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Seemingly, just in the knick of time, Holy Week will be our respite from national and world affairs. It arrives accompanied by images of poison-gassed children and a respondent tomahawk missile barrage, disconnected communications among world powers, and who-knows-what new developments by the time Easter comes ‘round.
It occurs to me this messy, violent time provides the proper context for hearing and brooding upon the story of Jesus’ last week, an outrageously vicious moment when capital punishment was brutally showcased for all to see. No PG rating code available. The blood and guts and tortured death were meant to be experienced first hand. And as the story is told, such was Jesus’ fate.
Holy Week lies at the heart of our tradition. It starts with Palm/Passion Sunday, the one just ahead in two days, and culminates eight days later on Easter. But the stuff in between, the Monday through early Sunday morn stuff, the in-between time, is where the real action is for the purposeful Christian—the shared meals among friends, the betrayals, the brutality, the radical teaching, and the astonishing, nearly unbelievable turn of events after two days dead.
This is the week that changed the world. Not Christmas, fully derivative of the events of Holy Week. This week deserves our focused attention. I look forward to sharing it with you. And if you happen to live beyond a fair commute to Christ Church, find a faith family to share the journey from this Sunday to next. Read a portion of the story each morning. Pray. As you pray, consider how it is that our world still lies in such need of the graceful message of life and hope and love that the man from Galilee proclaimed and embodied. Ponder how that message got him nailed to a wooden crossbeam and left for dead. Here’s our schedule. I look forward to walking the distance with you this year – especially this year…
Rev. Dr. Stephen P. Bauman is the Senior Minister at Christ Church.