I hate Holy Week

Between the palm branches last Sunday and the Easter lilies coming up, I tend to focus less on holiness and more on remembering my Zyrtec this time of year.  I don't like holy week.  I don't like all the drama that sends the Savior of the people down a scary, lonely path to a Father forgotten cross and into a common tomb alone before we get to party.  

I don't like Jesus praying alone in the garden without the support of his friends.

I don't like Judas and Peter acting stupid when Jesus needs them most.

I don't like the King of Kings standing before Pilate having to defend Himself when HE is the Truth.

I don't like the depiction of Mary in The Passion movie where tears run down her face as her son passes bloody and torn struggling to carry the weight of the cross and the sins of the world.

I don't like that the other thief on the cross doesn't choose Christ in what has to be the best evangelism scenario of all time.

I don't like that Jesus felt forgotten by the Father.  That on the worst, most painful, agonizing day of his life, he had to walk alone.  

I don't like the body of the Son of God, the body that healed the sick with a touch of his hand, that called Lazarus from the dead with human lungs, and that used ordinary muscles to draw a line in the sand, got put in a tomb like a lot of other people that died that day.

What can I say?  I don't like the story until he rises again.  It's not triumphant until the tomb is empty and Peter is reassured and Jesus is back with the Father.

I don't like that he had to die.  And I don't like that I'm responsible.  So there.

But, I'll walk this Holy Week with joyful anticipation of that first light of Easter.  I'll rejoice when the tomb is empty.  I will.  But, until then, I'll walk with Jesus through the garden, down the road, to the cross, and into the empty tomb.  I'll thank him that long before I took my first breath, he took his last on Earth.  For me.  

He paid for the sins he didn't commit so I could be free.  He fulfilled his life knowing it would matter to every single life that would come after his.  Including mine.  He felt alone and abandoned so I would never, ever have to.  

For that and so much more, I'm forever grateful.  Especially during Holy Week.