Holy Week

It is an important week in the church year starting on Sunday. Starting with Palm Sunday and going through Easter Sunday.I am and am not looking forward to it. Some of the neatest and important services of the church year are this week. What I don't look forward to is four services this week. It is an intense week for going to worship. Regardless of the intensity and how much difference there is between how much I want to go and how much I should want to go, this is an important week in the life of the Christian and the Church.

Let's look at some of these days coming up.

Palm Sunday: The triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. The crowds are singing his praise. It always strikes me how weird it seams for Jesus to be hailed so loudly on Sunday and will be crucified on Good Friday.

Maundy Thursday: Jesus institutes the Lord's Supper during the Passover meal. I have always enjoyed the connection between the Old Testament foreshadowing and the New Testament fulfillment. The Lord's Supper truly fulfills and supersedes the Passover meal. Jesus is The Passover Lamb. It is the reason why Jesus is arrested later that night in the garden.

Good Friday: This is the key pin of the church year. Without the crucifixion, there is no resurrection and no saving grace for the terminally dead sinners we are. It is so interesting to read psalm 22 and the Passover account in Exodus and see how it is fulfilled on Good Friday.

Easter Vigil: The waiting for the risen Lord. Service for this Saturday evening start in darkness and grow lighter in contrast to Good Friday that goes from Light to Darkness. It parallels the candlelight service on Christmas eve when the light of the world came into the world. This time it is too show the Christ has risen from the dead. The Light of the world has overcome the darkness of the world. This service is when the alleluias that were missing in Lent return.

Easter: The celebration fo the risen Lord. I can't remeber the last time I got up for a sunrise service. I don't like getting up early. After the previous services, I am not motivated to go early. That is my human failing.

It is a neat week of services but I am just glad it happens once a year. i don't think I could handle the pass more often. With it also being family time and the other demands of life, I just would not want to do it more often. However, having siad this, I would not miss these services either, they are too important.