¹ When Jesus had finished saying all these things, he said to his disciples, ² “As you know, Passover begins in two days, and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified.”

³ At that same time the leading priests and elders were meeting at the residence of Caiaphas, the high priest, ⁴ plotting how to capture Jesus secretly and kill him. ⁵ “But not during the Passover celebration,” they agreed, “or the people may riot.”

Matthew 26:1-5

Dear God, I hope I don’t miss worshipping you this Easter like the Pharisees did. The leading priests and elders were so upset about Jesus they were not only missing the joy and celebration of the Passover, but they were literally plotting to kill someone! Wow!

I would love to sit in judgment of them, but I know that I can get distracted by other things on weeks like this as well. I can completely miss you. I can completely miss worshipping you and really sitting with what you did for us. I was listing to an old Steven Curtis Chapman song this morning that said, “I know there’s a God who knows my name…” That’s amazing. You know my name! You know me! You love me! And you made a way for me!

Father, thank you for the darkness of what we’ve decided to term as “Good” Friday. Thank you for walking into that darkness for me. Thank you for the silence of Saturday–for the work you did in a lot of hearts that day. And thank you, of course, for Sunday. That’s the reason I can be here right now.

In Jesus’s name I pray,

Amen