Welcome to ‘One More Thing Before I Close’, where I pick up on themes from my Sunday sermons or provide other follow-up thoughts relevant to my local church.
Today I’m following up from our All Ages Worship Gathering we had for Palm Sunday with a couple of additional encouragements for my church as we enter Holy Week.
Why Is it Called “Holy Week”?
For most of us, “holy” isn’t a word we think about or use too often. We may imagine it has something to do with being very serious or pious about our faith. Some of us may associate it with an impossible moral standard or set of practices. In reality, the word holy simply means to be “set apart” or that something is “other.” There is something about its nature or character that is simply different from everything else in existence.
So why do we call this week “holy”? What is “set apart” about it?
There’s nothing special about the days in themselves, but what happened on these days that makes them holy.
So what did happen?
Traditionally, there is something that happens each day leading up to Easter, and there are scriptures that are usually read on those days to help us enter the story again.
Palm Sunday (Matthew 21:1-11): Yesterday, we entered into the story of Jesus’ entrance into the city as the children marched around the room, and we all waved palm branches to celebrate Jesus coming into Jerusalem.
Holy Monday (John 12:1-11): While Jesus is eating a meal, his friend Mary weeps and anoints his feet in preparation for his death and burial.
Holy Tuesday (John 12:20-36): Jesus reflects on his impending death, letting his disciples know he will not be with them much longer.
Holy Wednesday (John 13:21-32): Jesus tells his disciples that one of them will betray him by handing him over to his enemies.
Holy Thursday (John 13:1-17; 31b-35): Jesus serves his disciples at their last meal together by washing their feet.
Good Friday (18:1-19:42): Jesus is arrested, put on trial, beaten, crucified, and dies. This is known as Jesus’ “Passion”.
Holy Saturday (John 19:38-42): Jesus is buried and lies dead in a tomb.
So what makes all of this tragedy and death so holy? There doesn’t seem to be anything “set apart” about it. Jesus was betrayed by a friend and ended up dying. This happens to people all the time in one way or another, doesn’t it? We have conflicts, we deal with loss and betrayal, and every human eventually dies one way or another. What makes this so different?
We must remember that Jesus is human, but also God. God, who created everything in the world, including you and me, loves this world even though it has become corrupted and broken. God, just like any loving parent would long to care for, or a skilled craftsman would desire to heal his creation. So God entered creation to restore it.
God in Jesus suffered horribly this week on purpose so that we could be restored. As 1 Peter 2:24 puts it, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds, you have been healed.”
God chose self-sacrificing love to restore and heal the world. It is the self-sacrificing, self-giving nature of God’s love during this week that makes it holy.
So to be “set apart” isn’t about being better than everyone else and keeping to ourselves; holiness is self-sacrificing love for a broken and hurting world. To be holy is to show perfect love as God does in Jesus.
This means through every bit of suffering and sorrow, every betrayal and false accusation, every whip lash and nail hole in his body, we are seeing what real love is like. That is what makes this week “Holy”.
I’d love to encourage you to follow along with the scripture passages for each day of this week. Take time to consider what Jesus was experiencing at that moment of the story, and ask for the Holy Spirit to help you follow Jesus’ example of self-giving love.
May we enter into the story together this Holy Week.
Thank you for reading. This section of my Substack picks up on themes from sermons in my local church. In my main Substack space, I write about the places where Church, Worship, Theology, and Culture meet. If that’s interesting to you, I’d love to invite you to subscribe!
The Caravaggio was a nice touch!
Some great thoughts for heading into this week.
Wish I had this plan set up before I skipped to the Passover meal lol