The Week.

This is The Week.  From the very beginning, this week has been the focus of great anticipation.  Up until 2000 years ago, people were looking forward to it.  Now we look back at it.  Regardless of your perspective in time, there can be no doubt this is The Greatest Week since God created the heavens and the earth.

As with most greatly anticipated yet long deferred events, expectations and explanations can vary wildly.  

For those who lived before the events of The Week transpired, there was little concrete information regarding exactly how everything would unfold.  Where there is a vacuum of knowledge, there is much speculation.  Over time, expectations grew like a snowball rolling down a hill.  It was assumed there would be a person, the “head crusher” predicted in Genesis 3, who would reestablish order in God’s created world.  This person would also fulfil the promise of nation building given to Abraham in Genesis 12.  Further, this person would be established as the supreme leader of God’s armies, granting this newly built nation super-power status and global domination.  Not only would the problem of sin and Satan be resolved, but years of oppression, poverty, homelessness, and ridicule would be forever obliterated.  It would all happen during The Week.

For those who live after the events of The Week, the explanation is often much more subdued.  Yes, a great teacher did model and instruct us about life in the Kingdom of God.  Yes, his message was revolutionary - perhaps too revolutionary - and he ended up being martyred.  However, in hindsight we recognize the profound impact of these teachings, in fact, a global impact.  It isn’t a political domination but a spiritual one with a religion spawned that continues to this day.  This is an event of the spring that symbolizes new life and new hope.

Both these scenarios are nauseatingly anaemic.  Neither captures the Richter-scale breaking, devastating seismic shock waves with which human history was impacted.  The Week is unlike any other.

Yes, there was a person who accomplished the “head crushing” - but not just any person.  Yes, there was a new community of persons established - but not just any community.  Yes, this person does have command of God’s armies . . . because He is God.  He IS the King.  All things are subject to His authority.

For some three years before The Week, a carpenter born in humble circumstances lived and served and taught and laughed and cried and offered hope and grace to all those who associated with Him.  Because of His gentle spirit and serving heart, He was not perceived to be The King over and The Creator of all that exists.  Perceptions are often deceiving;  He is both those things.

The facts about what happened during The Week are so extraordinary we can hardly accept them, and many don’t.  It all boils down to this truth:  the Creator became part of His Creation so those He created could crucify Him in order to make it possible for the Creator to forgive and restore them . . . if those He created would respond to Him by faith.  Phew.  No wonder there are a few misunderstandings along the way.

Even though Jesus is perceived by some as a revolutionary, This Week is about relationship, reconciliation, and restoration.  Even though the Creator was crucified, This Week is about the Resurrection, without which nothing else would have mattered.  Even though this one was born in the most humble of circumstances, This Week reminds us He is The King over all.  The unprecedented event of being raised from the dead demonstrates His authority over sin, death, and the grave.  

As post-“The Week” observers, we still haven’t seen the final and full effects of what was accomplished by Jesus.  The issues of Genesis 3 are resolved and promise of Genesis 12 is assured.  The Week brings us hope.  Yet the creation is still broken - for now - and we still struggle - for now.  The good news is, we can be reconciled to God and we be united with other reconciled people as a community of faith.  

According to the Apostle Paul, all things are now new even though the mess of the old still lingers.  Easter isn’t about renewal because it is spring.  It is about re-creation because the Creator did everything necessary so His relationship could be restored with those who had rebelled against Him.  The Week is cause for celebration and joy.

He is risen.  He is risen indeed!