As I write this, I am also doing the preparation work for all the ways we will encounter Jesus through Holy Week – beginning with Palm Sunday, to the welcoming table on Maundy Thursday and to the ultimate act of sacrificial love we find on the cross and most importantly, to the empty tomb on Easter Morning. Just writing this makes me feel all the feels of this most wondrous love and the depth to which God will extend his hand toward us all.
After all of that, what remains for us?
Years ago, I had to sit with tough decisions for the entire season of Lent. I spent forty (plus) days knowing that after Easter, I would begin a journey with folks who would help me walk through a process that had already been long and arduous and was about to become even longer. This decision would help define the next season of my life. Every Lent season I am reminded of that time. Where it used to be a place of pain and even resentment, it is now a point that I claim to be a good thing in my work of faith formation. I was able to overcome the difficulties brought about by my grief and loss so that I could be here now, writing these words.
If we continue following the Easter Story, we know that we will find the disciples hunkered down in fear. Thomas will end up with the eternal moniker of a doubter. We will discover why the road to Emmaus is so important.
We will learn that death was not the final victor, and the resurrection is real and is only the beginning.
What remains for us is this: “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely, I am with you always, to the very end of the age.†(Matthew 28:19-20)
For the disciples, the work had just begun. For us, the work continues. No matter what your denominational identity is, the call is the same. We may do the Great Commission differently, but we all agree that we are called to take that most Holy, Loving and Sacrificial Gift and tell the world about it. Pass it on. Even amid our recognition that it was done for each of us, and we may feel unworthy of the love of our Creator, our greatest Command is to Love God and Love our Neighbor as Ourselves. That is the mandate. That is the imperative. That is the work. Most of all, that is the truly wondrous gift that Lent and Easter teaches us.
What remains is no small thing. It is everything.
He is risen. So must we!
To God be the Glory. Alleluia. Amen.
