The Paradox of Holy Week

By Mike Herrnstein

‘’My God, my God, why have You abandoned me? I groan in prayer but help seems far away… They will come and tell about His saving deeds; They will tell a future generation what He has accomplished.’’
–Psalm 22:1-2,30-31

Holy Week is a profoundly glorious time in the life of the church and for followers of Jesus; glorious in the resurrected shadow of the enlightened Christ. Profound in the path that our Lord had to take to get us to Easter.

With God’s help, the older I get the more I have come to look below the surface of paradox in life. Sometimes we can find a single truth within the tension of opposites. The Bible is full of this: Mercy leads to sacrifice. Grace leads to works. Contemplative prayer leads to action. Fully God and fully man. Death and resurrection.

When Jesus prayed the 22nd Psalm upon the cross, He was living out an earlier prophetic vision He had stated earlier in the week: “I tell you the solemn truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains by itself alone. But if it dies it produces much grain‘’ (John 12:24).

This plays out in our own lives. When someone or something that is precious to us is lost, we grieve. On the other end of the process, we’re changed. After the ascension the apostles would be empowered by the Spirit; but they would never again hear Jesus laugh or feel His human embrace.

So as we come together in this holiest week on the church calendar with Christians from around the world, we remember that what began as the loss of a dear friend and teacher would eventually become the greatest worldwide movement the world has ever known, infused with the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Now that’s something to celebrate!