Readings for today: Psalms 81, 88, 92, 93
Holy Week is always powerful for me. It drains me emotionally, spiritually, and physically and not just because there is more activity on the schedule than normal. Yes, there are multiple services and multiple rehearsals and multiple things to do to mark this sacred week. Our teams run hard to pull it all off. There are a lot of late nights. But I find the emotional and spiritual demands of this week far more taxing than the physical ones. Closely walking with Jesus through His final days and hours opens my heart up to all kinds of emotions, many of them expressed so well in Psalm 88 from our reading today. Crying out to God. Feeling the weight of my sin. The loneliness of my journey at times. The rejection I’ve experienced in my life. The despair, weakness, and isolation. I know what it’s like to feel like darkness is my only friend. This is the experience of Holy Saturday and by the time I get there every year, I feel exhausted and spent.
Then comes Easter Sunday. A new day. Another day. An additional day. A bonus day. You see, Holy Saturday is not the end of Holy Week! Though Holy Saturday is the seventh day, the last day, the Sabbath day; the resurrection of Jesus Christ changes things. Changes how we mark time. Changes how we look at our calendars. By raising His Son from the dead, God moves us beyond the old Sabbath into the new Sabbath. An eternal Sabbath. A Sabbath not bound by hours or minutes or seconds. A Sabbath not bound by the cycles of evening and morning. A Sabbath not made for this world but for the world to come. A Sabbath not made for earth but for heaven. And without fail, as each Easter morning dawns, I find my strength renewed. I find my heart lifted. I find my joy restored. I lift my eyes above the hills to see from where my true help comes! My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth! As Psalm 93 puts it, “The Lord reigns! He is robed in majesty; the Lord is robed, enveloped in strength. The world is firmly established; it cannot be shaken. Your throne has been established from the beginning; you are from eternity.” (Psalms 93:1-2 CSB) Yes, the floods have lifted up. The world has done all it can to rid itself of God. To throw off all restraint. But the Lord rides the waves like a chariot. His voice is lifted high above the tumult of the seas. He will not be subject to His creation. He will not be ignored by the creatures made in His own image. By dying and rising again, He has declared His Word to be completely reliable, trustworthy, and true.
For Christians, Easter Sunday is not just a day on a calendar. It is not just an occasion to celebrate. It is a lived reality. We are an Easter people, shaped and formed by the Easter experience. Once you’ve tasted the new life Easter has to offer, the eternal life Easter has to offer, there’s no going back. And why would you want to? The old life is drab and boring by comparison. Nothing attractive about it all. Certainly not worth comparing to the glory that has now been revealed in us through the Risen Christ.
Readings for tomorrow: 1 Chronicles 7-9