His Week. Our Weeks.
Sometimes things just hit you. Each week I begin with the salutation "Happy Friday", marking our time through the week, encouraging a level of felicity. Today however, is not just any Friday. It is THE Friday that we call "Good". And it is not just any week. It is THE week that we call "Holy". It was the last week that Jesus walked the earth before THE EVENTS that would change everything.
The week started with a bang. Monday: Jesus cleaned house. His Father's house that is. "My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations. But you have made it a den of robbers” (Mark 11:17). Tuesday: like a prophet announcing doom, Jesus declares that not one magnificent, Herodian stone that constructed the temple would be left on another. "Stay awake! For you do not know when the master of the house will come" (Mark 13:35). Wednesday: the Sanhedrin has had enough (Mark 14:1,2). Jesus is drawing a crowd. People are listening to him. People are ignoring them. He must be stopped. Hello Judas. The trap is set (Matthew 26:14-16). Thursday: bread "This is my body. Given for you." A cup, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Poured out for you." A plea, "My soul is very sorrowful, even to death .... My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” (Matthew 26:38,39). A trial? Not really, more of a sham. A verdict, “I (Pilate) am innocent of this man’s blood; see to it yourselves.” And all the people answered, “His blood be on us and on our children!” Then he released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, delivered him to be crucified. (Matthew 27:24–26).
And so we come to Friday. Driven to the place of the skull, the hardened soldiers (or were they just boys?) took stakes and ran them through his wrists. They joined his ankles and hammered a stake in. They pushed the plank down into its hole and lifted up the Son of Man, suspending him between heaven and earth. And there, a mess of fluids, every breath a fight, he prayed that the mocking crowd and hammering hands be forgiven. Like a figurehead on the prow of a ship, he blazed a path through death and hell, landing on the shores of Paradise itself, beckoning the believing thief with these words, "Today you shall be with me in paradise (Luke 23:43)." But before he would reach those shores, it got dark, oh, it got very dark. "My God, My God. Why have you forsaken me ...." And so we wait. Saturday: ended in death, in a tomb, in darkness. But that darkness couldn't swallow the light that was about to explode Sunday when justice and mercy kissed. For in that darkness, the Prince of Darkness overplayed his hand and walked into the trap that the King of Light had set. For a willing sacrifice, with no sin of his own to atone for, could satisfy the deep justice of God and unleash mercy on a world in desperate need. "For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified (Hebrews 10:14)."
His week. Our weeks. Though we keep reprising the Holy Week roles of Peter, James, John and the rest of the disciples with our feckless, sleepy-eyed devotion, the finished work of Jesus surges through the empty tomb into our very bones animating us to new life. Each week of ours now begins with resurrection and pulsates with the promise of life. From classrooms to cubicles, from the bedrooms to the laundry rooms, Jesus reigns. Yes, we still struggle mightily, but we bring this truth to the struggle -- He is risen!
I look forward to Easter Sunday. We will move from considering weeks to considering a day as we take up the claim of 1 Corinthians 15:4 that Christ was raised on the third day, according to the Scriptures. Here is a cliffhanger for you, “What is so special about the third day?”