Zion Lutheran Church
Pastor's Page
Dear Friends in Christ,
In case you didn’t notice, Holy Week and Easter are coming up fast. So, I’d like to share with you two things which will hopefully make your celebration of Christ’s resurrection more meaningful and uplifting for your faith. First, we are offering a Seder Meal again this year. It’s planned for March 31st at 6:00 p.m. You may recall that the Seder is a retelling and reliving of the Passover meal. That’s important because it was at this meal that Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper. I highly encourage you to consider joining us. The meal is $12 a person but trust me, there are lots of specialty foods served and it’s well worth it. In case you’re worried that you won’t like the Middle Eastern recipes, don’t worry, there is plenty of variety to choose from and I can guarantee you’ll find plenty to enjoy—especially the desserts! As always, if you have any questions feel free to contact me.
Next, let’s talk about Holy Week. Did you know that Easter is the most highly attended church service of the year? Have you stopped to consider why? Actually, the reason shouldn’t surprise us: Everybody loves a story about victory rather than defeat. What greater victory can there be than Jesus overcoming death and rising to life again? Not only that, as St. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15:12-34, Christ’s resurrection is the guarantee that we who believe in Him will also be raised from the dead. His victory is now our victory. That’s why Paul can say in conclusion in verses 56-57: “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Okay, great. But there’s something crucial missing here. You can’t get to Easter Sunday without Good Friday. That is to say, how can you have a celebration of Christ’s resurrection if you don’t have His death? Our service on Good Friday allows us a powerful time to meditate on this, including time to ponder the horrific fact that it was our sins that caused Jesus’ death.
So, if Good Friday is so important and crucial, why do many of our members skip it? Oh, I suppose you could answer with the standard reason/excuse that our lives are so busy and there’s not enough time to go to Maundy Thursday AND Good Friday AND Easter Sunday within a 3-day period. We could discuss this reasoning at length but simply put, it’s a matter of priorities.
However, the real reason why Good Friday is so easily skipped over can be summarized in a statement we sometimes hear: “I don’t do funerals.” That sentiment is the product of our society’s attempt to avoid dealing with death. Deep down we know every one of us is destined to die. We just don’t want to talk about it. We don’t want to think about the death of our loved ones and we certainly don’t want to think about our own demise. Therefore, anything that remotely hints at this subject is avoided. Instead, we come up with all kinds of euphemisms for death. We say that someone “passed away” or has gone to “the sweet by and by” or they’ve “gone to a better place” or we call them “the dearly departed.” More and more nowadays people want to call the funeral service a “Celebration of Life.” There may be a good intention behind that label, but for many, it’s just another attempt to put a happy face on the reality of death.
All of this dancing around the subject is unnecessary for us as Christians. Once again, I would direct you to 1 Corinthians 15. It is not a euphemism when St. Paul calls the death of a believer “falling asleep.” Jesus Himself uses this term In John 11 when He dealt with the death of Lazarus. It’s not a euphemism because for a believer death is just a temporary state of being, just like sleep. And just like sleep, we will awaken someday to eternal life. My whole point is that for these reasons we don’t need to avoid talking about death.
Which leads us back to Good Friday. We should actually look forward to gathering to commemorate the death of Jesus on the cross. By it, He paid the price for all our damning sins. His death was necessary for our redemption. So, remembering and, yes, celebrating Christ’s death is at the heart and soul of our Easter celebration. Based on that, I strongly encourage you to set aside the time to come to worship on both Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. What happened on those days nearly 2,000 years ago is essential to our salvation. And as I said earlier, Easter Sunday is not possible without Good Friday. So come and meditate on the magnificent love of God for us in that He sent His Son to die in our place so that none of us would perish but have eternal life (John 3:16.)
May the Lord bless us in these last days of our Lenten journey as we prepare for a glorious celebration of life on Easter Sunday!
In Christ, Pastor Don Meyer
