Why did Jesus ride triumphantly into the holy city with joyful shouts of praise from the crowds and then a few days later breathe his last breath in agony on a cross? How could Jesus say on the cross, “Father forgive them?” And what are we to make of an empty tomb when even those who were there did not recognize his risen face at first glance? The events of Holy Week are enough to occupy one’s mind for a lifetime.
Perhaps they are not meant to give us certainty but rather to draw us in emotionally. The stories of Jesus’ final week on earth are impossible to read without asking, “Where would I have been” in that story? Some of us relate to Peter who pledges his ultimate love and loyalty to Jesus and then denies ever having known him. Some of us relate to Thomas who doubted until he saw the nail prints and touched them with his own hands. Some of us relate to the women, sneaking into the garden at dawn to anoint the body.
We live in a secular age and yet something within us is awakened to the mystery and meaning of the drama of God’s love unfolding during Holy Week. Wendell Berry wrote “the mind that is not baffled is not employed”. I like knowing that I am a part of a community of faith that wrestles with the questions, and prizes curiosity instead of insisting on certainty. Together then, we enter into the passionate story of God still unfolding on this earth.
