Midway through Holy Week

Well here we are, "hump-day" of Holy Week, do you feel it? Perhaps not, you've probably got so much going on and so many different places to be and are being bombarded by so many different messages from which restaurant has the best food to which toothpaste will get your teeth the whitest to which car will make you feel more complete that pausing to consider what it means to be midway between Jesus' triumphal entry and then looking to the cross on Friday and celebrating his resurrection on Sunday might seem like distant things to ponder in the midst of so much reality.

But the fact is, we are in the midst of one of the most momentous weeks in the Christian calendar. Though our culture may not realize it, this week is more Holy than any week in December, at least if you remember that only two of the four Gospels bother to mention Jesus' birth story and the rest of the New Testament doesn't seem all that concerned with it in the firstplace. Then again, as recent news stories have pointed out, our culture is more concerned with the bottom line; that is, making sure that we shop and spend and keep the economy churning and not all that concerned with our "Walk with Christ".

It should come as no surprise then, that as our culture and society have made the choice between various church holidays that Christmas is the one that has won out; when in reality it is the events of Holy Week: the Palm Sunday Parade, Thursday's Last Meal, the horrors of Friday, the silence of Saturday and the glorious return of Sunday that matter most in determining who we are as Christians.

So, if it is possible at all, even if you don't take the opportunity to worship on Maundy (from the Latin mandatum, refering to Jesus' New Commandment of loving each other from John 13:34) Thursday or Good Friday or Holy Satureday, at least take some time to pray and ponder what it means to worship and follow one whose obedience to God was so strong as to follow a path of so much pain that ultimately leads to so much joy.