I’ve seen a lot of Easter weeks come and go in my lifetime, and I have to say, Holy Week 2020 has got to be the strangest one ever.
This week has seen people’s emotions and attitudes ping pong all over the place because of our current need to isolate and live life radically differently than we are used to doing.
Everything has changed.
I spent a good bit of time this morning trying to come up with something profound to share with you about Good Friday during the COVID-19 crisis.
I mean, it’s Easter Week, and we are all stuck at home in a pandemic.
There must be something important and deep and awe-inspiring that I could share. I wanted to be clever and pertinent.
But I wasn’t coming up with anything. I couldn’t get in “the zone” to write.
Then, I realized that, maybe, instead of trying to be clever and brilliant, I needed to go back to the basics and keep it simple. Perhaps take the focus off of how much I wanted to impress all of you.
I needed to stop making things so complicated and focused on me.
Because the message for today IS simple:
Everything in our world has changed with COVID-19.
But for those of us who put our faith and hope in Christ,
NOTHING HAS CHANGED.
Holy Week (the events of the week leading up to Easter/Resurrection Sunday) is a PERFECT time to remember this fact.
And Good Friday?
Good Friday, the day Jesus was crucified and died, is the PERFECT time to remember what Jesus’ death really means.
- It means this world is not my home.
- It means that things may be difficult here, but I don’t have to go through it alone.
- It means that Jesus took away all my sins and blame so that God sees ME as righteous and clean, as a Jesus follower.
- It means that I can put up with any challenge life throws my way because this isn’t all there is.
- It means that I have a whole Body of people here and now to encourage and help me when I need it.
- It means I have hope.
- It means I can have peace that is hard to describe or understand.
- It means that, while I may be concerned and have to work hard for answers and solutions, I don’t need to worry.
Do you realize how much FREEDOM there is in all of that??
Everything has changed, yet:
- Nothing has changed, because God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
- Nothing has changed, because our contentment and joy doesn’t depend on what happens day to day in this life.
- Nothing has changed, because Jesus’ sacrifice DID happen, and His words ARE true.
- Nothing has changed, because no matter how bad it gets, God is right there beside us helping us through.
- Nothing has changed, because my hope isn’t in any president or doctor or world leader or virus cure or job – it is in Jesus and the sacrifice he made for me.
If you have lost a loved one to this virus, my heart goes out to you. I cannot imagine the grief and loss you must be experiencing. You have my sincere sympathy and condolences.
But, even so, in the grand scheme of things, nothing that has lasting, eternal value has changed.
Even when everything around you is falling apart, you can still see goodness, purpose, and hope, if you choose to.
A week or so ago, I saw several posts about how COVID-19 has closed the churches and cancelled Easter. I knew that wasn’t the case at all – believers simply had to be creative in how to still be “together” while we are physically apart. People who said those things don’t really understand how Christianity works, how faith works, how the Body of Christ works.
So, here it is, happening at Easter – of all the ridiculous, disruptive times to have a pandemic!
But it’s also brilliant timing.
How amazingly radical was it that COVID-19 showed up AT Eastertime, so that the world could be reminded of what is true, what is important, and how nothing can cancel our celebration of the resurrection! How nothing can keep the Body of Christ from encouraging each other and worshiping God, ESPECIALLY as we remember the resurrection!
How God’s LOVE for us overcome everything, and still does, and always will.
That’s why God is in charge of such things and not me. I’m not nearly creative or brave enough.
No human could have written a better script than that!
So no, I don’t have anything brilliant and clever to share with you today.
I just want to remind you, here on Good Friday, that today still IS good, and that God is very much in control.
That everything will be ok, even if we don’t know what that looks like yet.
I encourage you to take time to reflect on the Holy Week events, read the passages of scripture that recount those events, and reset your mind to remember what you already know but may have forgotten in the short term.
EVERYTHING has changed, yet because of Jesus, NOTHING has changed!
Sunday is coming, my friend! He is risen, indeed.
Note: Here are some scripture readings for today, Good Friday, the day Jesus was crucified and died:
Isaiah 52:13-53
Psalm 22
Psalm 95
Lamentations 3:1-33
John 3:16
John 13:36-38
John 18:1-19, 32
John 19:38-42
Hebrews 10:16-25
1 Peter 1:10-20
Peripheral Wisdom 