Hammer on Anvil '

Holy week... my absolute favorite holiday season. I can’t get over it. The Easter story. My Jesus.
I just can’t get over it.

Holy week is a Christian reference to the last days in the life of Jesus. It begins on Palm Sunday
with the Triumphal entry. Jesus rides into Jerusalem seated on a humble donkey while crowds
gathered waving palm branches and shouting, “Hosana! Hosana! Blessed is the king who comes
in the name of the Lord!” Yet he was not the kind of king they imagined.

On Monday he enters the temple area to find money changers and loiters. He was outraged. He
overturned their tables and drove them out with a whip saying to them, “It is written, ‘my house
will be a house of prayer for all nations, but you have made it into a den of robbers’” (Mark
11:15-17). Jesus cleansed the temple. He can cleanse your soul.

Tuesday Jesus curses a fruitless fig tree as a demonstration of the great faith he calls us to have
(Matthew 21:18-22). He teaches in parable about obedience (Matthew 21:28-32) and the eternal
bounty in heaven God has prepared for us (Matthew 22:1-14). Jesus wants us to get it. We are
called to a life of abundance, of faith, that points souls to their Savior.

Jesus preached his last sermon on Wednesday. He warns the people, “Keep watch, because you
do not know on what day your Lord will come” (Matthew 24:42-44). What do you believe about
a Creator? A Savior? Eternity? What do you believe about this Jesus?

Jesus is betrayed. Judas conspires with the chief priests to arrest Jesus. In other words, Judas
sold his soul to the devil. (Luke 22:1-6) Who owns your soul?

Maundy Thursday. Jesus and his disciples celebrate the Passover, a traditional Jewish feast,
in what will be known as the Last Supper. Jesus, the Servant King, humbly washes the feet of
his disciples. He encourages them to love one another through acts of service (John 13:1-17).
Beautiful, radical, servant love.

Good Friday. Jesus the Messiah, King of the Jews, is arrested, brutally beaten, and hung on a
cross. As the guards beat him and spat on him, he loved them. As they nailed his hands and feet
to a cross, he prayed to God for them, “Forgive them Father. They know not what they do" (Luke
23:34). He loves us so much and wanted nothing more than to do the Father’s will – to reconcile
a fallen people (Luke 22:54-23:56).



I just can’t write about it. I don’t have the words. I’ve agonized for hours trying to finish this
post. The beauty of Good Friday, the cross, and the sacrifice of my Jesus…it’s just too much for
my soul. I can’t get over it.

And it doesn’t end on Friday. God’s plan is not carried out in full until Easter Sunday (Luke 24).
I pray as you read this Gospel of Jesus Christ, you never get over it.