April 2007

Dear Friends and Family,

Spring greetings from the Holy Land. The Easter season this year marks the triennial intersection of the Eastern (Orthodox) and Western churches’ celebrations of Easter and the Jewish Pessach (Passover). Jerusalem is bustling with pilgrims, and Holy Week is being commemorated with a number of activities, which we’d like to share with you.

As he approached Bethphage and Bethany at the hill called the Mount of Olives…the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen.
Luke 19:29-37

Under billowy spring clouds hundreds of people gathered Palm Sunday afternoon in Bethphage (“house of the unripened fig”) to process up over the steep Mount of Olives and then down toward the Old City, following the path Jesus and his disciples are said to have walked. Many played musical instruments, sang, and waved palms as “hosannas” could be heard. The procession ended inside the Saint Stephen’s Gate of the Old City, yet the One foretold in Isaiah is still present among us—He whom the very stones would cry out to name, were our own mouths silent.

Then came the day of Unleavened Bread…Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him…He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed.
Luke 22:1-41

Despite the immensity of the crowd, the church was silent. Late-afternoon shadows fell on the windows in the gathering darkness. The pastor took the bread and he broke it, pronouncing the words of institution for Communion, then raised the cup and invited us to share in the remembrance of the Last Supper. With the completion of Communion, the congregation began the journey out of the Old City down to the Kidron Valley and then up the hill to Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives where Jesus prayed, and darkness reigned.

At daybreak the council of the elders of the people, both the chief priests and teachers of the law, met together, and Jesus was led before them…then the whole assembly rose and led him off to Pilate…he sent him to Herod, who was also in Jerusalem at that time…his soldiers ridiculed and mocked him…with loud shouts they insistently demanded that he be crucified.
Luke 22:66-23:23

If you’ve ever spent a sleepless night in worry, the inky silence stretches before you in what seems like an eternity. You await the dawn, hoping it will bring relief to quell your distress. Perhaps Jesus’ anxious followers held the same hopes as the sun broke over the horizon signaling a new day—the one in which an unrelenting mob condemned him to death on Calvary.

The somber gathering assembled just inside Saint Stephen’s Gate to begin the plaintive journey up the Via Dolorosa toward the (present) church of the Holy Sepulcher, where three crosses once stood near an unused tomb, just outside the ancient city gates. An empty cross was carried to the fourteen stages of the cross where prayers were recited, songs sung, Scripture passages read, and time given for silent contemplation.

It was hard to wrap our minds around the hideous scene that unfolded on that first Good Friday: the Lamb of God struggling under the weight of his own cross through the narrow streets of the hectic Old City while storekeepers and shoppers stopped to gawk and wonder. The reenactment of this passage has become commonplace over the centuries, as pilgrims seek to remember with awe and thankfulness the fateful event that occurred on these very cobblestones. Just as it was for those who witnessed Jesus’ last words, the scene would have been unbearable for us, leaving us inconsolable, had we not known that the best was yet to come.

Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting there opposite the tomb.
Matthew 27:59-61

It will be impossible to venture near the Church of the Holy Sepulchre on Saturday (unless you possess an entrance ticket), as thousands of faithful will wait in anticipation of an ancient sacred tradition—the passing of the Holy Fire. While many other churches will be holding Tenebrae services, Jerusalem waits for the Greek Orthodox patriarch’s arrival about 11:00 in the morning to keep prayerful vigil and serve as the receptor of the Holy Fire in the traditional tomb where Jesus’ body was laid to rest. Once God sends down the holy flame, the patriarch will emerge to pass the light to the masses as the church bells ring out, signaling its arrival. The light is passed ultimately throughout the world, as many will journey home to their perspective countries to light their home churches’ candles with the Holy Flame.

He is not here; he has risen…come and see the place where he lay.
Matthew 28:6

Before the sun breaks over the distant hills of Jordan on Sunday morning, worshippers will gather at a small stone altar and amphitheatre on the Mount of Olives at the Lutheran World Federation campus. Just as Jesus’ early followers rejoiced on Easter morning when their anguish turned to ecstasy, we too will celebrate anew that his cross became our bridge to salvation. As the dawn breaks, we will share Communion, sing hymns of praise, and once again stand in awe and wonder:

Was it a morning like this
When my Lord looked out on Jerusalem…
Did the grass sing,
Did the earth rejoice to feel you again?
Over and over like a trumpet underground,
Did the earth seem to pound, “He is risen,”
Over and over in a never-ending round,
“He is risen—alleluia, alleluia!
Alleluia!”

Terry and Michele

The 2007 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 170