Easter Tradition

I found Easter this year especially meaningful as I participated in the worship of a couple churches other than my own and encountered new ways to observe the season.

On Maundy Thursday, the night of the Last Supper, I attended a service reminding us of Jesus' humbly washing the disciples' feet. I grew up in a foot-washing church, but was really too young then to find it very significant. Since then I have taken part in only one such service. Many people now are uncomfortable with the custom and most churches no longer practice it. The church I attended Thursday washes one another's hands. The worship assistants poured water from a pitcher over each one's hands into a bowl, and then another person carefully and tenderly dried them with a white towel.

My first thought was “What? Washing hands is not the same as washing feet at all!” But of course, it is. We no longer wear sandals along dusty footpaths and need to wash our feet when we enter a home. Washing hands is probably as appropriate for today as washing feet was in Jesus' time. I found it a moving experience and a very fitting remembrance of Jesus' passion and death.

On Good Friday, I participated in another church's “Stations of the Cross.” A very large cross had been constructed of beams and rope. One of the men carried it as the little group moved from one place to another in the neighborhood. First a little park, then the school playground, then the corner  grocery store, then other places in the immediate vicinity—seven in all, with the last one in the sanctuary. At each station, someone from a specific church ministry (youth fellowship, evangelism committee, men's group, and so on) read a passage from the crucifixion story and an appropriate prayer, then another person led in prayer for that part of the community (the children, the businesses, etc.) This too was a different sort of reminder that the the truth of Jesus' sacrifice is for everyone, not just the Church.

Most of my life, I have observed Easter in the customary ways: a new dress, the Easter cantata, an egg hunt and candy for the kids, and ham dinner. This year was different, and very meaningful.

MaryMartha

Art from http://lavistachurchofchrist.org and http://www.sxc. hu/