This week is the high holy week for Christians.  Palm Sunday and Easter are the bookends.  During the week, we remember the Passover meal that our Lord shared with his apostles in the Upper Room.  There he instituted the Lord's Supper, and as he shared the broken bread and cup of wine, he said "do this in remembrance of me."  

In reflecting upon this supper, the apostle Paul writes that "as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes again."  Paul exhorts us to remember that in the Lord's Supper (aka communion, the eucharist) we celebrate the forgiveness of our sins and the new life we have through faith in Jesus Christ. 

On Good Friday, we solemnly remember Jesus being unjustly accused by the Chief Priest, Saducces and Pharisees and ultimately by Pontius Pilate.  We remeber how the soldiers mocked Jesus, scourged him, and then mockingly crowned him with thorns.  Then Jesus is saddled with the cross that he carries to Golgotha. There, he is crucified between two thieves and dies an ignominious death, in front of his mother, the women who followed him, other disciples, soldiers, and those who unjustly accused him.  

Saturday there is deathly silence, and we use this time to reflect, to give thanksgiving, and to praise God for loving us so much that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him shall have eternal life.

And on Sunday, we celebrate the Lord's resurrection.  He has defeated death, he has overcome every wile of the devil.  He is resurrected in full glory, in a new body, one that is free of death.  Happy Easter!    

Someday, we will be like him.  We will not be him,but like him.  A redeemed spirit and soul enfleshed in a resurrected body.  We will step through this portal of time and space into a new life, an eternal life with Almighty God and all the angels and saints, one that is a gift of pure grace from our Lord and Creator.  And so we say together in unison:  honor and glory be to you, O Lord; allelulia, allelulia, alleluia, praise be to God! 

May the rich blessings of this Easter be upon you and all those whom you love now and forevermore.  Amen. 

Blessings,

Michael