Recovering Holy Week

"Sometimes we wish our own heart would speak of that which made it heavy with wonder"  -  Abraham Joshua Heschel

If many Christians were honest, they would probably say that holy week has greatly lost its significance.  Ministers find themselves wanting to recover from their hectic schedules during holy week and holy week simply does not captivate Christians imaginations or hearts like it used to.  So I suggest we need to recover Holy Week.  I don't mean we are not practicing it but I mean speaking and living it in a new light.  Let me give a few thoughts from my experience this week as I meditate on this Holy Saturday.

1.  Palm Sunday should caution us.  We speak of cheering crowds, palm waving, and excitement on Palm Sunday.  And certainly there needs to be a higher dose of enthusiasm and celebration in many churches.  But as the people cheered, Jesus wept?  Why?  They missed their day of visitation.  The refused to repent and wanted religion on their own terms.  Essentially, the people celebrated their own misunderstanding of Jesus.  They though Jesus was going to fix their problems and conquer their enemies.  Jesus came to conquer their sins and the slavery the Devil had on their lives.  Do we ever celebrate a misunderstanding of Jesus today?  Have we missed the day to repent and missed God's visitation?

2.  Maundy Thursday should shock us.  We think of this as a night of communion and sharing the Lord's supper together.  A night of prayer and foot washing.  But this is the day the disciples are arguing over who is going to be the greatest in God's kingdom.  Everyone wanted to sit at either Jesus right or left and one of the person's who get the honored seat of position is none other than Judas.  No one could imagine one of Jesus closest friends betraying him.  No one could have imagined Jesus shocking words that he was going to die.  No one could imagine what was going to happen in the prayer garden where Jesus would be arrested, tried at night, and executed the next day.  This was the day that shocked the world.  Is there anything that shocks us during holy week anymore.  Is there anything that comes close to challenging us beyond the dullness of we have "been there and done that?"  Are we shocked in recognizing who Jesus really is and what he demands from us this day?

3.  Good Friday should terrify us.  We call it good Friday but there was nothing good in what those first disciples experienced on that day where Jesus was brutally tortured and murdered.  Betrayal, desertion, cowardly hiding, denials of even knowing Christ, these were the watch words of that day.  Sheer terror and fear gripped Jesus disciples.  There was no way for them to know that the earthquake that gripped their hearts was going to turn into an earthquake that raised the dead.  Do we dare enter into the sheer horror of this Friday we call good because the only good person that ever lived  hung dead on a tree.  Can we smell the shredded flesh, the grinding of teeth of the crowds, the sweat and dirt mingled together with the stench of death in the air.  This was not a tame Messiah just like this was not a tame crucifixion.  Do we ever feel the terror and fear of God in our souls?

4.  Easter Sunday should burn within our hearts.  I know one minister who is talking about resurrecting marriage as he continues his series on marriage through Easter Sunday.  I know other Christian leaders who have told me that Easter has lost its mystery and just seems like another day of the week.  Where is the power and beauty of the resurrection of Jesus?  Where is the burning within our hearts like those early followers of Jesus experienced on the road to Emmaus?  If Easter is dead then so is any hope of an afterlife with God.  If Easter is without hope, then we are as the Apostle Paul said people who should be greatly pitied!  My whole heart cries out that I am crucified with Christ and it is no longer I that live but Christ who lives in me (Gal.5).  There is no resurrection without death.  Easter is our hope for a better future, not only for this world but for the world to come.  Maranatha!