Holy Week

As we enter the holiest days of the Christian year, we do so on a night marked by three simple gifts Jesus gives his friends: a table, a towel, and a promise.

Today is Maundy Thursday, the day we remember the Last Supper—Jesus taking bread and cup and saying, “This is my body…this is my blood.” Before the cross, before the empty tomb, he gathers his disciples and feeds them. Holy Communion is not a reward for the strong; it is grace for the needy. We come with honest hearts, receiving again the mercy that holds us when our faith feels small.

We also remember that, on this same night, Jesus knelt to wash his disciples’ feet. The Lord of glory chose the posture of a servant. In a world that trains us to grasp for status, Jesus shows another way: love that stoops, listens, and bears one another’s burdens. “I have set you an example,” he says—not as an ideal we admire from a distance, but as a life we are invited to practice.

And we remember his “new commandment” (the mandatum): “Love one another as I have loved you.” Not love as sentiment, but love in action and with cost—love that forgives, welcomes, and stays.

On Good Friday we come to the cross—the place where we see, without illusion, both the seriousness of sin and the deeper seriousness of God’s love. Jesus is not simply a victim of human cruelty; he is the Lamb of God who willingly bears the weight of the world’s brokenness. We keep watch in reverence and repentance, trusting that even in the darkest hour, God is at work to save.

Holy Week invites us to slow down and stay close to Jesus: at the table on Thursday, at the cross on Friday, and at the silence of Saturday, waiting for the dawn of Easter. Wherever you find yourself this week—steady or struggling, hopeful or tired—Christ meets you with bread and cup, with cleansing mercy, and with a love that will not let you go.

I hope you will join us as we walk these days together in worship and prayer. Come and receive. Come and remember. Come and be renewed in the love of Christ.

In Christ,

Pastor Leslie