Holy Week: Emotion in the Lutheran Church
As we enter Holy Week, we pause and reflect on what this week means to us as Christians and to our faith. As we look ahead to the coming week, we see ourselves on an emotional roller coaster.
To be sure, Holy Week has to be the most emotional time in the church year. Now, that's my opinion, but I think most Lutherans would agree with me on that. Just the range of emotions on the three days from Good Friday to Easter Sunday is dramatic! This emotion is expressed in the liturgy and the hymns used in the Lutheran Church during this period.
The week begins with Palm Sunday, a day of great excitement. We join the Jews in proclaiming, "Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD! Hosanna in the highest!"
But during the great parade and the palm branches and cloaks laid out before Jesus, riding meekly on a donkey, there are ominous signs that all is not well. There is contention that surfaces when the Jewish leaders ask Jesus to get the children to stop singing that song. But Jesus merely responds, "If they shut up, then the stones will sing my praises."
If you look at the events of the days between Palm Sunday and Maundy Thursday, you will find that the Jewish leaders and Jesus are primed for battle. The Jewish leaders send delegates to ask Jesus trick questions. Jesus turns the tables and reveals the folly of the work-righteous system the leaders had designed and embraced.
On Maundy Thursday we see a more somber tone. We see our Lord giving His last will and testament. We have the creation of a new covenant with Jesus body and blood in, with, and under the bread and wine. We see a disciple betray Jesus, then in despair hang himself because he couldn't believe that Jesus' sacrifice paid for his sins as well. We see our Lord in earnest prayer. We see frightened disciples scatter and flee; we see one disciple finally go to the trial scene only to deny his Lord. After a "mock trial," it is decided that Jesus should be handed over to be crucified.
Good Friday is a much more somber and meditative time. I cannot remember a year when the crucifix in the church wasn't covered with black cloth on Good Friday. The Tenebrae service, especially when the candles are extinguished one by one, give worshipers pause to reflect that it is their sins that are nailed upon the tree.
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