holy week

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At Christmastime my dad tells a story about a farmer and some birds. It is Christmas Eve and there is a terrible ice storm outside. The farmer looks into his farmyard and sees some birds tossing around in the wind, sure to die if they don’t find shelter. So the farmer bundles up and goes to open the barn doors for the birds to rest for the night. But the birds don’t go in. So he turns the light on inside, and they still don’t go in. He tries to run them in, flapping his arms behind them, desperate to save their lives. But they will not go into the warm barn.

Defeated, he turns off the light in the barn, closes the big door and begins to walk back in his house saying aloud, “if only I was one of them. If only I could be one of them so I could show them the way.”

And just then the church bells ring for the Christmas Eve service and he understands why Jesus had to come. Why Jesus was born into this mess, God with us, to show us the way to eternal life.

 I love that story. And I completely understand why God sent his son to walk this earth with us.

Good Friday is harder to understand. I feel like yearly I have to wrestle through these questions again. Why did Jesus have to die? Really. If God is God and this story could have played out any way he pleased, why did Jesus have to suffer so. It’s so graphic. It’s so gory. The flogging, the blood in his eyes, the nails (nails!) in his flesh.

This Holy Week I have been thinking about death and resurrection a whole lot more intimately than usual. Aunt Jan continues to suffer. Her dying has been long and her suffering great. It is so hard to watch. It is hard to understand. She will die and this reality is still impossible to swallow. Because she hasn’t lived out all of her years yet. Her grandkids are still young, her husband is ready to travel another few decades with his best friend by his side.

Death stings. It hurts so much and leaves you so, so heavy and sad.

Two thousand and twelve years ago Jesus suffered a terrible death. He was so fully human, that even he did not get to escape the terror of that last earthly breath.

In the midst of attempting to process Aunt Jan’s dying, I feel a certain clarity in understanding the rest of Jesus’ story and why He absolutely did have to die.  Because this whole three day period of waiting, during the time Jesus’ body was laid in the tomb to the glorious morning when Mary Magdalene met him outside on the path, Jesus was conquering death. He was triumphing over the grave. He was going head to head with Satan one final time and won our mortal battle. Because we were meant for eternity.

We were created to live forever. And because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, we now own that hope.

Aunt Jan will die. We will all die. But because of her belief that Jesus truly is the son of God, her belief that this is not merely a story but is the truest truth to be discovered here on earth, then she too will be resurrected to new life.

And when she is, she will meet Jesus face to face. She will be welcomed into the most perfect and wonderful home. She will be greeted by her mom, embraced by her dad, surrounded and cherished by her great cloud of witnesses.

Jesus had to come to earth. And Jesus had to die. And though it is so cliché, let these words sink in. His whole life, death and resurrection was all so that you might live forever.