On Saturday last, I thought again about the “April Fools.” While April Fools’ Day is the first day of April and is often a day for fun pranks, we pull on one another, it’s also coming this year just a few days before Easter Sunday.
April 1st is also a day when my heart declares, with faith, that the greatest of April Fools is death itself along with the kingdoms of this world.
Right before we moved to Shelby in June of 1998, my father passed away. He died on March 28 and his funeral was on April 1. That year, Easter Sunday was in the next week following the funeral and on that Easter morning, I stood with my mom in the cemetery where Daddy is buried for a sunrise service in the last dark hours of the morning. It was there that we declared, as we had done at the funeral, that death’s sting is overcome by the resurrection power of God! It was there that we remembered the promise of scripture that by faith in Jesus we “lay up treasure for ourselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that we may take hold of the life that is truly life” (1 Timothy 6:19). The April Fools’ joke that year was on death because we knew, and still do, that Jesus is the resurrection and the life!
As we have stepped away from April 1st this year, we move toward Maundy Thursday — the day that remembers Jesus’ arrest in the garden and the beginning of such brutal treatment that took Jesus to his death on the cross. It was on this day that the kingdoms of evil, suffering, and death, which cover the world in which we live, thought they were taking out the Son of God. It was on this day when Satan believed he had conquered God’s definitive self-revelation in Jesus! It was on this day that we were “rescued from the dominion of darkness and brought into the kingdom of the Son God loves” (Colossians 1:13). It was on this day that evil, Satan, suffering and death itself became the greatest fools for thinking they could win the battle for our souls and our hearts!
“Maundy” means “command” and Maundy Thursday remembers Jesus’ command to wash one another’s feet as servants. Jesus gave this command as he prepared to hold up bread and wine to remind us of his body and blood given for us on the cross. So it is, that on this Maundy Thursday, as Jesus lifts the cup and breaks the bread, he says to death and evil, “you are the April Fools for believing you could defeat the kingdom of God!”
On Wednesday this week, during our Holy Week Service, we will remember the events of Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. Please join us for this important service in the life of the church as we reflect together on all the cross means for our spiritual journey through this world and into God’s eternal presence. We will gather at 6:30 PM in the Sanctuary following our evening Wednesday meal. We will also at this time receive guests to worship with us from this last week’s revival services with Beaver Dam, Pleasant Ridge, Lattimore, Crestview, and Calvary Baptist Churches. Watch for these brothers and sisters and give them a hearty Poplar Springs welcome!
And then, on Easter Sunday, we will celebrate the good news with great joy as our hearts declare anew our praise to the Risen Lord!
- 7:00 AM Sunrise Service in the Poplar Springs Cemetery
- 7:30 AM Breakfast in the Family Life Center
- 8:30 AM Sunday School for All Ages
- 9:30 AM Easter Worship in the Sanctuary
We look forward to gathering with you to celebrate the day and to declare to all the world — “We’re not fooling around — We follow the Risen Lord!”
In the Love of Jesus,
Tony Tench