Are you getting ready? The Church never lets us celebrate a festival without preparing us. Advent prepares us for Christmas. St. John the Baptist tells us to repent because Christ is nigh. Lent prepares us for Easter. Christ came to destroy the devil’s work; we should repent because we want Him to destroy the devil’s work in us. . . .

“Rejoice! The Lord Is Risen Indeed!” This is the message of The Church during this joyful Eastertide. She reminds us every week that Our Lord has conquered sin, death, and the grave. He has nailed these our enemies to His Cross and buried them in His Tomb. He has done it already, long ago, so rejoice! . . .

He was humiliated. No one had seen humiliation like this before. Had an innocent man ever been punished so? What makes it worse is He had never done a thing wrong in His life. Every other innocent man punished for the crimes of another at least has sinned plenty. But this man never had. He deserved to be mocked, lashed, hit, spat on, blindfolded, by nobody. He did not deserve to be crucified. He was humiliated. . . .

They were still afraid. The woman had seen Jesus. He was alive. Peter had seen Him now too. But they were still afraid. They weren’t necessarily afraid of Him. They were afraid of the Jews. They were afraid the Jews wanted them dead since they followed Jesus. Did they know word had gotten back to the Temple that He is alive? That might give them even more reason to kill them! They were right! The Jews’ leaders did later try to kill them. . . .

They were too late. He’d already been anointed for burial a week before. In fact, Mary Magdalene, sister of Lazarus, was the one who’d done it! He even said to everyone, in her hearing, that she had anointed Him for His Burial and this would be remembered for all time. They didn’t need to buy any more spices. He wasn’t going to rot in that tomb anyway. He was going to come out alive. . . .

“Why do we call today Good Friday?” Many people have asked that question. Why do we call today Good Friday? What’s good about it? It was a bad day. Jesus died. He died like a criminal. His own people had Him killed. Gentiles killed Him totally clueless about what they were doing. It was so bad the sun quit shining for 3 hours. Why do we call today Good Friday? . . .

“The Death of Jesus Christ, our Lord, We celebrate with one accord.” Do those words strike you as a bit odd? I remember when I was a little kid – that was my favorite hymn on Maundy Thursday. I remember some of what we sang when I was little; many wonderful hymns in TLH, both in the pews and in our grade school choirs. I remember specifically singing that hymn and “Lamb of God, Pure and Holy” with the Passion History every Lenten Wednesday. . . .

This day was 34 years in the making. 34 years before the angel Gabriel from heaven came to Mary and told her she would conceive in her womb The Son of The Most High. Today, March 25, 9 months to Christmas, is the day The Church remembers His Conception. We call it His Incarnation, His coming into, His taking on, our human flesh. We call March 25 Annunciation, because Gabriel announced Jesus’ Birth to Mary today. . . .

Jesus is our King. He’s in charge of the world. He’s making it revolve and rotate. He’s not an absent deity who just watches the globe go round. He’s very much involved with what happens. He’s making history go, always working to get His Gospel through the ears of people into their hearts. He’s caring for us, protecting us, holding the devil at bay. He has judged us innocent of sin by judging Himself guilty of it, and then He declared it all forgiven. . . .

“The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.” Telling the truth is good. It keeps us out of trouble in preschool, and at home and at work too. It shows people can trust us to do the right thing and that we care about what’s right. It shows we are sorry when we do wrong and we desire to do better next time. Sometimes telling the truth can be the difference between life and death. . . .