Over the next several weeks, I wanted to take some time to bring back to mind some prior blog posts. These are some of my favorites that I still find myself going back to from time to time. Feel free to share these with friends and family. We want more and more people loving like Jesus loves!
Consider this one going the whole back to Holy Week in 2020. Yes, remember 2020. I especially love this post as we can now look back and see we made it through those days!
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Is this Holy Week like the first one?
For most of us, this Holy Week is like none other than any of us have ever known. It’s hard for me to not reflect on the feelings of the first Holy Week.
We started our reflection of Holy Week on Palm Sunday, reading John 12:
2 The next day the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. 13 They took palm branches and went out to meet him. They shouted,
“Hosanna!
Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
Blessings on the king of Israel!”
14 Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, just as it is written,
15 Don’t be afraid, Daughter Zion.
Look! Your king is coming,
sitting on a donkey’s colt.
16 His disciples didn’t understand these things at first. After he was glorified, they remembered that these things had been written about him and that they had done these things to him.
We first feel excited. Yes! God is going to save us! Jesus is King, the Messiah, everything is going to work out great! But did you notice the line, “His disciples didn’t understand these things at first.”
Were they still excited when they gathered around the table with Jesus Thursday night? They didn’t know it then, but it would prove to be their last supper with Him. Everything likely seemed to be going the way they thought it should go. Maybe that started to change as Jesus started talking about people betraying Him and denying Him. It definitely changed. Mark tells us how after Jesus was arrested the disciples left in a hurry:
50 And all his disciples left him and ran away. 51 One young man, a disciple, was wearing nothing but a linen cloth. They grabbed him, 52 but he left the linen cloth behind and ran away naked. (Mark 14)
It would seem as though the disciples were rather afraid. They didn’t know if they would be next or not.
These same disciples would soon be looking up at Jesus hanging on the cross, dying. The One they saw perform miracle after miracle. The One who had called them to follow Him. They thought more was going to happen. Again, they found themselves scared, disappointed, grieving and confused. They may have even found themselves getting angry, “How could I have followed such a man?”
They still didn’t know what was coming. They didn’t know Easter was only a few days away. In the midst of ALL of their feelings, God was at work. They didn’t know that, and yet we do. We know that Easter comes. We KNOW that Jesus lives! We know that no matter what happens around us our life is in His life!
Blessings,
Pastor Matt
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