“Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole company of soldiers around him. They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand. Then they knelt in front of him and mocked him. “Hail, king of the Jews!” they said. They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again. After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him.”  Matthew 27:27-31 (NIV)

As the season of Lent comes to a close, we are in the midst of Holy Week. 

This last week of Lent includes Palm Sunday (Jesus’ triumphal entry in Jerusalem), Holy or Spy Wednesday (betrayal of Jesus), Maundy Thursday (washing of the feet and the Last Supper of Jesus with His disciples), and Good Friday (Jesus’ crucifixion, or Passion of Christ). 

As I sat in church joyfully waving my palm branch and smiling at the children gleefully participating in the processional this past Sunday, I was overcome with the excitement of the season. I easily felt a small part of the happiness that filled all those who traveled great distances and cheered, “Hosanna in the highest!”

I began to think ahead to next Sunday – Easter Sunday. I was filled with excited anticipation of a church filled with those coming to celebrate our risen Lord. The new clothes, Easter dresses and suits with colorful ties, the children with baskets full of goodies, blooming lilies, the first signs of a Spring renewal. 

It is easy to enter and move through Holy Week focused on celebrating. Celebrating Jesus’ entry into the city and celebrating His resurrection. But, if you only focus on that – the good, happy parts – you are missing out. Holy Week to me is more about the way Jesus became ‘wholly weak’ by taking on and becoming the ultimate sacrifice for our sin. This is a time for us to focus on the emotional and physical struggle experienced by Jesus before we join to celebrate His resurrection on Easter Sunday morning.

We already know that Jesus came to Earth as a baby and grew into a man living and experiencing life as we do. He experienced loss, joy, hardship, and celebration. Yet, when we experience extreme emotional and physical pain we tend to think our affliction is far worse than what anyone can fathom. But, God can. He can because He sacrificed His only son who suffered the unfathomable in body and spirit. 

Matthew chapters 26 gives an account of Jesus’ time just before His arrest as He retreated to pray in the Garden of Gethsemane with three of His disciples. Matthew 26:36-37 reveals His great struggle, “… and [Jesus] began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to [his disciples], ‘My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death …’” In chapter 27, after His arrest, we find Matthew’s account of the physical torment Jesus received leading up to the crucifixion. Stripped, beaten, spat upon, and mocked. 

Jesus became wholly weak … for you and me.

As we draw close to the cross on Good Friday and leave our savior in the tomb, make it a time of reflection on the sorrow and pain endured on your behalf. Think of your own sin and weakness, leaving it all at the foot of the cross where it belongs. Then, we can emerge together from the darkness into the light of the resurrected Lord this Easter Sunday morning.