In the name of God ☩ Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Here, at the front end of Holy Week, I want to say something about the week in general before getting into the specific texts for Holy Monday. Holy Week is when our faith is set before us in the unfolding drama of Jesus’ final week leading up to his Crucifixion and Resurrection. It’s a story that cannot adequately be reduced into Palm Sunday and Easter alone, though there are many Christians who will experience it that way. But something is lost when we stay at the surface level of these savings acts of God. And then there are the forgotten days of Holy Week – Holy Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Saturday. The reason why we mark these days with special liturgies is to saturate ourselves in this story, because that’s really the best way to do it. It’s something like swimming – a question of whether we want to merely get our ankles wet, go up to our waists, or plunge ourselves into the deep end.
Since you’re here tonight, I take it to mean that you intend to jump into the deep end, and I’m glad you’ve chosen to do so. As we journey this week together towards the Cross of Christ, there are two things I want to say to frame the week. The first is, much like that swimming analogy, to remember that we’re in the deep end. Our feet cannot touch here. In Holy Week, you will be in above your head and you might feel that you are drowning in the depths of this week. Make sure that you are coming up for air.
Ultimately, the only reason why we mark Holy Week is that Easter is on the other side of it. We’re not supposed to pretend as if we’ve gone back in time and are journeying with Jesus. We must never lose sight of our Easter faith, even as we plunge into the depths of the Cross. At a lecture I attended recently, the speaker said that the only reason why we have heard about Jesus is because of his Resurrection. Had he been considered to be God incarnate and had a ministry of teaching and healing that led to his execution, he’d be nothing more than footnote, at most, in history. Instead, it is the Resurrection that animates our faith and that is what puts Jesus at the center of our faith. You don’t have to remain in the shadows if the darkness is too much, it is quite alright to come up for air and see the Resurrected light.
The second thing I want to say about Holy Week is a suggestion that will help to keep your head above the waters of all-consuming evil. Given how familiar the story is, I’d encourage you to go through the week paying attention to what catches your attention in a fresh way. Holy Week is the story of God’s racial love for us. The culmination of this vision is seen on the Cross, but all along the way, there are markers of God’s love for us. Keep your eye fixed on those. In each story that you hear, or as you head home after each liturgy, think about what the readings and the breaking of the bread have to say to you about God’s saving love – because that is what this week is all about.
One of the most seminal books that I’ve read is Fleming Rutledge’s The Crucifixion, which came out just a few years ago. One of the constant threads in the book is her assertion that in the Passion of Jesus, God is doing something. The Passion is not something that happened to Jesus, but rather that through all that Jesus endured, God was actively bringing about the salvation of the world. In tonight’s collect, we prayed that Jesus “went not up to joy but first suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he was crucified.” It’s a signal that everything Jesus experienced on the way to Easter morning is important. The Cross was not a mere speed bump standing between us and our salvation or between Jesus and his glory. Through the pain, the joys come and by the Crucifixion is glory found. And that is because in the pain and the Cross, God is doing something.
Both our readings from Isaiah and Hebrews give us insight into what God is doing in Holy Week. One of the most common descriptors of God in the Old Testament is that God is a God of steadfastness. And so God is often described as a rock, a stone, foundation – not because they thought God was cold or lifeless, but because God was trustworthy and durable. And it was God’s steadfastness to the covenant in particular that led Israel to think of God in such terms.
In our adult Sunday school class a few weeks ago, we talked about the difference between a covenant and a contract. Contracts surround us all the time – we sign them every time we swipe our credit card or click that “I agree” box for a terms of service agreement that we didn’t actually read. And contracts are very explicit – they clearly lay out what my responsibility is, what yours is, and what will happen if either of us doesn’t uphold our end of the bargain. As evidenced by our busy legal system, contracts are broken all the time.
But a covenant is different. Covenant isn’t so much about what we have to do as much as it is about what sort of relationship we are to have. Marriage is a great example of this – wedding vows are not “Do you take her to be your wife and thereby promise to take the garbage out each week, and fold the laundry, and cook dinner at least twice a week.” Of course not. Rather, in marriage, the covenant is “for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish.”
God made this sort of covenant with Israel, putting God’s name on these people and promising to be a light to the world through them. Had it been a contract, God would have moved on to the Assyrians or the Persians a long time ago. But no. God is steadfast to Israel because God has said “Whether you are up for the task or not, my glory will shine forth to the whole world through you.” And that’s what we’re seeing unfold in Holy Week.
In Isaiah, this steadfastness of God is seen in terms of servanthood. God speaks to the world saying, “Here is my servant, whom I uphold… I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations.” And then Isaiah records some of the specific things that God is doing through the servant: setting free those in captivity and giving sight to the blind. This is exactly what God is doing on the Cross – setting us free from our captivity to Sin and helping us to see the shining love of God amidst the darkness of Death. God is steadfast to this covenant.
And in Hebrews, the metaphors change, but the message is the same. Here, the Savior is not a servant, but rather a mediator, a priest. But more than being a priest who makes a sacrifice, the priest himself becomes the sacrifice. The unknown author of Hebrews writes, “For if the blood of goats and bulls sanctifies those who have been defiled so that their flesh is purified, how much more will the blood of Christ.” The thing is – the sacrifices weren’t working. Goats and calves were being sacrificed and yet we were not getting any closer to holiness. It’s no difference today – when we have a scapegoat, we don’t feel any sense of guilt or feel that we need to make any changes.
And so God, in Jesus, remains steadfast to the covenant and becomes the scapegoat. Again, God does not abandon the covenant and say “Never mind, sacrifices aren’t working”, but instead God graciously fulfills the sacrificial system by steadfastly becoming the sacrifice to end all sacrifices. Hebrews notes that by this sacrifice of Jesus, our great high priest, we are the ones made holy as he is defiled. God has switched places with us. The sinless takes on the sins of the sinful. The innocent becomes guilty for the sake of the guilty.
Through and through, the story of Holy Week is that of God’s steadfast love that is always with us, even when we are at our worst. That’s a theme that will run throughout the rest of this week – God’s love showing up in the most amazing, radical, and unexpected ways. It is God’s steadfast commitment to loving at all costs in order to redeem Creation that holds this week together and brings us to the joys of Easter. As you worship, pray, and reflect this Holy Week, keep your eyes open for how this love shows up throughout the story. Not only will this bring you deeper into the holiness of this week, but it will attune you find God’s steadfast love as a constant in our world as much as it ever was. Amen.
