Leading up to Easter

In the Sundays preceding Easter my church has been looking at part of the life of Jesus, with a special emphasis on photos and videos of the places where Jesus lived and taught. This week, we are thinking about the mountains. Many of our favorite Bible Stories take place in the Mountains of the Holy Land.

Noah’s Ark landed on Mount Ararat, Moses heard God call him from a burning bush on a mountain, and later received the Ten Commandments on a Mountain. Many of the turning points of Jesus’ ministry were on mountains, including His temptations, His Transfiguration, and His last prayerful time with God on the night before he died.

Some of Jesus’ most important teachings came on a mountain. We call these “The Sermon on the Mount,” and we find these in Matthew, Chapters 5-7.

One of my favorite verses in the Sermon on the Mount is “You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.” [Matthew 5:14-16 NRSV].

Some years ago I was directing a church camp, and this was one of the theme verses. We decided to demonstrate the verse literally, so we took a lantern to the highest hill of the camp, and covered it with a plastic bucket. We intended to show the light shining brightly, and then the darkness as we covered it. Of course lesson plans do not always go according to plan, and this day was no exception. White plastic buckets let light shine through them, so it wasn’t much darker after the bucket was placed over the lantern. No matter how we try to darken the light of the world, it still shines through.

Each year during Lent, we follow the footsteps of Jesus as he walks toward the cross. The darkness of his world, and the darkness of ours, threatens to overwhelm us. Just when it seems to be the darkest, then the light breaks through.

Jesus calls us the “Light of the World” in Matthew, but in another place in the Bible, he tells us what the source of our light is: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.” [John 8.12 NRSV]

We live in dark times. Literally, the nights have been longer than the days. In another sense, the world is filled with darkness and evil. We read about unspeakable things in the news. I spend a lot of time talking with people who are confronted with sickness and death. When the darkness seems to overwhelm the world, then the light shines.

In our church, during the week before Easter, we remember the suffering and death of Jesus. Then we gather early in the morning to watch the sunrise, remembering how the Son rose, that we might have life.