Apr 18 - "What You Might Miss"

“Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, ‘Sir, we wish to see Jesus.’ Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. Jesus answered them, ‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.’” --- John 12:20-25

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Can you imagine what it would be like to plan a wonderful vacation full of exciting events and only experience the first day and the last day?

This may sound strange, but it what many of us do, when it comes to the experience we have every year related to the remembrances and celebrations of Christ’s life in the world. There are many who attend at Christmas, Easter…and that’s about it. Every year, the experience is, “He is born! He is risen!”, over and over again.

But let’s say you are a regular churchgoer. You have a community of faith where you belong and regularly attend. You experience the celebrations of Advent, Christmastide, Epiphany, Lent, Eastertide and Pentecost each year. This is a very good thing, but what do you do between Palm Sunday, the glorious celebration we experienced yesterday, and what we have this coming Sunday, rejoicing in Christ’s resurrection on Easter? Might you be missing something?

Please believe me, this is not a guilt trip about everyone needing to attend church more or something like that. As I have written on numerous occasions: God doesn’t need you to go to church; attending services with a community of believers in some building does not automatically get you into heaven, nor does the opposite…never stepping foot in a church…keep you out. This is about the enrichment we can receive by experiencing the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ; what happens in over the course of the week from Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday is so important to see.

Between today and six short days from now, we will see Christ speak to His disciples about the importance of what is to come, both in parables and very direct words. We will share a Last Supper with our teacher. There will be the struggle, violence, fear, anger and peace of the Garden at Gethsemane. Our friend , Jesus, will be arrested. We will deny Him three times. He will be beaten. We will shout, “Crucify Him!!”. He will be dragged through the streets, nailed to a cross, die and be buried.

You may say, “Yeah…that sounds like a lot of fun. And why would I want to experience this?!?!?” Brother and sister, we know that life is enriched by all that we experience; the good, the bad, the smooth and the rough. All of these things make our joys more joyful, our love deeper and our laughter louder.

So, don’t miss out. Take the opportunity to go to church this week and experience all that Holy Week has to offer; Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday and…of course…Easter Sunday! I guarantee you that the joy of the risen Christ will be increased a thousand fold if you have also had to experience the pain of His death.