From the Pastor’s Heart

Holy Week begins with Palm/Passion Sunday: remembering the day that began with the excitement and joy of a parade with Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. We remember as youngsters the joy and excitement of standing along a parade route stretching on tip toes eagerly anticipating all that would pass our way. But the joy and excitement of Jesus’ parade quickly turned ugly; the same voices shouting Hosannas, only hours later, would shout CRUCIFY HIM! CRUCIFY HIM!

But there were others there that fateful day that we give very little attention or praise. It was their spirit of giving that made the events of that day and days to come possible. We know the story well; Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. That donkey belonged to somebody and that somebody willingly gave his donkey to help bring about Jesus’ mission. (“Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find an ass tied, and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘the Lord has need of them,’ and he will send them immediately.” Matthew 21: 2b-3.)

The Passover Meal, which has come to be known as The Last Supper, took place in an upper room that someone was kind enough to give for the festivities. (“And on that first day of Unleavened Bread, when they sacrificed the Passover lamb, his disciples said to him, ‘Where will you have us go and prepare for you to eat the Passover?’ And he sent two of his disciples and said to them, ‘Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you; follow him, and wherever he enters, say to the householder, ‘The teacher says, Where is my guest room, where I am to eat the Passover with my disciples?’ And he will show you a large upper room furnished and ready…” Mark 14: 12-15a.)

God’s work is accomplished by those who are willing to give…giving of themselves and of their resources.

Bill Wilson pastors an inner city church in New York City. His mission field is a very violent place. He himself has been stabbed twice as he ministered to the people of the community surrounding the church. Once a Puerto Rican woman became involved in the church and was led to Christ. After her conversion she came to Pastor Wilson and said, “I want to do something to help with the church’s ministry.” He asked her what her talents were and she could think of nothing—she couldn’t even speak English—but she did love children. So he put her on one of the church’s buses that went into neighborhoods and transported kids to church. Every week she performed her duties. She would find the worst-looking kid on the bus, put him on her lap and whispered over and over the only words she had learned in English: “I love you. Jesus loves you.”

After several months, she became attached to one little boy in particular. The boy didn’t speak. He came to Sunday School every week with his sister and sat on the woman’s lap, but he never made a sound. Each week she would tell him all the way to Sunday School and all the way home, “I love you. Jesus loves you.”

One day to her amazement, the little boy turned around and stammered, “I—I—I love you too!” Then he put his arms around her and gave her a big hug. That was 2:30 on a Sunday afternoon. At 6:30 that evening he was found dead. His own mother had beaten him to death and thrown his body in the trash. “I love you. Jesus loves you.” Those were some of the last words this little boy heard in his short life—from the lips of a Puerto Rican woman who could barely speak English. This woman gave her one talent to God and because of that a little boy who never heard the word “love” in his own home, experienced and responded to the love of Christ.

The defeat and horror of Holy Week do not have the last words. God’s victorious love evidenced in the resurrection of His Son on that first Easter morning always has the last word. Easter proclaims loudly and clearly; GOD LOVES US!

What can you give? What is your colt? What is your Upper Room? You and I each have something in our lives, which, if given back to God, could, like the colt, like the Upper Room, move Jesus and His message further down the road.

Easter Blessings,
Pastor Russel