Holy week, like so many things lately, seems a little muted this year. The shared thrum of collective anticipation is dampened by the necessities of social distancing that lie like an untimely thick snowfall on the Spring of our cultural touchstones.

Yet this is as intended. The hand of God still guides each day and each season. We must seek to know what good gifts our Father has for us as we observe Good Friday, and Easter together, though apart.

I should like this brief afterthought to begin a conversation. Let me share a few points of meditation that have occupied my mind this week, and then may I encourage you to comment and continue the reflection with those things God is teaching and reminding you. Thus, divided by temporary rules of social order, may we share in this fellowship of worship.

First, I am reminded of how uncommonly blessed I am and of how profoundly ungrateful all my complaints are. There are those in our church body who are in genuine seasons of suffering right now, but for many of us – we have experienced nothing more than an inconvenience at worst. As I consider Christ’s true agony on behalf of sinners, I must confess with gratitude all His benefits.

Second, also on the subject of the sufferings of Christ, I am reminded that the free gift of eternal life is the most expensive gift ever given. Even Satan will never know what it is like to endure the full wrath of God. He, and all who reject Christ, will endlessly sip on a cup that over the ages of eternity can never be consumed entirely. Jesus alone did not simply endure, but has completely endured the wrath of God. The cup which the Father did not remove from His Son was drained until dry. No being could give any more, and our Savior did not give any less.

Third, it is again clear that even the best of men are but men at best. What comfort to know that all which truly matters – the affairs of life and godliness, the grounds of peace and justice, the pillars of time and the outcome of history – is not left to any earthly leader or committee. We are so often the blind leading the blind. The wisdom of God on display in the work of Jesus is that unmovable rock upon which a clear-eyed joy can be built. So let us be joyful.

And now it is your turn. What have you to speak of our Savior this week?