From Lent to Easter
25 Mar 2022 • Articles
This year, Passion Sunday, the Fifth Sunday of Lent, falls on 3rd March, and the following days bring us Palm Sunday, on 10th March, and the start of Holy Week.
Services on Palm Sunday feature the solemn celebration of Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, demonstrating that his intentions were full of peace and love. Jerusalem was the nation's capital city, where thousands of people had gathered to worship God in the magnificent temple during the Feast of the Passover. Most people knew of Jesus, and many had met him and listened to his teaching, so the crowds cheered when they saw Jesus coming to Jerusalem, but Jesus was sad because he knew that they could let him down when doubt or danger came.
Maundy Thursday services remind us of our Lord's Last Supper with his disciples, when he took the bread and broke it and gave it to them, starting the Church's family meal of Holy Communion. Sometimes the Eucharist is followed by a Vigil, which is a good opportunity for quiet thought about Christ's prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane; Jesus knew that pain and suffering lay ahead but accepted that his death was necessary to draw people to God in penitence and reconciliation.
On Good Friday faithful Christians gather together to think about the crucifixion and to demonstrate their resolve not to let Jesus down as the first crowds did, putting their selfish ambitions and their own safety before justice and love. Some services include the Stations of the Cross, which commemorate moments in the last journey of Jesus through Jerusalem as he was being led out to be crucified.
Saturday is known as Easter Eve, when the body of Jesus rested in the tomb, blessing the grave to be a bed of hope for all believers and ending the utter tragedy which life could be if death allowed us nothing but complete destruction.
Finally, on Easter Day, every Christian rejoices to know that Jesus is alive, always and for ever, through the resurrection, giving us a guarantee of life with God. Easter eggs are an appropriate way of celebrating Easter, with the shell representing the cave-tomb in which Jesus lay, being either hollow to indicate the tomb left empty by Christ's resurrection, or filled with sweetness to indicate the joy of hope in God.
With every blessing as you travel through Lent to the loveliness of Easter,
Ann