On Palm Sunday, Advisor&Chronicle writer John Hendler came to talk to us about the Hope of Easter. We are always grateful to talk about our faith, hope, and especially God’s love. Thanks to John for his curiosity and generosity. We appreciate you!
We are sharing his article and inviting you to join us tomorrow at Crossroads live or click here to watch online at 10:30.
THE HOPE OF EASTER
by JOHN HENDLER
It is just after 2 p.m. at Crossroads Church and Ministries in Marshall and Palm Sunday services and activities are over; the only two people left are pastors Clare and Scott Loughrige, who founded the church 33 years ago.
The peaceful quiet serves as an opportunity for the couple, married since April 3, 1981, a chance to reflect and think about the Holy Week ahead leading up to Good Friday and Easter.
Was today’s service a big celebration?
“Is Palm Sunday a day of celebration, or is this a day that shows how fickle the human condition is and how desperately we need transformation in our hearts?” ponders Clare; on Palm Sunday, they laud Jesus, and on Friday, they call for his death. And yet there’s this loving invitation: if we enter Holy Week contemplatively and take in the week’s events personally, how might we see ourselves and be changed?
Some call Palm Sunday “The Triumphal Entry,” “with the crowd yelling “Hosanna” and waving palm leaves in celebration, but in retrospect, we know that it is Christ’s descent to his crucifixion. Palm Sunday is not a celebration day. Singing Hosanna means “save us, we pray” it is a cry for Divine help.
Palm Sunday and Holy Week can provide us with an annual reflective walk into Good Friday which reminds us that we have killed our prophets and have rejected those who have been here to reveal our flawed religious and political systems.
“Part of the excitement on that first Palm Sunday is the phenomenal things that happened the week before – Jesus friend Lazarus raised from the dead,” said Scott. “The majority of that crowd on Palm Sunday knew that and had experienced the miracles of Jesus. They saw him feed the poor, heal the sick, reach the outcasts, confront the religious leaders, and even raise the dead. People who suffered injustice at the hands of the Romans hoped Jesus would unleash more of this power during the Palm Sunday parade. That didn’t happen. Ultimately, Jesus’ intention was and always is to transform the human heart.
It’s not that those miraculous things aren’t important and are a part of what God is doing in the world, but the priority is to transform our hearts so that we and our world would change.
“Jesus enters Holy Week, in classic Jesus style, in full humility to express another way of love toward not only the people who are poor and marginalized who are cheering him on but even those who were considered his enemies,” said Scott. Adds Clare: “The week leading to the cross and resurrection included Jesus doing very human things, meeting with dear friends that he loved, but also being present to the haters that led to him to his death on Friday.
From our perspective, the hope and beauty of Easter are knowing that Jesus, fully God and fully man, came to earth, knowing the end game, living in solidarity with human suffering, and showing us otherworldly love.
Jesus’ Life and Death highlights the dangers of a “herd mentality” or “Groupthink” and what a cancel culture can produce. He began the week not on a stallion of “might make right” but with the purposeful humility of a little donkey, probably toes dragging in the dirt; on Friday’s cross, he prays, “Father forgive them,” and on Sunday, he seeks to comfort those who abandoned him.
Clare added that when we think about the Hope of Easter, “we don’t dismiss or overlook the violence, injustice, and sadness of our world and that Jesus, God in the flesh, came to be with us in our desperate situation.”
What if God could just intervene and fix things?
Clare said, “People look at the horrible things happening in the world – including Gaza, Israel, Ukraine, Russia, Haiti, human trafficking, sexual assault, domestic violence, etc and say, “Can’t God just make things right? God could stop it all, and we wouldn’t have to do anything,” she said. That would be great, right? But it’s the transformation of our hearts and activation of our will that needs to take place. We desperately need a shift in focus from questioning why suffering exists, expecting God to fix it, and accepting the responsibility that we must live with mercy, justice, compassion, purpose, and hope. We need a resurrection!
Resurrection begins with opening to God’s transforming power personally and then bringing that transformation to the world. So, the Hope of Easter is not Hallmark Jesus shining and gloriously coming up out of the tomb but a scarred and resurrected Christ, bearing the marks of violence and the evil that put him to death. Jesus resurrects from the grave and doesn’t leave his scars behind. The message is, whatever you’re facing, I am with you now, and how will we show up together in your world for hope’s sake?
Scott added, “We believe the resurrection of Jesus is not just a metaphor. We believe Christ was physically resurrected from the dead. We also believe that the resurrection is intended to resurrect us; that we open to new life, we’re open to living differently, and we’re open to treating people differently.”
We look forward to the Easter Season. Easter is 50 days, spanning from Easter Sunday to Pentecost Sunday, and the invitation is, “How can I live in this world in a way that brings this resurrection grace?”
The All Vulnerable and All Powerful God teaches us to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly. Easter hope asks us, “What in me needs to die for this resurrected life to come?” she said. “What in me needs to be transformed so that I can be the kind of presence that is not fearful, angry, shameful, combative, or self-righteous? What needs to die in me so that the prayer of Jesus, “Your kingdom come Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven,” is answered? Easter is not only about eternal life in Heaven through Christ but bringing the justice and mercy of Heaven here and now.
We hope that we will be Easter People. Ressurection People. We pray that each of us would open our hearts to Christ and become the Presence of the resurrected Christ in a world that needs justice, mercy, faith, hope, and especially love.
