Meditation on the Readings for Holy Week

Those of us who are alive for this Holy Week have never seen a plague sweep the planet the way that corona virus COVID-19 has done.  How will these Holy Week readings seem different during a time of pandemic?

Think of our Maundy Thursday texts that show Jesus washing the feet of the disciples, instructing them to care for others in a similar way.  Will we focus on the sanitizing aspect?  Will we wonder how the disciples will wash their own hands after touching someone else's body?

There's the famous handwashing of Pilate, the flogging and crucifixion that can't be done from a safe distance, the kiss that started it all.  Violence requires a closer connection.

The Holy Week texts show us a variety of betrayals, betrayals that were as common then as they are now.  There's the betrayal of the ones we love.  There's the betrayal that we feel when leaders don't behave like we expected, and there's the variety of ways we might react to that.  We see both in the Holy Week texts and our own newsfeeds, the betrayals of leaders.  When our lives are upended, whether by economic implosion, disease, or by loved ones, we may even wonder where God is in all of this.

There's the hiding, the fear, the cowering behind closed doors.  The disciples must have wondered if the authorities would come for them next.  We, too, wonder who will be next.

There's the tomb where Jesus rests.  We, too, may feel like we're in sealed tombs.  We may wonder what will come next. Will we be consigned to the grave forever?

Like Mary, we might ask questions regardless of who stands before us.  We might mistake the teacher for the gardener.  We might not be able to believe the evidence that's presented to us.

God has promised resurrection.  God has promised that death does not have the final word, and the life of Jesus shows us what that resurrection life might look like.

We will leave the tomb of this time to a world transformed by this experience.  Now, more than ever, is the time to ask where we see ourselves in this story.  Now, more than ever, is the time to live like the resurrection people God calls us to be.