|
I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
-John 13:34-35
This Sunday is Palm Sunday. The following Sunday will be Easter. If you only came to church on Sundays and didn’t read scripture, were new to it, or had never been introduced to the story of Holy Week, you could be forgiven for having the impression that this was the best week of Jesus’ life, rather than the hardest. After all, the story you’d hear on Sunday typically is about his triumphant entry into Jerusalem and a parade full of people welcoming him. And the next week… the story of resurrection and joy. At least once in my years of leading and teaching confirmation class, I’ve had a child who knew the Christmas story and at least some of the Easter one, but not of the crucifixion, let alone his agony, betrayal, arrest, torture, and death.
Some churches choose to split Palm Sunday or emphasize the crucifixion by marking a “Passion Sunday” - an emphasis on his passion or suffering. Still others move Palm Sunday a week earlier to focus on the events of Holy/Maundy Thursday and Good Friday on the Sunday prior to Easter. Our church, and most I have served, mark those Holy Week moments with a service on Thursday. Maundy comes from the Latin word Mandatum - mandate or command. We know that word from two years of quarantine. It comes from the single command Jesus gives his disciples as he washes their feet before the Last Supper… love one another.
This Holy Week, two weeks away yet, we will once again host a Maundy Thursday service. It’s a beautiful way to mark the most important weekend in the life and ministry of God’s only son and orient ourselves for the conclusion of Lent and Easter. If you can attend in person, please do. It can be a deeply meaningful part of your faith journey this Lent. It will be live-streamed and recorded. Join us for worship. Deepen your understanding, see more clearly, and follow more nearly.
|
