Cross and Triumph

_Behold Him, all ye that pass by, the bleeding Prince of life and peace! Come, sinners, see your Savior die, and say, “Was ever grief like His?” Come, feel with me His blood applied: My Lord, my Love, is crucified! _—Charles Wesley

This week is Holy Week. This is a particularly important time of the year for Christians and one of the most formative enactments of our faith. It began with Palm Sunday, marking Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem. My own church met in Washington Circle here in DC and processes back to the church with palm branches and singing. They even close Pennsylvania Avenue for us! I never miss it.

The triumph of Palm Sunday quickly gives way to the reality of Christ’s passion. Holy Week’s focus is the cross. Maundy Thursday gives us the sacrament of the Eucharist; Christ’s continued self-offering encountered every time we come to the Table. It is this liturgy that reminds us that his words “this is my body” had even more significance than anyone probably knew at the time.

But Friday is Good Friday, so named because Christ completed the ultimate “good” work, offering himself for us as the one, final sacrifice. We use the term “good” in other ways, too, sometimes referring to the Bible as “the good book.” The words of Paul in 1 Cor. 2:2 come to mind when we think of Good Friday. He said to the Corinthian church, “For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.” Good Friday, by design, offers us that focus.

Finally, Holy Week culminates in the Easter Vigil, or Holy Saturday. Originally, this was a night-long vigil. We can read about it in early accounts of pilgrims who visited the church in Jerusalem. A great fire would be lit, and the people would process to the various sites of Christ’s death and resurrection, hearing scripture and sermons as they went, preparing to meet the dawn of Easter sunrise. Today, the service is usually held in the evening on Saturday and does not extend into the morning hours. But it still uses scripture, song, sermon, and Eucharist to tell the story of Christ’s ultimate triumph.

Participating in the services of Holy Week will not, in and of themselves, make us Christians. But they offer a focused opportunity to hear the story again, to be shaped by it, and to encounter the One who inspires them still.

When I was a student in Boston, my pastor said to us just before Holy Week started, “Good people, now is not the time for lazy Christians.” And he was right. Now is the time to focus, to take it all in, and to embrace again the sacrifice and triumph of our God.

Ryan N. Danker is director of the John Wesley Institute_, Washington, DC_. This is adapted from a weekly JWI newsletter that can be subscribed to here_._

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