Gathering With Expectation

This week Christians everywhere are preparing for Easter. For those of us who are following the tradition of Lent it has been a month of observance leading up to this coming weekend. Others may simply be looking forward to spending some time remembering our Lord’s sacrifice with some loved ones. For kids it may be all about chocolate. (Depending on your Lenten tradition, it may also be all about chocolate.)

I find it interesting how Easter doesn’t have nearly the anticipation and build up in our culture that Christmas does. Overall though I think Easter is better of for it because there isn’t nearly as much commercialized nonsense that goes along with it (clucking bunnies not withstanding).

As I have been preparing for Easter this year I have been thinking about the “Psalms of Ascents”. These are a group of Psalms found near the end of the book of Psalms (Ps 120-132). The first Good Friday and our Lord’s resurrection coincided with the celebration of Passover. (It still does today, but based on a different calendar then ours which explains why the dates of Easter change every year). Passover in Jesus day meant that every male needed to journey to Jerusalem (which meant often an entire family in tow). It was one of the required annual pilgrimages. It was to celebrate the sparing of the Israelites in Egypt from the plague of the death of the firstborn. I can only imagine the sense of expectation and festival that would have been felt as the entire nation ascended to Jerusalem. As the people gathered on the roadways and traveled along they would sing the Psalms of Ascents. Imagine Jesus and the disciples traveling in the crowd approaching the city before Jesus arrived on the donkey. Perhaps they were all singing Psalm 130:

Psalm 130
A song of ascents.
1 Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD;
2 O Lord, hear my voice.

Let your ears be attentive

to my cry for mercy.
3 If you, O LORD, kept a record of sins,

O Lord, who could stand?
4 But with you there is forgiveness;

therefore you are feared.
5 I wait for the LORD, my soul waits,

and in his word I put my hope.
6 My soul waits for the Lord

more than watchmen wait for the morning,

more than watchmen wait for the morning.
7 O Israel, put your hope in the LORD,

for with the LORD is unfailing love

and with him is full redemption.
8 He himself will redeem Israel

from all their sins.

As hundreds of thousands of people converged and sang, they had a sense of expectation. A sacrifice would be made so their sins might be forgiven. Little did they know that this Passover things would be different. “He himself would redeem Israel from all their sins.” This time God himself would be the sacrifice.

I like the imagery in verse 6. I am sure that there were many long shifts for the watchmen waiting for morning. I know there are many “night awake” staff in CH group homes who eagerly wait for the morning. But more than these “My soul waits for the LORD”.

May we come together and eagerly wait on the LORD. We no longer need to wait to be redeemed. That happened once for all but, as we wait to celebrate the most important event in History may we have that sense of gathering in expectation.

Mark Wallace