Holy Week and Suffering

Holy Week begins with an ecstatic, “Hosanna!” and it closes with a heartbreaking, “Crucify him!” Along the way, we face fears and challenges. We see Jesus confronting religious leaders for turning God’s “house of prayer for all people” into an emporium for profit-making. We see Jesus rejected by those in power, we see justice miscarried, and we even see friends who betray, deny, and abandon Jesus in his hour of need. We hear what may be the most difficult cry in all of literature, when Jesus says, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” It is a week that speaks to the most challenging trials that we can face; and so we rightly call it “Holy Week.” 

 

We cannot get into Jesus’ head, to see how he is able to have such resolve in the face of torture or maintain love through broken friendships. We cannot get into the head of Judas, who once intended to follow Jesus but, in the end, betrayed him. We cannot even get into the head of Simon Peter – as much as his boisterous disclosures try to make his every thought into a bold declaration – when he fails so spectacularly. What we can do is to read the story, see the good and the bad, the hope and the suffering, the ambitions and the failures, to reflect on our own journeys. How does Holy week speak to our fears, our failures, our dashed hopes, and the fragility of our faith? 

 

And I give you this, to accompany your week. The church calls this week “Holy Week” not despite the suffering but precisely because of the suffering that it contains. Not all suffering is holy, of course. Too much suffering in the world is the result of sinful violence, injustice, avarice, and hate. That kind of suffering – especially the imposition of it and any facile attempt to legitimize it – is damnable and I am in no way romanticizing or idealizing it. 

 

However, there is a kind of suffering and grief that comes from the vulnerability of loving. As Glennon Doyle writes, “Grief is love’s souvenir. It’s our proof that we once loved.” Jesus’ grief, so evident in his prayer in the garden and his cry from the cross, was born out of his love. And, likewise, when we lose someone whom we love, when we are betrayed by someone whom we trust, when we are abandoned by someone on whom we rely, we suffer. While their actions may be tragic or inexcusable, our grief itself is a sacred part of our existence. When we suffer because we love, we shed holy tears. It is not a part of our life that we like to think about often, so this week offers us the chance to embrace that vulnerability, to open ourselves to grace, and to know that Christ himself is part of our company in our tears. 

 

I do hope that you will prioritize attending our Maundy Thursday service at 6:30 at St. Mark; our shared Good Friday service at noon at New Hope in Anaheim; and one of our three Easter services: Saturday at 5:00 PM; Sunday at 9:00 AM and 10:30 AM. 

 

Mark of St. Mark