How will you spend the Easter long weekend? Hopefully enjoying a rest, eating some hot cross buns, planning an Easter egg hunt, and catching up with family. It’s a special time of year with some enforced time out and a nice change in the seasons to mark the end of a hot summer. I can’t wait.

Amongst all of those things, I would encourage you to consider attending a worship service over the break. The events of Holy Week and Easter are truly foundational to the Christian faith. On Maundy Thursday, we celebrate Jesus washing his disciples’ feet and giving his church the command to love one another. It is this love that is to reflect the work of Jesus in our lives, and reveal our identity as his followers. It is also the day when Jesus instituted Holy Communion, or the Lord’s Supper, a sacred meal where we are united with Jesus physically and spiritually.

Good Friday is called ‘good’ because of the sacrifice Jesus made for all people, laying down his life on the cross. It seems anything but good on the day when we gather together and hear the passion accounts, but it is a sobering service that brings significant self-reflection. What makes it truly good, however, is the ‘surprise’ of Easter Sunday, when Jesus rose from the dead. I say surprise, because none of Jesus disciples expected it. Who would? Dead people stay dead. We all know that. Especially those executed publicly as Jesus was.

However, the Easter season teaches us that there are many important things we don’t know, unless they are revealed to us by God. When the risen Lord was revealed, everything changed for the disciples, and everything changes for us too.

The Easter break will be a nice change from the busyness of life. I hope you can soak it up, but if you want to be part of a change that moves from the reality of death we all face, to the surprise of eternal life, then come along to a service or two during Easter and let God reveal something special to you.

Dale Gosden
College Pastor