The Story of Easter is not just the Resurrection

Have you ever had the experience of walking into a movie that has already started? You have to ask the people who have been watching what the story is about and what’s happened so far, who’s who…. there’s a lot to catch up on, especially if the movie is a good one!.

With really good stories, there are many stories within the story, so many things to learn, so many people to understand, and so many takeaways. Being there from the start helps us take it all in, from “Once upon a time…” to “ and they lived happily ever after.”

That’s true even with the stories we’re already familiar with. If it’s been a while since we heard the story, we may have forgotten parts of it. Laura and I joke that that’s one of the advantages of getting older – we can watch a movie we’ve seen before like it’s new because we don’t remember it very well!

In one sense, there’s probably no more familiar story in the Christian community than the story of Holy Week. It doesn’t begin with “Once upon a time… and the ending, while good, is more complicated than,“and they lived happily ever after.” But beginning with Palm Sunday through Easter, we hear the most important story of our faith: the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

So, I want to encourage you to take part in the worship experiences during Holy Week. Whatever part of the story we hear is good for us to take in. But hearing the whole story – from Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, to the Last Supper he shared with his disciples, to his suffering and death on the cross, and finally to his resurrection on Easter gives us the full story of Jesus’ ultimate expression of Jesus’ love for us and for this world. In our world today, it’s easy to see the elements of the Holy Week story playing out.

The story of Holy Week is our story, and to understand it fully, it helps us to hear it all. Especially on Easter Sunday, our joy is even greater when we’re reminded of how Jesus – and us, his followers – got to this climax of the story.