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Holy Emotions - Reflections on Holy Week

Symbols of Holy Week


Holy Week is an interesting time for me. I feel multiple emotions, sometimes all at once. I always find it strange to say I love this week, so usually I don't. Saying I love this week isn't quite the sentiment I'm trying to convey. I find deep meaning in this week. It starts with Palm Sunday, we have a couple of days with no church services, and then things hit the ground running. In the congregation I'm a member of, we have a Christian-ized Seder meal on the Wednesday of Holy Week. I call it Christian-ized because the end of the Seder speaks of the Last Supper and goes through what Jesus did and said as part of the meal. For me, this helps to bring things into perspective. Knowing the meaning and symbolic foods that were used at Jesus' last supper, his last celebration of the Passover, gives me a better understanding of the celebration of Communion, or Eucharist. I'm still rather unfamiliar with the deep and rich symbolism in the Seder, at this point. I have only attended two. Each time I attend, I find a new connection and a deeper meaning.

The last supper - celebration of seder

Maundy Thursday is the next day in the sequence - also called the Triduum. It is the day we celebrate and remember Jesus' actual last supper, as well as his betrayal. It begins a somber couple of days. We celebrate Communion, but focus on the betrayal Judas perpetrated. There is so much to find in this. What I keep coming back to, though, is the mercy, grace, and forgiveness the Son of God shows. Jesus knows exactly who it is who will betray him to be put to death. Yet he still washes Judas's feet. He performs an act that had been reserved for servants. He was the disciples' teacher - they called him master. Jesus served the one who betrayed him. He also chose to continue eating with Judas. I don't know about you, but if I knew someone was going to betray me - even if the end result is something less than death - I wouldn't want to wash their feet, let alone eat with them. I'd do everything I could to avoid that person. Maundy Thursday takes me by the hand, sits me down, and tells me an oh-so-familiar story to remind me the infinite depth of God's love, grace, and mercy.

Jesus washes a disciple's feet


Today is Good Friday. It continues the somber tone that ended Maundy Thursday's service. There's really nothing to celebrate, so to speak. We remember the torture that Jesus endured after his betrayal. The beatings, the mocking. There are glimmers of hope within the story. Simon of Cyrene, whether he volunteered or - as many in volunteer organizations will say - whether he was volun-told (that is, someone volunteered him) carried the cross for Jesus for the last part of the journey to where it would be used. After Jesus die, Joseph of Aramathea offered his tomb for Jesus. As far as I know, he was a stranger and had never met Jesus before, but he perhaps knew who he was. Good Friday is the day Jesus dies. As Christians, we know this is not the end. We know Jesus is resurrected and lives. But, that is on Easter. Right now, we remember his death. Today, above any of the other days in Holy Week, I am filled with a myriad of emotions. I'm sad about the tortures Jesus endured, that Judas betrayed him, that Jesus was killed. But I am also happy. I realize this had to happen in order to fulfill Scripture. I know that Jesus will be back - in the Gospel story he will be back on Sunday - and in current time, Jesus will return one day. Mostly, I am happy that what Holy Week and Easter means is that death is not permanent. Not for any of us. We have the promise of eternal life because of the events of Holy Week and, more importantly, Easter.

Awaiting the resurrection.

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