Holy Week

Pastor Page, March 18, 2008

One afternoon, a Jewish friend and I were studying the Bible at my house—we do have the same Scriptures, you know, with some additional books on our side—when I casually reached over and put the Bible on the floor, and he about had a heart attack. He reached down and scooped it up, saying “Don’t put your holy book on the floor . . .” For an observant Jew like him, it was positively irreverent to treat Holy Writ that way. A similar thing happened one Spring: still a research scientist, I scheduled a working trip to Washington during Holy Week. The week before I left, my friend and I were at lunch and he was appalled that I would go anywhere during this most Holy of Christian times. I tried to explain it to him that we didn’t have a choice, and that it wasn’t really in our Protestant tradition, anyway—ok, so I stretched the truth there a little—but he was adamant. “I would never go anywhere during Passover, our holiest week.”

And it’s true—he, like many observant Jews in this country, wouldn’t think of scheduling time away from family and synagogue during their most holy time of the year. But for many Christians, Holy Week’s just another week. Many—especially in the evangelical wing—ignore Lent altogether, and only vaguely pay attention to Good Friday, maybe joking about not eating meat or something. They go right to the celebration, right to the resurrection—after all, we are a resurrection people—just like they skip Advent waiting to get to the good stuff of Christmas. Other Christians celebrate Ash Wednesday with the black cross on their forehead, and maybe make it to a Holy Week service, but don’t really set the season aside for anything meaningful for their lives.

But you know, that’s what “holy” means—set aside, consecrated, reserved for a sacred purpose. And though we all have busy lives, with work and family commitments that compete loudly for our time and energy, it might not be a bad idea to try and move faith up the rungs of our priority lists a little bit. To spend a bit more time with the scriptures, in daily contemplation of where we are in the story of Christ’s sacrifice and redemption.

And it’s not too late to do that . . . depending on when you get this newsletter, we’re either on the cusp or in the middle of the Triduum, the Three Days, the heart of Holy Week. It begins at dusk on Thursday evening, and many churches—ours included—have a Maunday Thursday service to kick it off. “Maunday” is from the Latin maundatum, which means command. Maunday Thursday commemorates the Last Supper, (John 13:1-35), which culminates in the new commandment, that we love one another, just as Christ has loved us On Good Friday, we remember the crucifixion itself, when Christ was spiked onto a cross and died (John 18:1 – 19:30). Finally, on Holy Saturday, we remember when Jesus lay in the tomb (John 19:31-42). And something we can do, to find a space in these holiest of days, is to take these scriptures, read them in our homes, in our offices, or wherever, and meditate on them, think about them and their significance in our lives.