Welcome to the God Who Saves

an Invitation for Holy Week

Today begins Holy Week, which means Lent is coming to an end. I don’t know about you, but these recent weeks have not looked how I had hoped. I wrote in my Lent Practices email that you might choose to “give up Lent for Lent” and well, it turned out to be a self-fulfilling prophecy. It seems that this season, all I could do was try and stay present to what was happening, read a little, and try not to fall asleep as I prayed the examen each night.

So today, I’ll offer to you what I am offering to myself, a new invitation. An invitation to Holy Week. To the welcoming, the heartache, and the awakening that the week offers.

I’ve been thinking about Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. I’m drawn to stories that allow us to see the humanity of Jesus. In this story, Jesus takes the disciples to Gethsemane and asks them to be near him as he prays. He says to them, “I am deeply grieved, even unto death: remain here and stay awake with me.”

We see Jesus experiencing grief so intense that he throws himself to the ground in agony, in prayer. He cries out to God, saying, “let this cup pass from me!” Again and again, he begs God for there to be another way. Of course, we know that it is not to be. Jesus is betrayed, arrested, beaten, and hung to die on a cross, and on the third day, he is resurrected to new life. But before any of that, he is grieved, sad, lonely, and fearful.

This time of year can feel complicated for those of us who are making sense of mystery. We don’t always know what to do with the events of Holy Week. This story comes shortly after Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, where followers cry out, “Hosanna!” (which means God Save Us!) and “Blessed is He who comes!” (which means welcome). This story can become a refuge, a place we can stay for a time. When we can’t quite wave palm leaves or sing out praises, here we can throw our grief-stricken bodies down in prayer. This garden can become a home for our questions, our begging, and our fear.

N.T. Wright says: When we ourselves find the ground giving way beneath our feet, as sooner or later we shall, Gethsemane is where to go. That is where we find that the Lord of the world … has been before us.

The Garden of Gethsemane shows us the humanity of the God who saves. The God who is continually saving. The God who was fearful of the cycle of death, resurrection, and new life — but it happens anyway. As it is with us, sooner or later (or perhaps already), the ground will give way, and at the very least, we know we don’t have to walk it alone. 

Alongside you in your grieving and your welcoming,

Holly

This week,
this Holy Week,
may you stay awake to the God who saves,
the God who is continually saving,
the God who walks with us
in the cycles of death,
resurrection,
and new life.