Reflections from Holy Week

"My body is like this bread.  It will break," Jesus told them.  "This cup of wine is like my blood.  It will pour out.  And this is how God will rescue the whole world.  My life will break and God's broken world will mend.  My heart will tear apart - and your hearts will heal.  Just as the passover lamb died, so now I will die instead of you.  My blood will wash away all of your sins.  And you'll be clean on the inside - in your hearts.  So whenever you eat and drink, remember," Jesus said, "I've rescued you!"

Jesus knew it was nearly time for him to leave the world and to go back to God.  "I won't be with you long," he said.  "You are going to be sad.  But God's helper will come.  And then you'll be filled with a Forever Happiness that won't ever leave.  So don't be afraid.  You are my friends and I love you."  Then they sang their favorite song.  And walked up to their favorite place, an olive garden.

-The Jesus Storybook Bible, Sally Lloyd Jones

I wanted to feel this Holy Week.  To sink in the weight and heaviness of it all and let it sit there.  I just finished up Andy Stanley's powerful sermon series called, 90, a twelve-week series that's examined the life of Jesus, and I was reminded and invited to understand a little more about this King I follow.  I was reminded of a Jesus who climbed in a boat with a bunch of dudes, asked them to trust him, and smiled as he showed them a small sign of his provision when they said yes.  I was reminded of Jesus with little children, playful and loving toward them, admiring their childlike faith and saying it's the kind of faith that what would inherit his kingdom.  I was reminded of God's great plan as I reread the story of Abraham in Genesis, walking up that mountain to sacrifice his only precious son, the ram that showed up instead, and a promise that God will provide the sacrifice in his time.  And then, my stomach turned and my eyes filled with tears as we got to the part of the crucifixion, and I was reminded of the horror that Jesus, the true sacrifice, endured on the cross.  The act of crucifixion was so terrible that all artwork that depicted it was actually banned until the very last generation that lived to see it all died.  Today, we look at images of the cross and are desensitized to it all, but I was reminded that there was nothing sanitary or romantic about this picture.  It was awful.

I wanted to feel Holy Week, but I didn't expect to feel it the way I did.  Yesterday was a hard day, a day when an otherwise simple argument with someone I love led to all kinds of hard, deep truths about myself and the brokenness in this world.  I sat in it all - the emotion, the hurt, the sin, and I processed it through the lens of the cross.  I prayed, pressed in, and shared my struggle with some close friends later that night.  And I felt exposed, vulnerable, and weak.  Just a small glimpse of how Jesus felt as he carried his cross, a cross meant for us.  

I was reminded yesterday that the beauty of God's upside down kingdom is that God makes us strong through our weakness, not our strength.  And it's when we empty ourselves enough to let him fill us with his love and strength and power that we begin to understand what grace is all about.  He shines his light in our broken pieces and redeems them for his purpose and glory.  And that redemption leads to the true freedom I'm after.  It's what we celebrate on Easter Sunday.  God's great rescue plan, worked out for us, in us, and through us, a plan that takes our brokenness and heaviness and turns it into a beautiful story of freedom.        

In my journal this morning, I unpacked three truths God has pointed me toward this Lenten season.  I pray they might be used to enlighten, challenge, or inspire you as we celebrate Easter and move to a life of living the life Jesus died for.  

1. Jesus broke all the rules

613 of them to be exact.  It's been interesting this year to have read "The Law" (the first five books of the Bible) and understand a little more of the world prior to Jesus coming and turning it all on its head.  These books are basically one big story of God creating a holy people (Israel) more fully able to love God and love others.  God set these people apart to show other nations about Him.  He gives them a new way to live through the law, and over and over again, we see them rebel and fail.  And rebel and fail some more.  They are incapable of following all the laws God gives them to set them apart because their hearts are wired to sin.  

Then Jesus came, taught from this law, but fulfilled it.  And he fulfilled it with a new law, a single law that would sum up everything.  Love God, Love others.  He demonstrated this during his time on this earth, without fail, and it looked quite different than what everyone pictured.  He got his hands dirty, invited sinners to his table, and said the temple was nothing more than a pile of bricks.  He didn't act like the king they were waiting for, because their hard hearts didn't allow them to see him.  And that is why he died.  We needed new hearts, and the power to transform through his spirit.

2. Christ died, so we must die, too.

Galatians 2:20 says this: "My old self was crucified with Christ.  It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives within me."  Christ's death is an invitation to a life of transformation, from old to new.  Easter is a time of death and rebirth.  And we as Christians must surrender to a similar death and rebirth in order to be transformed.  This transformed life is a journey.  Living in his word instead of in my world, identifying the sin that consumes me and distracts me from a transformed life, and leaning on prayer and other believers to strengthen and encourage me are all ways that help me understand this new life I'm called to live.  And as I learned this week, it involves an emptying of myself, so that God can fill me and flow through me.  

3. I want to live a life worthy of the calling received (Ephesians 4:1)

I don't want to be hardened, desensitized, or asleep to grace.  This is no small story we are invited to be part of and I want to live a life that demonstrates that!  But before I can step into that calling in the way He desires of me, I need to first see the kingdom rightly.  I must see it all through the lens of Jesus, not the lens of this world.  Matt Chandler says it this way: "A king who dies on a cross must be the king of a rather strange kingdom.  While the kingdoms of this world are built by force, the kingdom of Jesus is built on grace.  We must not see it as Rome, but we must see it through the lens of Jesus' cross.  

So what does this mean?  Jesus' way of living out the calling is often counterintuitive to the ways of this world, and the ways I picture it.  Paul says it's through things like humility and gentleness, patience, love, and unity (Ephesians 4:2).  It's through serving others, putting others above myself, doing the things that no one wants to do, and building one another up in love.  We've been equipped to do it, but it's often through our weakness that God's power is made known.  He must become greater, I must become less. 

When Jesus died, He gave us so much in return.  He gave us all full access to a life with Him, despite the weight of our sin.  He gave us new hearts and a powerful spirit, able to transform and love others the way he desires of us.  He gave us fruit, gifts and purpose to live out in order to build a picture of his kingdom right here on earth.  He gave us His word and the life of Jesus as a picture of true faith and true love to live out.  So there you have it.  A small picture of all that's been swimming in this heart this lenten season.  Happy Easter!  May God use it as an opportunity to bless you, renew your heart, and give you steps toward a transformed life.  May we live as new creation, bought with the blood of Jesus. 

"Bear your cross as you wait for the crown,

tell the world of the treasure you found."