Celebrating Holy Week

King Solomon wrote some of the most famous words in the Bible in the third chapter of Ecclesiastes:
For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:
A time to be born, a time to die,
A time to plant, a time to pluck up what is planted;
A time to kill, a time to heal;
A time to break down, a time to build up;
A time to weep, and a time to laugh;
A time to mourn, and a time to dance…
A time to keep silence, and a time to speak.
We have largely forgotten this wisdom. We would like to turn all times into times to laugh and times to dance. The Christians, however, throughout the ages, have learned Solomon’s wisdom and set aside times to break down, times to weep, times to mourn, and times to keep silence. The season of Lent is one of those times.
In Lent, we are especially reminded of our past. We were once lost: strangers to God and His promises, aliens to His people. We did not know God, His good will, or His grace. We were in darkness, without certainty and without hope. We were doomed by our sins to eternal death.
I know. This is not a very pleasant thought. However, the Bible tells us this and God’s Word is the truth. So in Lent, the joys of Sunday worship are subdued.
The church is decked in purple—the color of royalty, but also of suffering. The hymns are often sung in a minor key. Where we usually sing “Glory to God in the Highest,” we keep silent or sing a different hymn.
Instead of singing “Alleluia” three times, we sing the following once: “Christ has humbled Himself, and become obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” Yet, hidden in those tones of sadness is God’s good news. Christ did this. Christ did this for you. Just as Isaiah said long before, “All we like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way, and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all” (Isaiah 53:6).
The joy of Lent is the message that though we were lost, we are lost no longer. Because “the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all,” everyone is called to believe in Christ; and in believing, have life in His name; and eventually to celebrate the fullness of Easter joy; and finally, to know the joys of heaven.
King David understood this truth when he wrote, “For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime; weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning” (Psalm 30:5).
Aaron Hamilton is pastor of Hope Lutheran Church in West Jordan, Utah.