This is Holy Week. It’s the week prior to Easter commemorating the final week leading up to Jesus’ death on the cross and eventual resurrection on Easter Sunday. There is a great deal of emphasis on Holy Week, simply because there is a great amount of scriptural text devoted to this one particular week of Jesus’ life (over 30% of the Gospels are about Holy Week and beyond… in fact one whole semester in college was focused in on this week in the gospels, whereas another semester covered the other 3 1/2 years of Jesus’ life. It’s kind of a big deal.)

As I prepare myself for Easter this year, I’m going to be walking through a reading plan and meditating on the final week of Jesus’ life. I want to invite you to join me in this week of reflection.

Monday - Yesterday was Palm Sunday. Read John 12 and reflect on why Jesus is worthy of honor and worship as our King. How are you expressing that honor in your life?

Tuesday – Read John 14.5-14 and reflect on who Jesus says that he is and what a stronger relationship with him can look like.

Wednesday – Judas agrees to betray Jesus Read Luke 22.1-7. Reflect on the times that you’ve agreed in your own heart to betray Jesus…

Thursday – Last Supper. Read Luke 22.7-20. Every week we walk through this story at IKON as we prepare ourselves for communion. Reflecting on the sacrifice that we know was about to take place, how do you see this differently?

Friday – The Crucifixion. Read Matthew 27.27-56, Mark 15.16-41, Luke 23.26-49, John 19.16-37 and reflect on the different accounts and mourn.

Saturday – Darkness Reigns and Jesus has been laid in the tomb. Read Hosea 6.1-3 and reflect on the darkness of the day and the hope of resurrection, the hope of rescue that awaits in the morning.

Sunday – Resurrection! Read Luke 24 and spend some time Thanking God for sending Jesus to rescue us and then join us at IKON at 9:30a or 11a to celebrate as a community!

At the heart of the historical Jesus story is the provocative, compelling, subversive, beautiful insistence that nothing can ever be the same again, not after resurrection…

I stood there with the bread in my hand as person after person came down the line to take a piece and with every person who walked by I recited the phrase, “Christ’s body broken for you,” a deceptively simple phrase to say. As familiar faces strolled past I couldn’t stop internalizing their names as they passed, “Alex, Christ’s body broken for you”; “Justin, Christ’s body broken for you”; “Mike, Christ’s body broken for you,” and on and on. With each name running through my head the harder it became to finish the line out loud. I found myself near tears after 40 people whom I have come to know walked my way, something I wasn’t prepared for during this moment of introspection and celebration.

This morning as we prepared for communion in a more liturgical setting/style we recited The Apostles Creed. At the moment we hit the line, “The third day He rose again from the dead,” my heart leapt for joy within me. This is what communion is about, this is what causes such emotion, this is what causes such joy, this is what brings us together and this is why we celebrate. Christ has risen, and through His resurrection we have hope.

Why then has a majority of the evangelical church forsaken the regular celebration of communion? In many churches I have attended over the years we have gathered to worship in song, in giving of offering, and listening to sermons but these three elements seem to be the only constant whereas communion has fallen by the wayside. Why?

Perhaps this isn’t the proper line of questioning, for there really is no good reason for forsaking the regular participation in communion by the church body. Rather, the proper series of questions should revolve around, ‘What are the consequences?’ ‘What happens to the church who fails to recognize and live as a resurrection community, who looses sight of hope?’

I fear that many of the problems we experience in the evangelical church revolve around the rare appearance of the Eucharist/Communion/Lord’s Supper in our midst, and our gross misunderstanding of its importance to the health and unity of the body.