashed far too severely for his conviction, and died so that we don't have to. The Son of God died on our behalf.
The Son of God was murdered for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities. The weight of sin was upon him.
Yes. It is uncomfortable to think about this. Rightfully so. But we cannot get the full essence of the gospel without realizing that Christ died for us. We cannot simply attach ourselves to the spirit of postmodernism where we talk about only things that make us "feel good".
This snow represents death. Remind yourself this day that to get to spring, one must go through winter. To gt to Easter, one must go through Maundy Thursday/Good Friday.
Don't JUST invite your friends who don't know about Christ to the Easter Service. Invite them to Maundy Thursday/Good Friday services, and THEN invite them to the Easter service. They need the full extent of the Gospel; so do you.
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