EASTER SOLITUDE & SACRIFICE

This Holy Week is a little different, isn’t it? Usually, most of us are busy shopping and meal planning for our big Easter dinner with extended family and friends, or we’re planning to be away for the long weekend, or making sure our people have appropriate Easter outfits to wear. Not this year. Oh, we’ll make the best of it and have church online (maybe Easter pajamas will be a thing?) and have a shrunken Easter dinner for those under our roof. We’ll Zoom with loved ones and possibly get some fresh air—as long as we practice social distancing. And perhaps, just perhaps, in our solitude, we will see the sacrifice of the Saviour with fresh eyes…

Seems like we’re seeing everything with fresh eyes these days, doesn’t it? A pandemic will do that to a person. A new appreciation for a brisk spring walk, a phone call with a friend, a cupboard full of toilet paper! New worries like job security, paying mortgages, schooling our kids. Health is top of mind and we suddenly realize how fragile life is. Our loved ones across town seem like they are a thousand miles away. And those overseas are constantly in our prayers. I know, the physical separation is heartwrenching.

But even as we are worried and disappointed and separated from loved ones and from our regular lives this Easter weekend, we can fearlessly ask and answer this question:

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?” Romans 8:35

Dear friend, NOTHING can separate us from the love of Christ. Not fear nor frustration. Not sickness nor sorrow. Not pain nor pandemic.

And this weekend, ESPECIALLY this weekend,

as we remember the sacrifice of the Son of God on the cross for each one of us—
as we recall Jesus took on all our pain and suffering and grief and everything this battered and bruised world is experiencing today—
as we realize He indeed knew greater separation than we can ever imagine when His Father turned His face away—
as we rejoice in the knowledge that He conquered death so we may have life eternal—

…we can rest in this truth:

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:38-39

His love hasn’t gone anywhere. In fact, we feel it even deeper in the quiet of quarantine. We claim the cross. We celebrate the sacrifice. From our homes, we hone in on Jesus.

In this unique season of separation, in this Holy Week, let’s draw near to the One who loves us most:

“Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.” James 4:8

May this Easter be precious—even in our solitude as we ponder His sacrifice.

Blessings to you and yours… stay safe and healthy,

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