There. I have told you.
I always feel a bit of resistance when I tell people about how we participate in the Holy Week. It is one of those things that casual people might gum up and mere consumers might defile. Every day we do something to physically follow Jesus on his way to the cross — that deserves people who voluntarily seek the Lord — not people who are pressured into some observance by fear of unholiness or fear of being on the outs with their peers or the people who dominate them. It is a radical thing to do — not something to be visited but something to be accomplished, just like Jesus will say at the end of it, “It is finished.”
Walking through the Holy Week with Jesus is the ultimate in taking to heart the great theme verse of Lent, Philippians 3:10-11: “I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.” The discipline is all about knowing Jesus – knowing his death and moving through it with him to resurrection. Powerful.
At the same time, I also hate for anyone to miss it! So many Christians de-radicalize themselves and ramp down Christianity to fit into their “side-project” category while their schedule is devoted to who they really are. I cannot resist calling everyone into true faith that blows up their schedule – a true attempt at praying without ceasing and being the body on a pilgrimage together into eternity. This journey is our true life and no one should miss it. We got the strangest compliment the other day; someone said, “They really expect us to be Christians.” It’s true. I hope that’s not becoming unusual for the Church in general. But it is true; Holy Week expects us to be Christians.
So here are six reasons I think we should do it. You still have a few days to plan to do what you can to become who you might be — and, as Paul seems to say it, “attain to the resurrection from the dead.” [Want to read the rest? Go here.]