Why Add Another Holy Week Service?
March 29, 2009
God willing, this year we will celebrate the week leading up to Jesus’ death and resurrection (Holy Week) with both a Maundy Thursday service and a Good Friday service. Since we try not to add services without purpose at Whitton Avenue, I thought I would give a brief explanation for why we are doing this.
The explanation is based on the fact that, for the church, Holy Week is the high point of the Christian calendar. Certainly Easter would not exist without Christmas, because Jesus had to be born in order to die and rise from the dead. That being said, Easter is more important that Christmas in that Jesus’ birth alone would not have saved us. Without the substitutionary death and resurrection of God in flesh, the incarnation would be a point of wonder and mystery that could not ultimately do anything for us.
Yet the most casual observer of American culture knows that Christmas is a bigger event than Easter in our country. Easter is not even a close second; it may not be on the top 10 list of American holidays. Other than a few provocative articles and shows exploring Jesus’ resurrection and the emergence of C.E.O. church attenders (Christmas and Easter Only), the holiday barely creates a blip on the national screen.
This is both a blessing and a curse for the church. The downside of such a trend is that if we do not intentionally analyze our culture, we typically adapt to it. Consequently, we make a bigger deal about Christmas than Easter because retail stores, Hollywood, and school schedules do. The upside of this is that we do not have a lot of cultural overgrowth to cut down in order to retain the “true meaning of Easter.” The Easter Bunny is much easier to push to the side to see Christ’s resurrection than Santa Claus is to get a glimpse of God the Son’s incarnation.
Toss all these theological and cultural and scheduling realities in a pot, and the mix gives us the reason why we are adding a Holy Week service: we want to take steps toward making Holy Week the highlight of our year. The cultural trends mentioned above mean that, while our pursuit should not be distracted by commercialization, neither will it be buoyed by a general national excitement about “the season.” Thus, without the aid of Hollywood or the malls, we hope to take steps over the next few years that will heighten our awareness of the gravity and magnitude of our Lord’s sufferings, death, and resurrection and all that accomplished for us.
Next week I will write more regarding the nature of the Maundy Thursday and Good Friday services. For now, please mark your calendars for the evenings of April 9th and 10th as we celebrate the most wonderful time of the year.
Looking to Jesus with you,
Pastor Chris