We\u2019re about to head into the biggest weekend of the year at the Chapel of the Resurrection. It\u2019s the celebration of the history-making event from which the Chapel gets its name: the resurrection of Jesus on the first Easter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Like any great three-day weekend, we get started the night before with Maundy Thursday, a name related to the word \u201cmandate\u201d that references Jesus\u2019 mandate that his followers love one another as they have been loved by him<\/a>. At our 7 p.m. service<\/strong> at the Chapel, we\u2019ll celebrate the love that Jesus offers. Then, we\u2019ll act on it by offering foot washing as Jesus \u2013 in counter-cultural selfless service \u2013 washed his followers\u2019 feet. Yet, Jesus\u2019 self-sacrifice doesn\u2019t end there. The service will conclude with our remembrance of Jesus\u2019 arrest and complete abandonment. The Chapel will be in total darkness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s a three-day weekend, but things are about to get heavy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Friday is called \u201cGood\u201d because the day centers on Jesus\u2019 willing sacrifice for all of humanity and the whole creation through his complete humiliation and shameful death on a criminal\u2019s cross. Crucifixion was a complete humiliation. The goal was to strip every shred of dignity from the accused<\/a>. Jesus willingly takes on this shame as his own. His intention is to take on your shame (for whatever you might be ashamed of) as his own as well. By the end of our service that starts at noon<\/strong> (Jesus was hung on the cross at Noonday), we\u2019ll be singing our praises to the cross because it is the instrument by which Jesus takes our shame away from us. So we call the day \u201cgood.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Biblical accounts of the crucifixion tell us that after Jesus died, some of his followers asked to take his body so that they might give it a decent burial; they do this before sundown on Friday. It would seem that the story of Jesus has come to an end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n God\u2019s stories never end in death. <\/p>\n\n\n\n On Saturday night, beginning at 8 p.m.<\/strong>, we\u2019ll gather at the Chapel to light a fire in the darkness, a symbol of the risen Christ. Then we\u2019ll light a new candle from that fire and carry it into the Chapel where, in semi-darkness, we\u2019ll share rescue and salvation stories from the Bible, like the Great Flood<\/a>, the Exodus<\/a>, and the Three Men in the Furnace<\/a>. These show how God has always pulled life out of death. Then, we\u2019ll remember how God has done the same for us through the waters of our baptism. After that, we\u2019ll hear the account of Jesus\u2019 resurrection and announce the news again that tomb did not hold Jesus but that he has been raised and is alive today and gather for the Lord\u2019s Supper to celebrate the presence of the risen Jesus among his people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then, we\u2019ll gather Sunday morning at 10 a.m.<\/strong> to celebrate the Resurrection some more. A celebration like this lasts all weekend long.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You\u2019re welcome to join in any part of this weekend. You\u2019re especially invited if you\u2019ve never been before, especially if you don\u2019t really understand what\u2019s going on and are not sure that you believe any of it. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n God never waits for us to have it all figured out before the gifts of life are given.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Peace be with you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pr. Jim<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rev. Katherine Museu<\/a>s<\/em> and Rev. James A. Wetzstein<\/a> serve as university pastors at the Chapel of the Resurrection at Valparaiso University and take turns writing weekly devotions<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" We\u2019re about to head into the biggest weekend of the year at the Chapel of the Resurrection. It\u2019s the celebration of the history-making event from which the Chapel gets its […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":488,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_tribe_blocks_recurrence_rules":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_description":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_exclusions":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[6,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-james-a-wetzstein","category-csl-newsletter-devotionals"],"acf":[],"author_meta":{"display_name":"dev@eridesign.com","author_link":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/author\/deveridesign-com\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2024\/03\/Newsletter-Devotion-Graphics-11-1024x858-1-300x251.webp","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["James A. Wetzstein<\/a>","CSL Newsletter Devotionals<\/a>"],"unlinked":["James A. Wetzstein<\/span>","CSL Newsletter Devotionals<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 3 years ago","modified":"Updated 1 year ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on March 27, 2024","modified":"Updated on August 18, 2025"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on March 27, 2024 9:34 pm","modified":"Updated on August 18, 2025 8:18 pm"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":490,"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299\/revisions\/490"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}