We call this week holy not to differentiate it from the 51 other weeks of the year but to lift up the stories we tell this week, sacred stories that demonstrate that God is intimately involved in what it means to love, what it means to suffer, what it means to die, and what it means to live. To get our attention and keep it, these stories use dirty feet, a betrayed friend, a disciple’s denial, the loss of blood, a vile instrument of death, and a remarkable experience of new life.
First, the background. Jesus taught about an alternative kind of empire, one of non-violence that relies on the power of love. He calls it “the reign of God” to contrast it to the reign of a human ruler. By healing and gathering people, he embodies what that reign is, what it looks like in action, and how it creates a sense of belonging to a deeper and holy purpose.
At the start of the holy time of Passover, Jesus enters Jerusalem riding a donkey, a symbol of the different kind of authority that he proposes; the parade is both a parody and protest of the power, privilege, and hubris of those who rule over others. He openly teaches and heals and builds community in the temple, and he’s aware that by doing so the political and religious elite consider his arrest and punishment.
On Thursday of Holy Week, we remember how Jesus and the disciples gathered together in the upper room to share the Passover meal. At the end of the meal, Jesus takes off his outer garment, ties a towel around his waist, fills a bowl with water, and proceeds to wash the feet of his disciples and to dry them with the towel tied around his waist. It was a physical and
spiritual act of cleansing and refreshment for feet exposed to the dust and heat and struggles of Palestine. After he washed their feet, Jesus gave the disciples a commandment to love one another, to love one another by doing acts of kindness, acts that require humility, acts done for the refreshment of others.
We call the Thursday of Holy Week Maundy to recall the Latin word mandatum, “commandment.” Jesus commands us to love through such tender and humble deeds as the washing of feet. I hope you take the chance to wash the feet of others and have your feet washed this Thursday and to experience love as an act of cleansing and refreshment.
Some say we call the Friday of Holy Week, “Good Friday,” because it derives from the designation, “God’s” Friday, but others maintain that good is a way to mark the day as holy as in “god jul” (good Christmas). The story we read on Good Friday is the story of Jesus’ suffering and brutal death on the cross. On the cross, Jesus demonstrates his solidarity with all those who suffer, all who despair–an essential aspect of God’s reign. His cry from the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me,” is the cry of all who are bruised and battered by life’s hardships, cruelty, and pain.
On Good Friday at Grace Church | Red Hill, seven folks will respond creatively in poetry, prose, dance, and song to the seven last words (sentences) Jesus utters from the cross. Through them and their retelling of the story, we bind our suffering and the world’s suffering to Jesus’ suffering. And we watch him die.
On Holy Saturday we keep vigil. And then we read the story of Easter. Spoiler alert: There is a plot twist. Death cannot contain Jesus. With the disciples we discover that death does not have the final word. That love is stronger than the forces of power, privilege, violence, and hate. That the bright sun of joy pierces the storm clouds of suffering and despair.
On Holy Saturday we gather around the bonfire and hear the story. And on Easter Sunday morning, in song, alleluias, lilies, and flowers adorning the empty cross, we live the story of the resurrection.
This Holy Week, I invite you to hear and live the stories that will cleanse and refresh you, that will fill you with love and compassion, that will guide you into solidarity and belonging, that will make you come alive. That is why this week is holy.