 What a difference just one week can make! For us personally, it has been such a mixture. We had the pure joy of welcoming Hannah’s birth on March 13. She is such a beautiful and wonderful addition to our family, and we cannot wait for you all to finally be able to meet her! But therein reveals the other side of things. It was not exactly my vision that on the first day of seeing Hannah with our eyes, I would have to call an Elders’ meeting from the hospital room about the quickly escalating concerns around the coronavirus pandemic. In just a week, all of our lives have been affected in unprecedented ways: closure of schools and public locations, lockdowns at nursing homes, stay-at-home orders, social distancing, constant handwashing, disinfecting, and the like. But above all, as a Church, the suspension of in-person worship services is such unchartered territory. It has been such a change, all of this taking place as we adjust to the new routine of having three little ones in our home. That Hannah’s Baptism would not include our closest family in the same place would have been unthinkable. Almost everything seems different. What a difference a week can make!
The people in Jerusalem may have been thinking, “What a difference a week can make!” On Palm Sunday, the adoring crowds welcomed Jesus into the God’s holy city with waving palm branches and cloaks strewn about the path as Jesus rode in on a donkey. But just five days later, crowds were yelling, “Crucify him!” The very same Jesus who was hailed was now mocked and left to die on a cross and then on Saturday, he lay in the tomb. What a difference a week can make! But a new week has come. “Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. 2 And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. 3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. 4 And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men. 5 But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. 6 He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay” (Matthew 21:1-6). A new week, a new Sunday, a new first day of creation is here! On Easter Sunday, that tomb was empty. Jesus rose from the dead to never die again! He conquered the grave for all time! Looking back on Holy Week, knowing the resurrected Jesus, it is all in a different light. From Jesus triumphal entry, to the Last Supper, to being betrayed and sentenced to death on a cross, God has revealed that it was all His glorious work to save sinners. He had control over the situation the whole time! Today we look back upon Jesus’s death on the cross and say, “What a difference a week can make!” In that week, Jesus had accomplished up to the pinnacle of His saving work for us. It’s right that we focus so much on that week each and every day. What Jesus did on the cross HAS changed everything! We have forgiveness for our sins, life, and salvation. And we are a new creation in Jesus, dead to sin and alive to God. We have been resurrected to a new life. What a difference a week can make. As we look on our current lives that we have to adjust to for the time being, we pray that the Lord would help us to see this time in a different light as His Church. That He would draw us together as a family in Christ. That this only becomes an instance to make us all the more united in the new life we have in Christ. It may be difficult now, especially as we are not certain how many more weeks this will last. But when a new week dawns, and it will, we will emerge out of this health crisis to see all the more clearly how our Lord, the one who suffered for us, was with us through it all. We may never have all the answers, but we have the one that matters: Jesus died and rose for us! We still have the same Word that we did before the coronavirus. Hannah is still been Baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and receives all that was accomplished for her by her Savior Jesus. The biggest and most important week happened almost two thousand years ago. From Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday, what a difference a week can make! Amen. Christ’s peace be with you all, Pastor |
