John Van Deusen"With Every Power Wide Awake"(For best results, listen to this with good headphones!)
Holy Week Services
Good Friday worship, tonight at 7:00 PM (in-person + live stream)
Holy Saturday worship, Saturday (YouTube only, video available at 4:00 AM)
Easter Vigil @ St. Ambrose, Saturday at 7:00 PM
Easter Sunrise worship, Sunday at 6:10 PM in Cal Anderson Park
Easter Sunday worship, Sunday at 10:15 AM (in-person + live stream)
Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.”
John 12:23-24
Dear Grace Family,
I took this picture a couple of weeks ago in St. Louis. It was the spot where Linn and I got engaged in 1996. For years, my kids have heard about the time Linn & I spent in St. Louis, and it’s fun to walk with them through those places and retell those stories.
During Holy Week—from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday, with the gospels as our guides—we walk alongside Jesus as he was betrayed, crucified, put to death, and then resurrected from the dead. Time seems to slow down as we hear these stories retold from God’s word.
On Good Friday, we mark the crucifixion of Jesus. In addition to being an act of physical brutality, his death is also a blatant act of injustice by the religious and political leaders. Jesus’ love was a costly one and one that exposed the brokenness and idolatry of the world.
Holy Saturday—a new service for us this year—commemorates the solemn time between Jesus' death and resurrection. It has been said that on Holy Saturday, we stand before the tomb wondering what God will do next. It is a time of silence and waiting.
On Easter Sunday, the resurrection changes everything. God turns our mourning into dancing as we celebrate the reality of Jesus being raised from the dead. Sin and death no longer hold power over him, and he graciously shares his new life with us.
Make no mistake, a lot of Holy Week is heavy and somber. And, the temptation is to skip over the sad parts and fast-forward to the resurrection.
But as Jesus tells us, the kernel of wheat doesn’t bear fruit unless it falls into the ground and dies. In other words, without the crucifixion, there would be no new life in the resurrection. Both sides of the story must be told.
I hope to worship with you this week!
Warmly in Christ,
John