Holy Week Day 4 (delayed)

Preparing Our Hearts For Easter

Late Wednesday afternoon a sewage pipe burst in my private practice office meaning that we would need to close the office and I would need to see what clients I could via telehealth yesterday. Katie, my beloved wife, pulled a muscle Thursday morning but dutifully cared for our six children, keeping them quiet so I could work in our 1600 sqft house. By the time I was done seeing clients (around 1 PM) she was barely able to stand upright so I took over the household duties hoping that she could rest enough for us to make it to our family’s favorite church service of the year—Maundy Thursday.

Unfortunately, as 7 PM rolled around we were in no shape to leave the house. It felt wrong to leave Katie alone, several of our kids were dealing with the sniffles, and finally we decided that since I am offering a reflection during tonight’s Good Friday service we should play it safe and rest. And everyone woke up feeling somewhat recovered this morning physically and in terrible moods. I must admit I was very depressed when I woke up this morning. No, that’s not right, I woke up very sad.

Depression is a sort of artificial sadness or emotional numbness that requires clinical treatment whereas sadness is simply a normal human emotional response to something being wrong. There’s nothing wrong with being sad—it’s a reasonable response to when something is wrong. Jesus wept, after all. And we have to be careful not to push people to happiness instead of joy. You can be joyful and sad. Joy is the assurance that comes from leaning into the promises and work of God, but you can do that while still weeping over the pain.

Last week I dislocated my shoulder tripping over a baby gate. When I got it popped back into its socket I didn’t laugh and smile out of happiness that things were going to feel better, I cried through the painful process of getting fixed. I was joyful for the solution, but it didn’t take away the pain of the solution. Jesus understood this as he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane that the Father would “Let this cup pass.” The Man of All Sorrows understands that we are often overwhelmed with sorrow.

The opposite of joy is not sadness, the opposite of joy is fear. This is the argument of Hebrews 12—for the joy set before him he endured the shame of the Cross and calls us to cast off our fear of pain, sorrow, and shame and, with the assurance that his Kingdom cannot be shaken, join him in the joy of being made perfect by the author and perfector of our faith. Today is a good day for sadness, a good day for weeping, but remember that we need not weep for Jesus—consider his words as he was walking towards his crucifixion:

A large number of people followed him, including women who mourned and wailed for him. Jesus turned and said to them, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children. For the time will come when you will say, ‘Blessed are the childless women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ Then
“‘they will say to the mountains, “Fall on us!”
    and to the hills, “Cover us!”’
For if people do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?”

Luke 23:27-31