Opening Prayer

Dear Jesus, all week long we’ve been listening to your story. Now help us see how all the pieces fit together. Thank you for going through all of this for us. Amen.

Scripture: All Four Readings

This week we heard one big story told four different ways:

Monday — Isaiah 50: God’s Servant was hit and spit on. But he didn’t flinch. He set his face like the hardest rock and kept going — because God was right beside him.

Tuesday — Psalm 31: A man cried out to God like a broken clay pot thrown on the garbage heap. But even from the floor, he said, “My times are in your hand.”

Wednesday — Philippians 2: Jesus was equal with God — at the very top of everything. But he poured himself out like water from a cup, all the way down to a cross.

Thursday — Matthew 26–27: Jesus was sold for slave money, prayed alone in the dark, was abandoned by his friends, and died while the sky turned black. Then the thick curtain in the Temple ripped from top to bottom.

What This Means

Here’s a question: what do you do when someone you love is stuck at the bottom of a deep, dark well?

You could stand at the top and shout down, “Just climb up!” But what if they can’t? What if the walls are too slippery and they’re too tired? Your instructions don’t help. Your encouragement doesn’t help. The only thing that helps is if someone goes down into the well and carries them out.

That’s what this whole week has been about. Every single reading showed us the same Jesus doing the same thing: going down.

On Monday, the Servant went down — he offered his back to people who beat him. On Tuesday, the psalm writer was already down — broken, forgotten, alone — and God met him there. On Wednesday, Jesus went down on purpose: from the glory of God to a baby in a feeding trough to a criminal’s death. On Thursday, we watched it happen — the garden, the trial, the nails, the darkness.

Down, down, down, down.

But why? Here’s why: because that’s where we are. We’re the ones in the well. We do wrong things. We hurt people. We’re scared and lonely and we can’t fix it on our own. We can’t climb up to God.

So God climbed down to us.

And here’s the part that changes everything. Remember Wednesday’s reading? After Jesus went to the very bottom, the Father “highly exalted him” — lifted him to the highest name in the universe. And because we’re connected to Jesus through baptism, when he goes up, we go up too. He didn’t just visit us at the bottom and leave. He carried us out.

That’s why the curtain ripped. The wall between us and God — gone. Torn from the top down, because God is the one who tore it. The way is open now. Not because we climbed to God, but because God climbed down to us and blew the door off the hinges on his way back up.

This Sunday is Palm Sunday. The crowds will shout “Hosanna!” — “Save us now!” And Jesus will answer that prayer. Just not the way anyone expected.

Let’s Talk About It

Eberley: All four readings show God working through weakness — a beaten servant, a broken pot, an emptied king, a crucified man. The world says power means being strong and in control. What does the theology of the cross say power looks like instead? Why is that harder to believe?

Eberley: In your baptism, you were joined to Jesus. That means his story is your story — his death and his rising. How does that change the way you think about hard things that happen to you?

Sonja: We heard four stories this week. If you had to pick one picture that goes with each story, what would you draw? A flint rock? A broken pot? An upside-down cup? A torn curtain? Which picture sticks with you the most?

Sonja: Jesus went all the way to the bottom for us. Can you think of a time someone helped you when you couldn’t help yourself? How did that feel?

Dahlia & Freddy: Did Jesus go up or down to find us? (Down!) Why? (Because he loves us!) Did he stay down? (No — God lifted him back up!) And does he bring us up with him? (Yes!)

Remember This

God went all the way down to the bottom to find us — and carried us all the way back up.

Closing Prayer

Dear Jesus, thank you for the whole story. Thank you that you didn’t stay at the top and shout instructions — you came down into the well with us. Thank you for the Servant who didn’t run. Thank you for holding our broken, scary days in your hand. Thank you for emptying yourself out like a cup. Thank you for the cross, the darkness, and the torn curtain. You did all of it so the way to God would be open forever. As we head into Palm Sunday and Holy Week, help us hold your whole story in our hearts. We love you. Amen.

Memory Verse

“He humbled himself… therefore God exalted him to the highest place.” — Philippians 2:8–9