The Long Weekend (Part One): ‘The Easter Gathering’ 

For the next few weeks of School Worship we are going to be talking about a very special time of the year… Easter! It is interesting to think that so much took place in such a short time frame… Thursday night to Sunday morning… just a few days. You could pretty well call it a long weekend. But these events changed everything.  

For so long God had promised to send someone, a rescuer… to help save a broken world, full of broken people.  Finally, the rescuer came… and it was none other than God’s deeply loved Son, Jesus.   

Jesus did so many caring and kind things through his life, but everything led up to what happened on that long weekend so long ago.  

So, let’s begin with the gathering on Thursday night… 

What comes to mind when you hear the word ‘gathering’? A celebration? A time of connection with people you love? A shared meal?  

Immediately before Jesus’ death and resurrection Jesus himself spent time with people he loved over a meal.  

He and his disciples gathered together for the Passover meal, a celebration of the time when, centuries earlier, God rescued his people from slavery in Egypt.  

During that evening, Jesus shared things that were on his heart. He washed his disciple’s feet and showed an example of what it looks like to serve. He redefined the meaning of the bread and wine pointing to the personal sacrifice he was about to suffer to free people from slavery to sin. He shared words of comfort and prayed. He imparted his new commandment… ‘Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another’ (John 13:34).  

This meal, and time of connection, had a profound and lasting impact on all who gathered that night. We refer to it now as ‘The Lord’s Supper’. Centuries later Christians continue to gather and connect with Jesus, to celebrate this meal and remember his love and sacrifice.  

As Jesus and his disciples left the room that night and walked out into the darkness, God’s rescue plan was set in motion. It was just the beginning of ‘the long weekend’… 

Blessings, 

Jason Wain and Georgie Schuster