Holy Week & Easter at Mars Hill
Welcome to Mars Hill United Methodist Church. Here, we welcome, affirm and celebrate every child of God without exception.
As we prepare to observe the most joyous season of the Christian year, we welcome and invite you to join us in our observances of Holy Week and celebration of Easter.
The week of observances leading to the Christ’s death and resurrection, Holy Week, begins with Palm Sunday and continues through Maundy or Holy Thursday and Good Friday. It is from this pivotal week that the Church derives its deepest ritual, theological and missional life — everything we do in our collective worship, our doctrine, and our mission as a Church is rooted in, leads to, and springs from Holy Week.
It is during Holy Week that the life and mission of Jesus Christ meet their biggest test as Jesus stares directly into the face of the structures of sin and the powers of death and remains true to his calling and the work of his Father’s kingdom.
On Good Friday, Jesus is executed by crucifixion. And on the third day, we encounter the resurrection, where God raises Christ from death in a sure and certain pledge of raising all of us who are found in him.
In Holy Week, everything is here — life, sin, love, death, with life and love overcoming sin and death. This week remembers, enacts, and participates in the hope of the renewing of all creation, starting with our lives and loves, here and now.
“Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.”
Resurrection Flower Cross
We welcome and invite you to bring flowers to adorn the Resurrection Cross outside the church, which will be available for all to see.
Musical Meditations for Holy Week and Easter
As we prepare to observe the most joyous season of the Christian year, we welcome and invite you to join our observances of Holy Week and celebration of Easter with this playlist of sacred music, which includes online musical meditations for the days of Holy Week and Easter Sunday.
Join us for Holy Week & Easter Services
This year’s Holy Week services at Mars Hill United Methodist Church will offer both in-person and online worship opportunities. We invite and welcome you to join us as we commemorate Jesus Christ’s last week on earth prior to his crucifixion and resurrection.
No matter your story, you are welcome and affirmed here just as you are. And, we celebrate the ways in which you enrich our collective worship whether you’re a first-time visitor or life-long member.
Palm Sunday - March 24
9:45 am | Worship + Palm Sunday Processional
11 am | Fellowship Meal
Don’t miss our In-person or Online Worship at 9:45 am.
Also known as Passion Sunday, Palm Sunday commemorates the beginning and the end of Christ’s final week in Jerusalem. During the service, we move from a triumphal procession (with palms) and its stirring of hope as our entrance rite to hearing of a very different sort of procession, one in which Jesus was forced marched and crucified, to conclude it.
The service will be followed by our Monthly Fellowship Meal.
Maundy Thursday - March 28
7 pm | Worship & The Lord’s Supper
In-Person and Online
Join us In-Person or online for worship and Holy Communion as we recall the events prior to Christ’s betrayal, arrest and crucifixion.
According to the United Methodist Church, Maundy Thursday is an alternate name for Holy Thursday, the first of the three days of solemn remembrance of the events leading up to and immediately following the crucifixion of Jesus. The English word "Maundy" comes from the Latin mandatum, which means "commandment." As recorded in John's gospel, on his last night before his betrayal and arrest, Jesus washed the feet of his disciples and then gave them a new commandment to love one another as he had loved them (John 13:34).
Good Friday - March 29
Prayer Garden Reflection & Open Sanctuary
Recall Christ’s final hours through a series of meditative readings, reflections and prayers.
This walk may be completed virtually within your home or in the Prayer Garden at Mars Hill United Methodist Church on Good Friday or any day during Holy Week.
On Good Friday or Holy Friday, as it is known in nearly every non-English-speaking culture, we witness the execution of Jesus, recognize our ongoing complicity with the powers of death, and are called to enter the Great Silence of all creation in response to the death of its God and Maker.
Noon - 3 pm | Open Sanctuary & Prayer With Pastor Lisa
On Good Friday, the Sanctuary at our sister church, Bright Hope Laurel United Methodist Church will be open for prayer with Pastor Lisa.
Bright Hope Laurel United Methodist Church.
271 Laurel Valley Road
Mars Hill, NC 28754
Get Directions >>
Easter Sunday: The Day of Resurrection - March 31
9:45 am | In-Person & Online Worship
Join us for In-Person or Online Worship at 9:45 am.
Easter Sunrise Service at Wolf Laurel Country Club
Breakfast @ 7 am at Birght Hope Laurel United Methodist Church
Our sister church will host an Easter Sunrise Service at 7 am at Wolf Laurel Country Club. The service will be followed with a community breakfast at Bright Hope Laurel United Methodist Church.
2607 Wolf Laurel Road
Mars Hill, NC 28754
Get Directions >>
On the Crucifixion: Behold the Savior of Mankind
“Behold the Savior of mankind nailed to the shameful tree; how vast the love that him inclined to bleed and die for thee! Hark how he groans! while nature shakes, and earth’s strong pillars bend! The temple’s veil in sunder reads, the solid marbles rend. ‘This done! the precious ransom’s paid!” Receive my soul!” he cries; see where he bows his sacred head! He bows his head and dies! But soon he’ll break death’s envious chain and in full glory shine. O Lamb of God, was ever pain, was ever love like thine?”
Found on page 293 in the United Methodist Hymnal and written by Samuel Wesley (1662-1735), Behold the Savior of Mankind is one of the few relics of his papers found after the fire which destroyed the Epworth rectory during the night of February 9, 1709, when his son young John Wesley, was rescued as a “brand plucked out of the burning.” It was first printed in John Wesley’s hymnbook A Collection of Psalms and Hymns (Charleston, 1737) un the title “On the Crucifixion.”