Redeemer Family,

The middle of January might seem like an odd time to start talking about Holy Week (this year it’s March 24-31), but public and many private schools have scheduled Spring Break to start immediately after Easter Sunday. This poses a temptation. If you are a family with kids that hopes to travel for Spring Break, it will be convenient to leave town on Friday (Good Friday) March 29 to get in some extra days of vacation.

Believe me, I have four kids in school, I get it.

However! Dear friends, I must plead with you here! Do not choose a few extra days of vacation over the most important days in the year!

Palm Sunday begins the passion week. We wave palm branches and sing hosanna. We reckon with the reality that our King enters humble, peaceful, on a donkey.
Maundy Thursday is the day we remember Jesus washing his disciples feet and instituting the Lord’s Supper. We reenact this together with real water and towels as we wash one another’s feet, the humblest act of love and service.
Good Friday is the day set aside for the church to gather to remember the death of our Lord Jesus on a Roman cross. It is a day of grief, lament, sorrow, and guilt. We stare the consequences of our sin full in the face.
Holy Saturday is a day of quiet, fasting, prayer, and waiting.
Easter Sunday is resurrection day! We greet the dawn with shouts of joy - CHRIST IS RISEN! We sing, we dance, we feast. And we do so together. Easter is not a private holiday, it is the highest point in the year for the family of God, the Church.

Holy Week tells the story of the Gospel and invites us to participate, with our bodies, together.

Vacations and times of rest are a good thing. Our crew plans to fully participate in all of Holy Week, and then we will enjoy a time of travel and rest starting on Monday, April 1st, the day after Easter Sunday.

If you have school-age kids and are planning to travel for Spring Break, I’m inviting you to do the same.

Please, please, for the welfare of your souls and the formation and discipleship of your children, do not choose Spring Break over Holy Week. Our time of rest will be all the more refreshing if we have re-centered on the one who is the source of our rest.

In the Father’s love,