This coming Sunday, Palm Sunday, begins the week we call Holy Week. Our congregation will celebrate and remember as Saturday brings our Egg Hunt (11am), Sunday brings our Easter Cantata (10am, one service followed by a meal), Thursday brings Maundy Thursday Service (7pm), Friday brings Tenebrae (7pm), and Easter Sunday brings Sunrise Service at First Baptist (6:30am), Contemporary Service (9am) and Traditional Service (11am). It is a busy time, but we need to dismiss the business and claim the term Holy.
This time is Holy, because it is a time when God's presence, story, provision, and passion fill our lives. God does something amazing in the Easter story. Jesus, in spite of torture, betrayal, misunderstanding, injustice, politics, toil, and even death, made all of these things Holy. They become Holy, because they are part of God's master plan to redeem the unredeemable ... namely, us! All of the negatives listed above flow from the human heart. The prophet Jeremiah (17:19) wrote, "The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?" The question is a good one, but in that 1st Holy week, Jesus found out the answer. The human heart brought about the death of God's only begotten son. And in that death, even death becomes Holy, worthwhile, usable by God, and redeemed. Do you get the magnitude of that?
For those who feel they are unsavable, Jesus redeemed even death! For those who feel unworthy, Jesus' presence made all of those negative things used and usable by God! The life, death, atonement, and the resurrection of Christ changed everything. It is the changing point of human time. It is the moment when the flow of God's forgiveness is extended to the whole world. It is an empty cross, an empty tomb, and a full pardon, for all who believe. It is hope for the hopeless and sight for the blind. It is Holy!
