How Do We Best Process The Confusing Events Of Holy Week?

 

Good Morning Friends,
 

Here we are a couple of weeks after our celebration of Resurrection Sunday, and I am wondering if you are experiencing any discouragement and frustration in response to the experience. Discouragement and frustration confronted the disciples, so it would not be out of the realm of possible emotions even though the overarching emotion should perhaps be joy. It is easy to get impatient about the work of the Holy Spirit… and confused when the Holy Spirit does change the way of the world. There was a lot for the disciples to figure out after that amazing week and it all did not happen right away. They were grieving Jesus’ death while at the same time sorting out the miracle before them. A deep-seated fear of rejection and failure was undoubtedly striking a nerve. We too might have a similar problem. So, How Do We Best Process The Confusing Events Of Holy Week?

 

Scripture: Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread. While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’ They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost. He said to them, ‘Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.’ And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, ‘Have you anything here to eat?’ They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate in their presence. Then he said to them, ‘These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.’ Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.

  
 

Luke 24:35-48 (NRSV)

  
 

While he clung to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the portico called Solomon’s Portico, utterly astonished. When Peter saw it, he addressed the people, ‘You Israelites, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we had made him walk? The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our ancestors has glorified his servant Jesus, whom you handed over and rejected in the presence of Pilate, though he had decided to release him. But you rejected the Holy and Righteous One and asked to have a murderer given to you, and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. And by faith in his name, his name itself has made this man strong, whom you see and know; and the faith that is through Jesus has given him this perfect health in the presence of all of you. ‘And now, friends, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. In this way God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, that his Messiah would suffer. Repent therefore, and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Messiah appointed for you, that is, Jesus, who must remain in heaven until the time of universal restoration that God announced long ago through his holy prophets. Moses said, “The Lord your God will raise up for you from your own people a prophet like me. You must listen to whatever he tells you. And it will be that everyone who does not listen to that prophet will be utterly rooted out from the people.” And all the prophets, as many as have spoken, from Samuel and those after him, also predicted these days. You are the descendants of the prophets and of the covenant that God gave to your ancestors, saying to Abraham, “And in your descendants all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you, to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways.’

  
 

Acts 3:11-26 (NRSV)

  
 

 
How long, you people, shall my honor suffer shame? How long will you love vain words, and seek after lies?
          Selah

But know that the Lord has set apart the faithful for himself; the Lord hears when I call to him. When you are disturbed, do not sin; ponder it on your beds, and be silent.

          Selah

Offer right sacrifices and put your trust in the Lord. There are many who say, ‘O that we might see some good! Let the light of your face shine on us, O Lord!’ You have put gladness in my heart more than when their grain and wine abound.

 

Psalm 4: 2-7 (NRSV)

 

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; and he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. Now by this we may be sure that we know him, if we obey his commandments. Whoever says, “I have come to know him,” but does not obey his commandments, is a liar, and in such a person the truth does not exist; but whoever obeys his word, truly in this person the love of God has reached perfection. By this we may be sure that we are in him:

 

1 John 2: 1-5a (NRSV)

 

Message: Everyone believes hope is vital to people, but most people’s hope is about some vague reality. Sure, from time to time we see through a glass darkly, but I want to…maybe even need to… see more clearly a high-definition Jesus that is resurrected. What is clear is that the disciples had a similar problem. They needed for the events of Holy Week to be reconciled into an absolute reality, a super-reality that would transforms everything. The evidence of how this was happening is laid out in the books of Luke and John and Matthew. And it is all about the resurrection and the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The first evidence that Luke provided for the resurrection of Jesus was the empty tomb. The second evidence was the angelic announcement. The third evidence was Jesus’ appearance to two disciples on the road to Emmaus. And the fourth evidence was Jesus’ appearance to his disciples in Jerusalem. The message is crystal clear. Jesus was crucified, died, and was buried on Friday. Just three days later, on Sunday morning, he was raised back to life again. On that first day Jesus in the Gospels showed himself to be alive on at least five occasions. Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene (John 20:11-18), to the other women (Matthew 28:8-10), to Peter (Luke 24:34), to two disciples on the road to Emmaus (24:13-35), and then to ten disciples in Jerusalem (Luke 24:36-43; John 20:19-25). Friends, maybe in order to really process consciously and subconsciously what happened during Holy Week we need to preach repentance and forgiveness of sins in the name of Jesus to anyone who will listen. Something traumatic happened to the disciples during Holy Week. They faced chaos. Some relationships were strained or even broken permanently. Some seemed to thrive in the challenge and flourish when others were challenged. Different people had different memories and different vantage points and priorities until an equilibrium was reached allowing them to recover. Friends, it takes both our consciousness and subconscious working together the bring us to the realization of what happened that first Holy Week. It is not about blame or logic but about peace. Friends, it takes time to reflect on and teach what happened that first Holy Week. Maybe that is why some have said that hope raises no dust. And so, we rejoice that Christ was raised to life so that we might too share in the good news.

 

 
And So,
for Christians, hope is not vague. We have a hope that is historical and personal but also a bit paradoxical in that we can be victorious over sin and yet always need cleansing from sin. Still, the thing is that we are to have a hope that stands in front of the empty grave of Jesus and declares, that we too can live as Jesus lived. Friends,
Jesus appearing to the disciples could be pictured in one’s mind as a surreal dream sequence on a dusty road and dim lit room. But that is not the image or reality I have. Oh, it might start there but the contradictory condition of experiencing Jesus alive when everyone knew he had been crucified needs a resolution that creates a superior reality. You see, there needs to be a crystal clarity in our experience of Jesus that transforms all of us. Perhaps the juxtaposition of uncommon events in today’s scripture is designed to allow our subconscious to express itself with a clarity of hope in this regard that our conscious thoughts could not express. The elephant in the room might well produce a courage that is contagious if our thinking is transformed. So, know that hope here on the road takes on a life of its own.
The story does not end with the crucifixion and death of Jesus, but with His Resurrection in us as we embrace His first words to the Apostles that they should be at peace, and that we too have the power in us though the Holy Spirit to love in a way that lives on.

 

Pray that God give us passion and purpose where there is pain. Pray that we allow the Holy Spirit to apply the truths of Scripture in our daily walk with Jesus. Pray that we learn that the best way to face the future in the first place is to look for the face of Jesus in those we love. Pray we realize that it is Christ’s courage that guarantees ours and all that stems from it. Pray that our eyes are opened to scripture. Pray
we realize that it is not great preachers who make converts, nor the pastors of this or that denomination or persuasion, but God Himself through the Spirit. Pray we grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for the glory of God both now and to the day of eternity. Pray we realize that the same power that raised Jesus from the grave is in us too. Pray we arise to affirm God in the power of the Holy Spirit. Pray we share our common roots in the Spirit of God. Pray we get up in the Spirit and get moving filled with a burning in our hearts for God in the creative newness of life. Pray we breathe the peace of God into the hearts of those troubled in the world. Pray we listen attentively, pray fervently, and share the story of forgiveness and sanctification to those willing to hear. Pray we realize that this will give us joy and others hope. Pray we realize that what we have now was once only something we hoped for. Pray we realize that we were never meant to be dust in the wind forever but something more.
 

Blessings,

  
 

John Lawson