"Holy Week for Dummies" by Rev. Tom Schade

OK, you didn't go to Catholic School, or your parents only took you to Sunday school on those days that the Sunday paper had laid in puddle and congealed into a gray lump. Or, it might be that you didn't pay attention in Sunday school. Or maybe you come from a completely different tradition. Whatever the reason, you may be one for whom the whole story of "Holy Week" is confused, perhaps jumbled in the mind with some great mythic narratives you have read or seen.


As in: Jesus and his twelve disciples (That would be Peter, Paul, John, George, Ringo, Bilbo, 3CP0, Tonto, Sam, Sancho Panza, Biden, and Gollum, who betrayed him.) went to Jerusalem, were arrested, were tried before the Pompous Pilot and then was crucified, which hurt a lot. So you should be good. And wash your hands.

It's OK to be a dummy about Holy Week. Like almost everything else, it is a story that has to be learned. So, if you are confused, or just unfamiliar, with this narrative so central to Christianity, here are the basics.

Jesus, as you already know, was a Jewish preacher and healer who ministered in the countryside of ancient Judea. He and his followers, now known to us as the Disciples, came to Jerusalem, the capital and the site of the great Temple, for the Feast of the Unleavened Bread, the Passover season. Many people made this a religious pilgrimage every year.

When Jesus and followers entered the city of Jerusalem, many of the people saw a great significance in His coming. They saw Him as a returning King, descended from Israel's first great King David, of a millennium earlier. A demonstration occurred. The people put their cloaks on the ground for him to walk on, and waved palm branches.

By treating this itinerant preacher as though he were the King, they were protesting the Roman Empire. This event now comes down to us as Palm Sunday, the Sunday before Easter. On that day, we pass out Palm branches and sing songs that describe that event. The mood is very festive and forward-looking. We are encouraged to name our dreams.

Tradition has it that three things happened in the time between when Jesus enters Jerusalem and when He is arrested. He teaches at the Temple and gets into disputes with other preachers and officials. He chases the moneychangers (merchants who sold small animals and birds for sacrifice to pilgrims who wanted to make a sacrifice) from the Temple. And he shared a Passover Seder with his disciples, a meal that comes down to us as the Last Supper and the First Communion service. Churches throughout the world remember this event with a Maundy Thursday communion service. Kim Hampton will lead such a service in the chapel at 6:30 PM on Thursday night.

We also celebrate the Passover of the Jewish tradition with a Seder at 4 PM on Saturday. Jews and Christians use different calendars, which can cause Passover and Holy Week to not be at the same time. Honest, I was in seminary before I understood that the Last Supper was a Seder. So I never got understood how the story of Jesus and the story of the Exodus. For the early Christians (who were Jews), it was new occasion of God delivering his people from bondage.

After the Seder/Last Supper, Jesus and his disciples retire to a garden, Gethsemane, where Jesus spends the night in prayer. He knows that Judas has informed the authorities about Him, and that He will be arrested and killed. But while Jesus is struggling with this fear, weeping, and gathering his courage, the disciples keep falling asleep.

On that night, Judas leads a small group of Roman soldiers to the Garden where they arrest Jesus.

Jesus is then questioned and confronted by a series of officials: Caiaphas, the chief priest of the Temple, Herod, the King who rules with Rome's support and Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor. Pilate, who holds the final authority, seems to be unconvinced as to Jesus' guilt of a capital crime and offers to spare the life of either Jesus or Barabbas, but the assembled crowd wants Jesus to be crucified.

The story is conflicted and ambiguous, never clear about the alleged crime of Jesus and who is ultimately responsible for his death.

Jesus is crucified on Good Friday, in the part of the story most familiar to all. His body is taken down and laid in the tomb of a wealthy follower, Joseph of Arimethea.

On Saturday of Holy Week, Jesus is said to have been in Hell, freeing the souls of the righteous who lived before his time.

And on Sunday, the story takes a surprising turn. At First Unitarian, we celebrate first with a Sunrise Service and then with a splendid service of celebration at our regular hour.

Holy Week is a continuous story that travels a roller coaster of joy, solidarity, adventure, terror, sorrow and joy again. Come and participate with us in the services that mark the stages of that story.