The Three Days and Easter
Gospels for this Week: John 13:1-17, 31b-35; John 18:1—19:42;
and John 20:1-18
 

Tomorrow is Maundy Thursday. This is the first of the Three Days of the Holy Week: Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Vigil (Saturday). It is so important for us as Christians to not leap from Palm Sunday directly to Easter Sunday without the crucial Holy Week stops in between. At the heart of the Maundy Thursday liturgy is Jesus’ commandment to love one another. This command, the mandate (Lat., mandatum) is the basis for the Maundy Thursday name. Living into our Christian identity is both mandate and grace. As Jesus washed the feet of his disciples, we are called to follow his example as we humbly care for one another, especially the poor and the unloved. At the Lord’s table we remember Jesus’ sacrifice of his life, even as we are called to offer ourselves in love for the life of the world.
Good Friday. Children are often the first to notice the paradox of Good Friday. “Mom, why is this day called good if Jesus died?” How do we live into this paradox as grown children of God? Can we claim that the cross is simultaneously an instrument of suffering and a tree of life offering healing? On this night, we sit in darkness, and we do it on purpose. Good Friday’s darkness is like the darkness of an eclipse—that time when the shadows overcome the light, even just briefly—so that we might begin to understand and know light more fully. Even though in our hearts we know that this darkness too shall pass, the shadow is very real as we hear how Christ is betrayed and killed. We see God eclipsing the evil of the world with a cross-shaped shadow, saying definitively that there is no evil in the world from which God cannot bring resurrection.
Easter Vigil is the night, the night to be immersed in who we are as God’s people. This night overflows with biblical images of a world redeemed in Jesus Christ. We come not to get all the answers, but to be filled to the brim with stories that both refresh and perplex us. Just as Good Friday contains elements of both suffering and triumph, so does the Vigil. The stories central to this night are not without suffering. We identify with suffering; we know it in our bones. Yet we are given a new heart and a new spirit; light shines in the darkness. When Christians celebrate the Easter Vigil this is the time to celebrate new birth, when the old self is drowned and a new one emerges from the water, taking in its first new breath. It is the night of our safe passage into life abundant. Alleluia!
Easter Sunday. “Alleluia, he is risen! He is risen indeed!” Is our Easter morning cry. We celebrate the gift of new life given through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We gather with Christians around the world to Sing “Alleluia” because Jesus triumphs over the grave. Jesus is victorious over death. Jesus does all this to bring us a new life. Alleluia. Amen.
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