As we have recently completed another Passion Week — including Palm Sunday, Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday — it can be very meaningful to stop and reflect on what we just experienced.
What was it all about? Why was it necessary? What does it mean for me personally? Did I miss something, or was that all there is? Why is this supposed to be so important — I mean, it happened a really, really long time ago. These are the type of questions that usually surface after the observance of a national holiday by an ever-increasingly secular society that doesn’t have the connection to the Bible that earlier generations did.
They have heard the story, but not the story behind the story — the rest of the story, as some used to call it. There is also the missing element of personal connection, personal responsibility and personal accountability that goes with the story. It all seems so distant, so disconnected from our lives in the 21st century, and without an understanding of the true meaning of this important event, there is no incentive to dig deeper or research harder to discover what this story is really all about.
So, would you join me for just a few minutes as we reflect on what Passion Week is all about, and how it relates to you and me personally?
We begin with Palm Sunday, traditionally remembered as the day Jesus was welcomed into Jerusalem as King. Palm branches, a donkey, coats on the ground and lots of “Hosannas” by an excited and enthusiastic gathering that was much more political than religious in nature.
It didn’t really go anywhere — it certainly didn’t lead to a Jewish uprising to throw off Roman rule, but instead ended with Jesus weeping over the city for their unbelief and coming destruction — which none of the crowd understood.
But, from God’s perspective, this was the day He chose His Passover Lamb, on the exact day that was commanded in Exodus 12 to select the lambs that would be killed in order to place their blood on the doorposts and header of their homes to keep the Death Angel from visiting on that fateful night in Egypt.
The lamb would then be killed on Friday, roasted and eaten together as a family — a yearly celebration intended to remind the Jewish nation of God’s protection and provision for them as a nation as He delivered them from their life as slaves in Egypt.
Our yearly celebration of Good Friday reminds us of the terrible reality of that night in Jerusalem some 2,000 years ago.
Those events were real, they actually happened, just as they were written. But why? What was all this — betrayal, illegal and unfair trial, murder of an innocent man, rejection of the Son of God — really about?
Let’s move to Gethsemane, let’s watch Jesus praying in the garden, asking His Father if there could be another way — but always coming back in total submission to the will of His Father.
We see Jesus praying, crying sweating great drops of blood — giving physical evidence of the spiritual battle that was raging within Him. Physical suffering — yes, off the charts. Mental suffering — beyond our ability to even begin to understand. Spiritual suffering — even beyond what Jesus in His humanity could have possibly been prepared for.
Mark 14:33-34 reveals to us that in the garden of Gethsemane Jesus was thoroughly alarmed, struck with terror, and stunned with horror and astonishment as He entered into an experience that was totally foreign to anything He had ever experienced before.
He was so completely swallowed up by grief that the weight of these sorrows literally squeezed the very life blood from the pores of His skin and took Him to the point where His physical body was in danger of complete collapse. Luke 22:44 confirms that Jesus wrestled in a great contest as the devil did all he could to keep Jesus from going to the cross, and yet, in the end, it was only His Father’s will that mattered to Jesus.
Let that scene fully fill your mind for a few moments, and do your best to grasp as much as you can of the reality of that scene. Jesus, there in the garden, wrestling with the lies of the evil one, perhaps His own feelings of failure in His mission (Isaiah 49:4) and His full humanity’s desire to some how avoid all of these unimaginable weights of suffering — yet all within the parameters of the will of His Father. Darkness, sadness, unspeakable grief, unrelenting uncertainty of the future.
Yet all that was replaced with overwhelming joy on Sunday morning when the resurrected Savior stepped out of that tomb, victorious over death, once and for all answering the question of Who is the Way, Who is the Truth, and Who alone is the source of Life everlasting.
It is so much more than just a great story where the underdog wins or the bad guys are put in their place, or the feel-good ending to the most horrible story ever told.
This series of events, carefully preserved for us in the God-inspired words faithfully recorded in the pages of scripture, are the source of all truth pointing us toward the source of salvation for all who will keep on seeking, and keep on asking, until they finally understand, believe and are born again to eternal life.
Every part of the story you just experienced last week, Easter 2026, was endured, embraced and obediently experienced by Jesus for one reason and one reason alone: to make a way for you to be rescued from your slavery, redeemed from the debt of your sin and adopted into the family of God forever.
That is why Jesus did what He did, suffered what He suffered, died the way He died, rose again from the grave victorious — it was for you; it was for me. All because we could never stand before a holy God in our filthy rags — even the very best of our good deeds and kind words while on this earth. All because without His blood shed for us we would never gain entrance into heaven’s gates to enjoy His presence forever. There is no other way, regardless of what you have been led to believe.
Don’t let this Easter be just another one in the long line of Easters that are part of your history on this earth. Ask God to use this one to lead you to begin the search for true meaning in your life, a personal — vital, day-by-day, meaningful and real — relationship with the Creator God who was also the God-become-man Savior of the world who died for your sins and mine so that we can one day stand in His presence and enjoy Him forever.
If you have questions, or just want to know more, visit centerpointpagosa.com and join us weekly at Centerpoint Church for worship and the study of God’s word that focuses on Jesus, the central character in the greatest story ever told. We would love to see you there.
>