Dear Evergreen Family,
Have you ever been blindsided? One minute, you believe your relationship with an individual (or group) is fine. The next minute, you’ve been rejected. You don’t know why. You did not see it coming. You never in a million years believed that they would ever do this to you. Things changed on a dime, and you feel like the earth shifted underneath your feet. Ever been there?
We must look strange to non-Christians. We Christians each year celebrate the week our Lord was blindsided. We even call it Holy Week. We wave palm branches in church, sing festive songs, and go on spring break! It is really strange. Even though we have to believe Jesus wasn’t actually surprised by the turn of events, the pain must have been very much the same. How do we respond? We celebrate.
“He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrow and acquainted with grief, and as one from whom men hide their faceshe was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed” (Isaiah 53:3-5).
We celebrate because Jesus’ solidarity with us in our pain changed the contours of pain itself. Being blindsided is no longer emptiness in a vacuum. It’s a shared experience with the creator of the universe and the lover of our souls. Even more, his pain means freedom from sin and death for the rest of us. His pain became a victory. So, we call the beginning of the weekend Good Friday. It’s a week worth celebrating.
At Evergreen, our week-long celebration begins with an unexpected visitor during worship this Sunday, Palm/Passion Sunday. Who could this be? Our celebration continues on Good Friday, March 2nd. We’ll meet at Bear’s Den at 6:30 p.m. for this amazing Evergreen tradition. Easter Sunday morning starts with a family worship service outdoors at 9:00 a.m., which will include a children’s story, the morning message, Holy Communion, and an Easter Egg hunt! We then cap off the celebration with indoor worship at 10:00 a.m., including Holy Communion. Join us for Holy Week at Evergreen!
May God bless us all.
Your Fellow Minister in Christ,
Mark