There’s a lot going on in the churches these days. Besides the ruckus going on with various church bodies over matters of doctrine and practice, or over litigation and schism, or over power and plunder, or even over the issues that cause friction between the churches and the states in which they operate, there’s a lot going on inside the various congregations that has little to do with these more public spectacles. The churches are busy this time of year, with the labors of Holy Week.
For those of us who remember the ancient forms of the church’s pattern of worship, handed down for nearly 2000 years, Holy Week begins on the Sunday before Easter, marking Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem amidst the accolades and waving palms of the crowds. From the moment of Jesus’ incarnation at Christmas, He has been moving toward this monumental week, and He is neither distracted nor deflected from His path by these cries of “Hosanna!” He knows what is in the heart of man—a sinful disease that has no human cure, which only His spilled blood can wash away. He knows that these fickle hearts who clamor to make Him king this day, will call out for Him to be crucified only a few days later.
Then the season turns to the days of teaching and prophecy that Jesus gave His disciples in those last days before His Passion. Holy Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday bear witness to Jesus’ not having lost sight of His mission to the cross… of His mission to save the world from sin, death, and the devil. He continues to call people to walk with Him, because He is the light of the world, and without His light, people only stumble and fall in the blackness of despair. As He has kept His disciples through His three years of ministry, He keeps them to the end.
On Maundy Thursday, our Lord celebrates the Passover feast with His disciples—something He says He has very much wanted to do. He knows, as He is celebrating this ancient feast which pointed to the deliverance of Israel from Egypt, that its true purpose would be revealed in Him. There is a deliverance greater than the release from oppression of an earthly tyrant, and Jesus is about to work that miracle of our redemption from an unholy adversary. His very Body and Blood which will be given up and shed for the sins of the world, He now gives to His disciples as the perpetual Remembrance of Him. Christians in every century have heard our Lord’s words here, and taken them to heart. Jesus has given us the means to remember Him and what He has done for us, and we keep His word together with the bread and the wine.
On that very night, which passes into Good Friday, our Lord enters His Passion. Betrayed by a disciple, and abandoned by the others. Handed over by his own countrymen, to be tortured and crucified by foreign oppressors. Stripped bare of his clothing, and His flesh laid open by the scourge. Taunted and spat upon, even as He carried His own cross to the place of His execution. Nailed through hands and feet to the coarse wood of the cross, crowned with thorns, and the accusation of his mocked kingship placed over His wounded head. Lifted up for all to see, having the sins of the whole world laid upon Him, suffering the worst that the devil could muster against Him. Even in His agony, He ministers to the penitent thief dying next to Him, assuring Him that he would be with Him in paradise. And when all was complete, when every prophecy was fulfilled and every ounce of the Father’s wrath against sin and evil was poured out, He cried out with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. The Son of God, the Messiah promised to Eve in the Garden, heralded by the prophets of Israel for centuries as the hope of the nation and the hope of the whole world, hung dead on a Roman cross.
With Jesus in the tomb, the church waits silently through Holy Saturday, in communion with the disciples who huddled together, pondering what it meant for the Light of the World to have died at the hands of sinful men. Waiting, the church meditates on the price paid for the sins of every man, woman, and child who ever walked the earth since the beginning, and who will ever walk the earth until its end. Waiting, the church remembers that our Savior has suffered all, endured all, for the salvation of His people. The church waits with Jesus in the tomb, but not without hope.
For death cannot hold the Lord of Life, and Easter Sunday explodes forth in shouts of triumph from the people of God. Christ is risen, with healing in His wings. Christ is alive, and death is overthrown. Christ is living, and we who live in Him, shall live forever more. Christ reigns, and the devil shall never show His face in heaven again. Christ is our High Priest and Intercessor with the Father, and the accuser of the brethren is cast down. Sin, death, and the devil are defeated foes, because Christ lives!
Here is the heart of Holy Week—it is the eternally beating heart of our Crucified and Risen Lord, Jesus Christ. Here is the treasure the church has been given, that Christ has paid all, and that through His blood, we have reconciliation with God, forgiveness, and life forever more. Here is the miracle of this blessed season, that we who sat in darkness, have seen a Great Light—a Light no darkness can overcome. Christ is risen, and we who have been baptized into His death, are alive with Him forever. Christ is risen—let the kingdom of darkness quake and cower. Christ is risen—let the earth hear His voice, preached loud and clear in His eternal Gospel of salvation for all who will believe. Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed—Alleluia!
Excellent!
ReplyDelete