By the Rev. Darren Miner
In this time of pandemic, we begin Holy Week with Morning Prayer by conference call. I miss the traditional liturgy! But not all is lost; we still get to hear an excerpt from one of the Passion narratives, albeit not in the form of a dramatic reading.
Later in the week, on Good Friday, we will get the full story of Jesus’ arrest, torture, and execution from John’s Gospel. Now, there is an obvious redundancy to hearing two accounts each year of the Passion of the Christ. But this first reading serves a useful purpose: it sets the tone for Holy Week. It lets us know, in no uncertain terms, what we can expect in the days ahead—namely, a protracted recollection of Jesus’ last days on earth.
On Thursday, we will gather on a conference call for Evening Prayer to commemorate the Last Supper. Normally, we would observe this holy day by celebrating the Eucharist and sharing a simple meal together. This year, after Evening Prayer has concluded, I ask you to invite Jesus to join you at your dinner table and to invite him into your heart.
On Good Friday, we will gather at 3 p.m., at the very hour of Jesus’ death, to hear St. John’s account of the Passion of the Christ—again by conference call. We cannot come together to venerate the rugged cross, but we can still take time on that day to meditate on the crucifix hanging on the wall or to gaze at an icon of the crucifixion or to ponder a medieval painting of the Passion online.
As for today’s Gospel reading, let me just say a word or two about Jesus’ cry of dereliction: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” The words are deeply disturbing, for they indicate that the Son of God experienced the abandonment of his heavenly Father. In that moment, the unimaginable took place: the Second Person of the Holy Trinity experienced a sense of disconnection from the First Person of the Holy Trinity. In other words, God experienced what it feels like to be abandoned by God!
At that moment, our crucified Lord experienced what many of us experience at some point in our lives, the feeling that God has ceased to care. I suspect that many people are feeling that sense of abandonment right now! That feeling can come when we’ve prayed and prayed and still our loved one continues to suffer. It can come when we ourselves are seriously ill and begging for a bit more time on this earth. It can come when we are feeling lonely and afraid because of a pandemic and prayer no longer brings us any comfort. Each of us, I think, will eventually experience this sense of God’s absence. Each of us, in our own way, will undergo our own little Passion.
In that moment, what are we supposed to do? To whom should we turn? Well, the answer is to do what Jesus did in his darkest hour. He turned to God, shared his anguish, and expressed his continuing faith. Yes, even in those words of seeming despair—“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”—we find an implicit declaration of faith. At that moment, when Jesus could have said anything at all to express his sense of abandonment, he quotes the start of Psalm 22, a psalm that begins in anguish and despair but ends in faith and hope.
The collect for today asks that we might walk in the way of Christ’s suffering. In this time of pandemic, we might have no choice in the matter! But the collect goes on to ask that we might also share in Christ’s Resurrection. Brothers and sisters, as you contemplate the mysteries of Holy Week—and as you endure the trials of the pandemic!—hold on tight to the hope of the Resurrection. And remember that after every Passion Sunday, after every Good Friday, there comes an Easter.
© 2020 by Darren Miner. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
