Dear People Who Keep Company with God,
It is during this time that we are celebrating what has been called by some as “Passion Week”. This is the time from Palm Sunday until Easter Sunday. It commemorates the last week of the earthly life of Jesus Christ culminating in His crucifixion on Good Friday and his resurrection on Easter Sunday. It is referred to as “Passion Week” because in that time, Jesus Christ revealed His passion for us by willingly suffering and going to the cross in order to pay for our sins, healing and deliverance. “Passion Week” is really a great way to describe the last week of our Lord’s earthly life.
One of the blessings of “Passion Week” is that it reminds us to take the time to seriously consider both Jesus’“sufferings and the glory that would follow” (1 Peter 1:11). We have the opportunity to consider again, Calvary and its terrible shame and the empty tomb and all its glory. Peter calls Jesus’ suffering and glory “the grace that would come to you” (1 Peter 1:10). Meaning both His suffering and glory are essential for us if we are to truly come into a fullness of all the Lord has for His people in these last days.
This is why in the eighty six chapters of the four gospels twenty six of those chapters are devoted to the events of “Passion Week”. Jesus earthly life was approximately twelve thousand days, one third of the gospels focus on the last seven days of His earthly life! It is also significant that every recorded message in the Book of Acts address these glorious happenings.
When Jesus was gloriously revealed to Peter, James and John on the Mount of Transfiguration, Moses and Elijah showed up and had a conversation with Jesus about “His departure which He was about to accomplish”(Luke 9:30-32). His suffering, death and resurrection are truly the greatest accomplishment in all history.
On the next day the large crowd who had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, 13 took the branches of the palm trees and went out to meet Him, and began to shout, “Hosanna ! BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD, even the King of Israel.” 14 Jesus, finding a young donkey, sat on it; as it is written, 15 “FEAR NOT, DAUGHTER OF ZION; BEHOLD, YOUR KING IS COMING, SEATED ON A DONKEY’S COLT. John 12:12-15
God is calling the church to go into the heavenly realm to see and experience His awesome glory much like the disciples did on the Mount of Transfiguration, but at the same time we must not forget Him coming as the meek and lowly King riding on a donkey’s colt. The humility of the Lord is the cornerstone of our redemption and of the redemption of the nations.
For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; 24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” 25 In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes. 1 Corinthians 11:23-26
The Lord’s Supper is the only ritual instituted by God in the entire New Testament for every believer to partake of for their entire life. God is willing to take the risk of our making this into a meaningless mechanical ritual because He wants us to remember and proclaim (make known) that Jesus Christ suffered and died yet now lives. We can forget other doctrines, truths and events from the Bible, but not this one.
I am praying the Lord will break our hearts in this season and open our eyes to see Him both as the Lamb that was slain from the foundation of the world and the King in all His glory.
Many Blessings, BW