It was over twenty years ago when I first started writing a daily devotional   The first Holy Week after 9/11, I wrote a series of devotionals that to this day remain the most requested ones I ever wrote.  I share them with you and pray that you will see the last week of Jesus’ life in a new and powerful way.

"Jesus did many other things as well.  If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written."

                                                                                                                        John 21:25

Jesus did many things during His time here on earth.  Many wonderful miracles, all full of compassion and awe and majesty and mercy and love.  And I am sure, just as this passage from John’s Gospel says, there are many things He did that we don’t know about, for they are not recorded anywhere, but were simply done between Jesus and one person.  You know that feeling if you know Him. 

But there is one thing that Jesus did that stands above all the others.  One that we all know about, one that makes us who we are, one that defines His reason for being and our faith.  And what we celebrate and remember next week recognizes the series of events leading up to that moment and that action.

I pray that as the story of Easter unfolds next week, you will take time to realize another side of that story.  The human side of Jesus, and what that week must have been like for Him.

We can never surmise to know what Jesus was thinking, or what He felt.  But because of next week we can begin to see the depth of His love for us.  And even though we can never really understand it as humans, we can see the lengths to which He would go to prove that love.

Next week, don’t miss the simple fact that Jesus came to be among us, to be us, to take our hurt and sorrow and sin, and bear it Himself.   He came to love us, and to show us how to love each other.  If you want to see the power of the empty tomb on Sunday morning, you must first walk up Golgotha’s hill to the cross.

I urge you to take next week and do that.

"Father, Prepare our hearts for what lies ahead next week.  Help us to understand by the steps Your Son took the love He had for us, and what He would do to prove that love.  It is in His name that we pray and seek Your face, AMEN.”

Grace,

Rev. Dan