The 40-day period of Lent, with its emphasis on prayer and fasting, can be a dark time. We can feel restricted and limited, having agreed to give up some food item, or limit our daily activities in some way. We want to make a special effort to focus on God, but the very nature of a special effort is that it is more effort than normal, and therefore it is not easy.
Holy Week can be even darker. It is the last week of Lent, and Christian folk are aware that during the first Easter Week, Jesus was coming face-to-face with the climax of his ministry. He was going to die.
He knew it would not be a peaceful, gentle death, at home, in bed, with his family gathered round to smooth his passing. No, it was going to be violent, painful, cruel, degrading, just awful.
Jesus' disciples were hoping that as Jesus confronted the religious and secular authorities, he would overcome their resistance, subdue their opposition, and take his rightful place, on the throne, in the temple, ruling over all things.
But that didn't happen. That was not what Jesus came to do. He came to die.
Jesus knew that his death would only be temporary, but he still had to suffer the pain from the beatings, the nails, and the slow suffocation and constriction of crucifixion on the cross. His mind knew he was safe, but he felt abandoned, even by his Father, God. He died.
The annual Easter Play, in Edinburgh's Princes Street Gardens, will take place on Saturday (April 3rd), at 10:30am and 2:30pm. Why not go along and see the story of Easter Week unfolding in front of your eyes. Be there. See it. Hear it for yourself.
On the Sunday morning after Friday's Crucifixion, when the Sabbath was over, Mary and the others discovered the stone rolled away, and no sign of Jesus' body. Then, wonder of wonders, they met Jesus. They spoke with him, they touched him, they ate with him, they walked with him.
Jesus' disciples had been in the depths of despair. The light of their lives had been snuffed out and they were in total darkness.
When Jesus was raised from death, the light came back into their lives. It wasn't the end after all, but neither was it the same as before.
Jesus was with them, but not all the time. They had to be responsible themselves. They were given the Holy Spirit, just as Jesus had the Holy Spirit, but they had to take forward Jesus' mission themselves. You can read all about their exciting adventure in the Acts of the Apostles, or you can see it in practice in Church on Sunday.
Jesus Christ is Risen. He calls us all to follow him, through death, into eternal life. Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
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