Holy Week is upon us. Actually we are ‘over the hump’ of Holy Week entering the deepest part of the last week of Lent. I re-entered the Anglican tradition about 8 years ago and have found the intentional awareness of the Church calendar a rhythmic force in my life.
Holy Week is intense. When you get this it will be ‘Good Friday’ marking the death of Jesus on the cross for our sins. Last Sunday we celebrated Palm Sunday, Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Yesterday was Maundy Thursday, commemorating the last supper and Jesus’ capture in the Garden of Gethsemane. What a roller coaster! Highs to lows then hope shines through on Easter with the empty tomb and Jesus alive again, with victory over death, for Him and for us.
I chose this photo specifically. The back light on the big trees say to me that there is great darkness in this world. It works its way through our lives with diseases, terrorist attacks and so much more that God knows all about but did not intend. The root of the darkness we experience is not in God, it is in the hearts of humankind.
And yet…
“God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.” John 3:16-21
In the photo, light shines through the branches like the hope of Jesus’ and our resurrection shines through on Easter morning.
Come into the light!
