Maundy Thursday
Celebrated on the Thursday of Easter Week, Maundy Thursday is the celebration commemorating the dinner Jesus shared with his disciples and the beginning of Passover. In modern Christendom, it is what we commonly refer to as communion or the Lord’s Supper.
Communion is a holy event. It is a place where God is, and where God is, it’s holy. It’s a time of introspection. Just as the disciples questioned themselves if they were the one who would sell out Jesus, it’s not a bad question to ask yourself - Is there anything that I love more than our Lord?
Ask the Holy Spirit to search your heart and life and if he reveals something that you need to ask forgiveness for or make a change in your behavior? This is the time to do it. He has promised us…
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Good Friday
Good Friday is the day we remember the crucifixion of Christ. Though for us, salvation is a gift and costs us nothing, it is the most extravagant, unobtainable gift that we could ever expect to be given. Not only was it the death of Christ, but it was the cruelest of deaths.
Read through Psalm 22. This is a prophetic Psalm written over 500 years before the Romans devised the torturous death by crucifixion. It begins with words familiar to those who know the Easter story, but few know that it is a part of a song. This is the first verse…
My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Could Jesus have been singing while nailed on the cross?
Now look at Isaiah 53, it tells us why and what he was dying for.
The prophet Isaiah would write about him…
Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.
By oppression and judgment, he was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested?
For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished.
He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.
Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord make his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.
Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong,
because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
Isaiah 53:4-12
May Christ be with you and may you grow closer to him during this Easter season.
Pastor Greg