Wednesday, April 2
It was ‘beautiful and awful’…
Part of what I missed by being absent from blogging for a couple of weeks was a chance to share what went on at Crossings around Resurrection Week…We experienced the events surrounding Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection through the eyes of John, the writer. There is so much that I could share, but the thing that seemed to have the most impact on our community was something that happened on Palm Sunday…
Betsy Wolf posted the following on her blog that describes the emotions surrounding that day at Crossings…She says it much better than I ever could.
Church was hardcore on Sunday. For palm Sunday we entered into the story of Jesus' death and what people who were there could have been thinking or feeling...people who didn't know him, people who knew of him, and people who believed he was the Messiah.
The service started with a very talented Crossings attendee painting this amazing picture of Jesus' face. She painted through worship and a little of the teaching. The service ended with the band leading "The Wonderful Cross" and after this build up, two people wearing black came out and smeared black and red paint all over this painting as a montage of the face, the knees, the hands and feet of Jesus just blinked about a hundred pictures.
It's hard to describe but I just choked on the words I was trying to sing as soon as this started happening. I felt like I had been punched in the gut and tears just kept coming. It was obvious that most people there felt the same as the crowd became silent instead of singing and low sobs were heard throughout the room.
I talked to Mark yesterday and completely agree that together as a body we grieved Jesus' death. What an amazing thing to experience...and what was it? A painting of Jesus with paint on it? No, I think in that moment that the truth transcended the vehicle of paint and canvas and let us know that THIS was God. And he did this for us. It was beautiful and awful.
Mark Nelson at 11:35 AM 0comments