Moving Towards what is Hard
- Pastor Jayne Rideout
- 5 hours ago
- 2 min read
Holy Week is almost upon us. As a United Methodist, I love this week. I did not practice Lent growing up. Only the Catholics in our neighborhood gave up sweets for Lent and meat on Fridays. Now it is one of my favorite times of the year as it properly prepares me for Easter morning.
On Thursday, April 17, we will sing, have a devotion by David Moscrip and celebrate the communion just as Jesus broke bread with his disciple’s. On Friday, April 18, we will have the Service of Darkness with beautiful music and the pageantry of the youth stripping the altar. I had someone recently tell me they did not like Holy Week because it was too painful. Good Friday service was overwhelmingly sad. I had never thought about that before. They are not wrong.
Then I got to remember what I was taught as a Chaplin for Advent Health. People don’t want to feel their feelings. Sure, we all love joy and happiness, but it is normal to avoid the hard emotions. In my devotion by Kate Bowler today she reminded us that Jesus fully understood what was coming when he entered Jerusalem on a donkey the last week of his life. Sure, it started out with the waving of branches, but Jesus knew what was coming and still moved towards what is hard. That is what love does, it moves towards what is hard. Love stretches us way past what we think we can handle, and it always asks more of us than we want to give. Still, we do the hard thing, and we give all that we have.
That is what Jesus teaches us during Holy Week. To love Him means that sometimes we must move towards the hard thing. In the moment, it never feels worth it, and it often feels unfair. I quickly move to anger when I am trying to do the hard thing. You may respond with sadness or even despair.
We are all different, but we all hate the hard parts of life. Yet we must remember, it never stops there. Jesus’ week ends with an empty tomb. Even the hard parts of life will eventually come to an end. Take time this weekend to read Matthew 21:1-11 to get ready for Palm Sunday.