The Resurrection is like High School Prom
It’s been awhile since I’ve posted. Gees, I hate it how that happens. I never did finish the political commentary. Maybe something like that can happen in bits and pieces along the way.

I’ve decided to try a different kind of post tonight. As I was sitting in our weekly “small group” meeting (for Baptist readers, that’s Wednesday night church, which Ashley and I ironically host on Thursday nights at our house), it crossed my mind that we sometimes get into intriguing discussions, some of which would be suitable to discuss on a platform like this blog. Of course, some information shared at small group is personal, and some is sensitive, so I’ll try to be discerning in what I share here.

Today is Maundy Thursday. (Well, yesterday was, if I don’t get this posted until after midnight.) Having attended a Southern Baptist church nearly my entire life, I haven’t been privy to a lot of the ritualistic or liturgical traditions that may accompany this observance. I would expect that typical Maundy Thursday observances would take a somber tone; I’ve even heard the term “tennebrae service” floated around to describe the attitude of mourning that is to take place beginning on Thursday of Passion week. Of course, we remember the Last Supper shared by Christ and his disciples, which may be expressed through Communion. Communion (or the Lord’s Supper) was, in fact, initiated by Christ at the Last Supper. In I Corinthians 11, Paul explains that believers should remember Christ’s death and proclaim his death until he returns with each sharing of the Lord’s Supper.

At small group tonight, we read Paul’s passage in I Corinthians, and we also read John 13:1-17, which contains the account of Jesus washing the disciples’ feet. The first point I brought up was Jesus’ emphasis at the conclusion of the passage that his act of service in washing feet was performed as a blatant example for how his followers should conduct themselves. It’s not always that Christ explains his actions fully for us, but here, he does a deed and immediately points out the “application” that we should make. Josh furthered this point by observing that since Jesus was the “teacher” in the room, the highest position, his act of service was likely all the more shocking to his disciples. The example echoes Jesus’ earlier teaching that whoever desires to become great among us must first become our servant.

Ashley mentioned the beauty that she sees in Christ’s sense of community in this passage. In verse 1, we learn that Christ is aware of his approaching death. With a few short hours left on the earth, his preference is to gather his closest friends together and share an intimate meal in honor of the Passover. These are the folks that he has surrounded himself with during years of ministry. These are the folks he has invested his life into. These are the folks who he wants to spend time with during the final fleeting moments of peace. The setting is hence already one of love and graciousness. Then we realize that Judas, the betrayer, is also present. That ought to stun us. Judas, according to the passage, has already agreed to the betrayal; Christ is cognizant of the future hours; and Christ still counts Judas “worthy” of joining him for this event. I guess none of us are truly worthy. As a brief aside, I saw that a footnote in my Bible claimed that the word for love (agape) or its verb equivalent appears only eight times in John before this passage; however, it appears 31 times within chapters 13-16, which demonstrates its significance to the events of Christ’s Passion.

As a final point of our discussion, Ashley commented on the struggle that she often has (and as it turns out, we all have) in engaging Holy Week on an “appropriate” level. As she put it, our entire faith relies on the factuality and grand implications of the events that we observe this weekend. Without Easter, Christianity is dead. Why do we often fail to get excited about this time? Why do we often feel emotionally, or psychologically, or even spiritually detached? Josh commented that with time, we all tend to get used to the big events—Easter, Christmas, etc. We know they are significant, but we are accustomed to observing them. Nothing is new anymore, so it is difficult to become thrilled. Ruth Ann likely coined the catchphrase of the evening (again) when she suggested that observances like this are kind of like high school prom in our eyes. Yes, I’m serious. It’s an event that a lot of people build up in their minds; if you’ve never experienced prom, everything leading up to it makes it feel like it’s going to be a pivotal event in your life. Then, it happens...and the next day comes. You realize that it wasn’t that big of a deal. With events like Easter, for someone who has been a Christ follower for awhile, things are a little reversed. We’ve been to this prom before. We’ve seen the excitement. We’ve seen the next day and discovered that, believe it or not, life goes on after the event is over. The problem is that unlike high school prom, the Resurrection really is pivotal. In fact, it’s so pivotal that we should be striving to live each day of the year in the light and spirit of the Resurrection. It’s funny how humans approach things backwards. We frequently treat earthly events as if they’re eternal, and we treat eternal events as if they’re earthly.

We’ve got a few days until Easter Sunday. Let’s use this time to start righting our perspectives. Let’s focus on the eternal for a few days and not allow the earthly demands of the holiday continue to numb our souls. Let’s celebrate the Resurrection each day that we live and not treat it like one of our normal human events.