Reflections on Holy Week
Kevin Payne
Westhope Member
With thoughts of the Easter celebration this past Sunday still fresh in our minds, I wanted to reflect on my first Holy Week celebrated with the Westhope congregation. Throughout most of my life, the holy days of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter have been celebrated with a focus on sacrifice and atonement.
However, I found the focus at Westhope to be much broader than that, with an emphasis on love and personal transformation. As our pastor Erik Swanson discussed in his Easter sermon “Easter is not merely about Jesus rising from the dead; it’s about the call to embrace life fully, even in the face of hardship, fear, and death. It challenges us to be ‘Easter people’—those who live as if the resurrection is not just an event in the past, but a living reality within us.”
Throughout our Holy Week services, I learned a number of new perspectives that enriched and changed my views.
Maundy Thursday
The name 'Maundy' is derived from the Latin word “Mandatum,” meaning a commandment. Jesus, at the Last Supper, commanded his disciples: And now I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. (John 13, verse 34)
One of the demonstrations of this love for others is the washing of feet. Most of us have probably never experienced this. In Jesus’ time, it was a demonstration of love and sacrifice to wash the dirty feet of others and was often done by servants. As part of our Maundy Thursday service, two members of our congregation washed our feet. What a deeply moving experience, to have someone in my community serving me in that way. It almost brought me to tears. In addition to that, pastor Erik participated in a foot washing at the First Unitarian Church in San Jose to show solidarity with immigrants.
Pastor Erik washing feet at the First Unitarian Church in San Jose
Good Friday - Jesus Lived a Way with God
It’s hard to find the “good” in Good Friday. But there are many good lessons to be learned from Good Friday.
First, we should be clear that Jesus lived a way of life, a way with God. That Way was and is the way of holiness, a way of love and power and equality that constantly butts up against the ways of this world and the power structures of this world. Christianity and religion have often forgotten this and taught a structure of belief rather that the Way of the Christ - to our detriment. Jesus’ way so confronted the religious structure of the time and the powers that be of the time that they killed Him for it. But even in the face of the violence and death, He held onto his Way with so much integrity and with such power that he cemented that way as a way of life and power and Spirit for all people to follow – even in the midst of the worst that humanity could throw at him. We can all learn from that integrity for our moments of great trial and difficulty.
Sacrifice
Sacrifice is also something we must be very clear about. Every year we talk about it because so often the church has taught us an unhelpful and unhealthy understanding of sacrifice. Pastor Erik argues that Jesus was NOT sacrificed by God, but Jesus sacrificed his own life to stay true to the ways of God. It is a model of faithfulness for all of us. We must note that all change or transformation takes sacrifice. It takes sacrificing our control, our habits, our ways of division and hate. Jesus sacrificed his life to hold onto his way of holiness as a part of his integrity and identity. I must ask myself – what must I sacrifice to get the deeper way of Christ?
The Cross
The symbol of the cross in the life of the church has not always been the symbol of death and torture. The original shape was four equal arms representing the cycles of our lives and the four gospels. It has also been a symbol of unity and confrontation: the ways of holiness and the ways of our culture, the hierarchical and the communal, the vertical connecting us to God and the horizontal reaching out to others. Often to get to a wholeness we must dwell right at the center of those crossings. One might also say the heart of God is right at that intersection.
Psalm 22
This was perhaps the most startling discovery for me. Part of the climax of Good Friday comes with those famous words that Jesus uttered as his last words from the cross, “My God my God why have you forsaken me?” Pastor Erik counseled that we must understand that God did not forsake Jesus, and God never forsakes us. Rather, these words are the first words of Psalm 22 that every faithful Jew at that time hoped to have on his lips as he or she died. It is a psalm of God’s triumph over what feels like desolation and speaks of God’s good works and faithfulness through time. These words are an act of faithfulness and integrity to that faithfulness to His very end. It’s a psalm of praise! If you haven’t read Psalm 22, I encourage you to as it will likely completely invert your view on this moment of Good Friday.
Holy Saturday
Not many churches commemorate Holy Saturday but it is a period of waiting. It gives us a chance to remember that God is always at work. It is a time of silence and anticipation as the church waits for the resurrection.
On to Easter
Easter Sunday is a day of joy and celebration, marked by hymns and a rededication to our faith and service to God and others. But Easter doesn’t end. It’s for us to carry that message and love forth every day. Let us be “Easter People.”
For a summary of pastor Erik’s sermon or watch the replay, please read this blog post.