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Holy Week: Journey With Jesus

Holy Week is fast approaching, and with it the end of all our Lenten sacrifices. But before you reach for that glass of wine or bar of chocolate, I want us to think for a moment about what it means to end well.

To end, of course, has several different meanings. We can end a task, end a fast (this is where "breakfast" comes from--breaking the nighttime fast), end a relationship, end a life. And as we end this season of Lent, we look to the way that Jesus ended--which, of course, was no real ending at all--to learn how we might be able to do the same in our own lives. Lent begins with the slow and solemn observance of Ash Wednesday; the reminder that we are dust and we will die. It ends with the triumphal celebration of Easter Sunday; the reminder that Christ is risen and has triumphed over death.

But in between, we are still on the journey toward the cross, the end of our faith. That is why we mark the days of Holy Week and not only the day of Easter Sunday. Historically, the whole week leading up to Easter has been consecrated as set apart, dating from the late 3rd century. The week begins on Palm Sunday, the day set aside for remembering Jesus' entry into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey to great fanfare. The next three days are Holy Days, followed by Maundy Thursday--the day we commemorate the Last Supper of Christ with his disciples. This day is also the beginning of what is known as the Easter Triduum, a period of three days marking Christ's passion, death, burial, and resurrection.

The next day, the strangely-named Good Friday, we remember that the God who became flesh and dwelt among us also died among us, one of us. This is a day of sorrow and darkness, the day when Jesus called out "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" But we also remember that when Jesus died, the curtain in the temple was rent and the human relationship with God was forever changed. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, among others, took Jesus' body and buried it according to Jewish custom.

Easter Saturday is the day of waiting. We stand outside the closed tomb and wait for glimpses of the light of resurrection, in the darkness, hoping for what we cannot yet see. We learn to have faith on Easter Saturday, and we hold the vigil for ourselves and for all those who might still believe. We live in a world between what was and what might be, and we live in both fear and hope.

Then, and only then, comes Easter Sunday. There has been a long journey leading to this day, from Ash Wednesday on, and our spiritual preparation is closely linked with what happens in us in these forty days of Lent. On Easter Sunday, we gather together to celebrate the truth. We recognize that Christ is risen (he is risen, indeed!). We claim our own identities as beloved sons and daughters of the living God, not abandoned but adopted into eternal heirship. We come to Easter Sunday together and singing songs of joy, but we get here only through the dark days before.

We will be marking Holy Week at City Church with services for Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Easter Vigil on Saturday in addition to our Easter Sunday service at Davies Symphony Hall. There is more information here about each service, and we invite you to join us for each one as we journey together with, and toward, Jesus.

 


THE DRAMA OF HOLY WEEK

 

 

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