Dear Rose Park,
This coming Sunday is Palm Sunday. Palm Sunday is the day where we celebrate Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem. This year at Rose Park, Palm Sunday marks the day where we welcome and celebrate new members joining the family of Rose Park. But it also marks the day that begins Holy Week where Jesus will be betrayed, arrested, tried, persecuted, crucified, and buried. Needless to say, Holy Week is an emotionally heavy week.
As I consider Holy Week, an image keeps coming to mind. Do you know what a paper lantern is? Paper lanterns have been growing in popularity in recent years as large crowds have grown fond of lighting these lanterns and then collectively sending them into the sky (see picture above). I’ve never been to one of these events, but I have to imagine they are a beautiful sight to behold. In order for a paper lantern to work well it has to be both strong and weak. Strong enough to hold its shape and float into the air. Light enough to allow the beautiful light to shine through. Similarly, Jesus’ journey through Holy Week, as well as the life of a Christian, is a journey of both strength and weakness.
This journey cannot merely be one or the other. It cannot be merely strength as if the goal of the Christian is to wrestle every one of life’s obstacles into submission. Neither can it be merely weakness as if the practice of the Christian were to bend over backward for anything or anyone without any sense of integrity. Instead, Jesus shows us how both strength and weakness are required for a life of faith. For example, Jesus, in His infinite power and strength, could have easily stopped His arrest, persecution, and crucifixion. But He doesn’t. Instead, He lowers Himself in weakness taking on our burdens in order to provide everlasting life. The author of the letter to the Hebrews puts it this way:
But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone (Hebrews 2:9).
As we prepare for Holy Week, I’d encourage you to lean into the postures of both strength and weakness. It is our great joy to celebrate in Christ’s victory and echo the words of the Apostle Paul:
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong (2nd Corinthians 12:9-11).
Grace & Peace,
Pastor Mark
Photo on Unsplash by Melanie Magdalena