Holy Week 4.17.2025

    If we take Holy Week at all seriously, we will likely find more holiness in all the other weeks. The root idea of holiness is, of course, separateness. God describes himself as holy, and those things He sets apart—the seventh day from the first six—as holy. This process of separation extends to the relationship between God, and every other thing in the universe. Because we humans are made in His image, we are able to recognize this distinction, this set-apart-ness, which allows God to begin the process of His own self-revelation to us. 

    This is possible because the essential unspoken issues for “holiness” are “For whom?” and “To what end?” Holiness is then to be understood first, as a quality, but more importantly, relationally. One of the subplots of the Bible is God’s own undertaking of closing that gap, eroding that separation between Himself and humanity, a gap that became drastic, destabilizing, and destructive in the fall. 

    The historic Church sets aside this week not to minimize the importance of all other weeks, but to enhance their importance. During Holy Week we compress and vividly commemorate those long-ago events to remind us of God’s great reach across the void of sin to reclaim and redeem us. The self-emptying act of Jesus—God’s ultimate act of love was the embodiment of one of His central messages. “The first shall be last, the last shall be first.” He became the least so that we might partake of God’s best. He became common, in order that we might become Holy. He was cast out in order that we might be fully included.  The single word to describe the divine deed of Easter week is “Gospel.” Good news. 

    What some see as a tragedy, believers understand to be victory. The canyon which guaranteed God’s Holy apartness, is bridged by the bleeding flesh of the Son. In His resurrection He conquers the sin which, for most of our lives drives us further apart from Him. He distributes His Holy Spirit to every believer in order that we may increasingly decrease the distance between ourselves and our loving, triune God until that day where we are welcomed into His eternal presence, where there is no more sundering sea.