Looking back at Holy Week

Sitting in church on Palm Sunday yesterday, as we listened to the story of Holy Week being read aloud – the donkey, the palm branches, Jesus overturning the money changers tables in the Temple, the Last Supper, the arrest and trial of Jesus, his crucifixion – my mind turned to the words of a very old and familiar hymn from my childhood:

Tell me the old, old story, of Jesus and his love….

That wonderful redemption, God’s remedy for sin.

Christmas may be the most popular festival in the church’s calendar, but the week between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday – Holy Week - is undoubtedly the most significant.

However many times I have heard the familiar story, and it must be quite a lot, it still has the power to silence me. And I need to keep on hearing it.

In the week between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday, we remember the last week of Jesus life on earth. There are so many personal memories of this week for me: as a boy, being given my first Palm Cross; singing in Stainer’s Crucifixion (Fling wide the gates for the Saviour waits to tread in his royal way); hearing David Watson preach in 1978 at St Michael le Belfry (We cry Hosanna, Lord, Yes Hosanna Lord, Yes Hosanna Lord to you); Good Friday on a Cranmer mission in Belfast when the vicar there decided that that we should have a fast day and the look of utter dejection on the catering lady’s face when she was banned from giving us a full lunch (“don’t blame me”, she whined, as she served us a bowl of soup); the donkey in Brighstone; playing the part of Peter in the Brighstone Passion Play; countless Passover meals; making palm crosses in Bangkok. Indeed, so many times in so many places and in so many ways have I heard the old, old story.   

And what a story it is!

Beginning with the excitement of his arrival in Jerusalem, when the crowds welcomed him as a longed for liberator, by strewing the road with palm leaves, with cries of ‘Hosanna’ (How many times have I told my congregation that the meaning is “Save us, Lord”, only to have them look at me with blank expressions the following year when I put the same question), and culminating with his crucifixion and resurrection, this is a story that has everything.

The title ‘Holy Week’ reminds us that this week is of immense spiritual significance. We have some of the best known of Jesus’ teaching - the parables which describe the coming of God’s kingdom; the events of Maundy Thursday with yet more teaching for the disciples; the Last Supper; Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane; his subsequent arrest and trial; his execution on Good Friday, the utter despair of the disciples, concluding with their initial bewilderment and then absolute joy at the reality of the Resurrection on Easter Sunday.

There is enough action packed into this week for a lifetime of study, but far more important than any amount of study is the fact that through these events, we are given the certain hope of salvation. Jesus does “save us”, not in the way that the Palm Sunday crowd hoped for, but in a much more complete way. He saved us from sin, and so opens up for us the way to eternal life.

The other line that jumped out at me yesterday in church came from another “golden oldie” hymn:

Oh who am I, that for my sake,

My Lord should take frail flesh and die?

At the heart of Holy Week lies the greatest challenge that any of us can ever face. The Bible reminds us that ‘Christ offered one sacrifice for sin,’ so that everyone who believes in him can approach God Himself and know that they are forgiven, loved and accepted by God. God calls us to believe and trust in His Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ.

Listen again to the old, old story.

“By his wounds, we have been healed” (1 Peter 2:24)