Today is the final day of our daily blog posts for Holy Week

Thank you for joining us and we hope that you have found these posts helpful and informative.

Contributed by Christian members of the Faith and Spirituality Team.

As soon as the Sabbath was over, at dawn, the women gathered to return to Jesus’ tomb with the intention of anointing his body and wrapping it in a shroud. But when they got to the tomb, they discovered it had been opened. Jesus was not there! The accounts of this discovery vary in the different gospels. Mark tells us the women saw a young man dressed in white, who told them to go tell the disciples that Jesus had been raised from the dead and they were terrified; Matthew’s gospel tells us first an angel appeared to the women and then Jesus himself, telling them to go tell the disciples. In Luke’s two men appear to the women and tell them to go tell the others and much later Jesus appears to them all; and in John’s gospel there is quite a bit of toing and froing, with Mary Magdalene first discovering the empty tomb, returning to get two disciples to have a look. They can’t figure it out and leave. Then as she stands weeping at the tomb, Jesus appears to her. What actually happened we will never know. But in the days to follow, in various ways, people thought they saw him and they seemed to know that Jesus was still with them; and in this knowledge their sorrow turned to joy and they knew they were forgiven for the ways they had let Jesus down. You can read these accounts in the final chapters of each of the gospels.

Christians today believe the resurrection of Jesus was all about the power of love. Jesus lived a life of complete love and his continuing presence in the lives of those who follow him reveals that love is so powerful nothing can defeat it, even death. Resurrection also points to a basic principle of life: good can come out of even the most tragic of circumstances. Dawn follows even the darkest of nights.

In churches, Christians will celebrate with singing, music, shouts of “Christ is risen! Alleluia!” and with joy unbounded! From the Iona Community’s Stages on the Way:

A Prayer for Easter Day

Lord God,
Early in the morning
when the world was young,
you made life in all its beauty and terror;
you gave birth to all that we know.
Hallowed be your name.

Early in the morning,
when the world least expected it,
a newborn child crying in a cradle
announced that you had come among us,
that you were one of us.
Hallowed be your name.

Early in the morning,
surrounded by respectable liars,
religious leaders,
anxious statesmen
and silent friends,
you accepted the penalty for doing good:
you shouldered and suffered the cross.
Hallowed be your name.

Early in the morning,
a voice in a graveyard
and footsteps in the dew
proved that you had risen,
that you had come back to those and for those
who had forgotten, denied and destroyed you.
Hallowed be your name.

This morning
in the multi-coloured company
of your church on earth and in heaven,
we celebrate your creation, your life,
your death and resurrection,
and your love for us and all the world.

So we pray,
Bring new life,
where we are worn and tired;
New love,
where we have turned hard-hearted;
Forgiveness,
where we feel hurt and where we have wounded;
And the joy and freedom of your Spirit,
where we are prisoners of ourselves.

Thank you God,
that dawn comes after darkest night
and we can begin again. Alleluia!
Amen

Easter Dawn II. Painting by Shirley J. Veater

The material from Iona comes from Stages on the Way, 1998. Copyright(c) WGRG, Iona community, Glasgow Scotland. wilgooselscotland. Reproduced with permission.

Artworks by Shirley Veater used with grateful thanks. www.shirleyveaterdesigns.co.uk

Blog posts will be released each day until Easter Sunday 4 April

Contributed by Christian members of the Faith and Spirituality Team.

Saturday

Saturday was the Sabbath, a holy day of rest. The disciples were shattered, shocked, heart-broken, terrified, inconsolable. They were probably in hiding. But all the men would have felt guilty. They had not defended Jesus or stayed with him; they were not at the cross to witness his death; they did not help take his body down. Only the women had stayed and observed and wept; and they had seen where his body was taken. Mark tells us nothing about this long sad day.

Some Christians will hold a vigil through the night. Others will spend the day decorating their church with flowers, as if anointing the body of Christ and in preparation for the morrow.

Blog posts will be released each day until Easter Sunday 4 April

Contributed by Christian members of the Faith and Spirituality Team.

Wednesday

During the week Jesus and his friends were probably staying outside Jerusalem in a village called Bethany at the home of Simon who had a skin disease and was therefore considered unclean, an outcast. But Jesus’ trademark was to befriend those whom other people disregarded and Simon made him welcome. During supper on Wednesday a woman joined them and, wanting to do something kind for Jesus, broke open a jar of very costly ointment and anointed him with it. The disciples thought this extravagance was ridiculous and reprimanded her. Jesus however was greatly moved and noted that such tender and unexpected acts of kindness are sometimes the most important thing we can do for each other. So touched was he that he said, “Wherever the good news is proclaimed in all the world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.”  You can read this lovely story in Mark chapter 14, verses 3 to 9.  From the Iona Community’s Stages on the Way:

It was on the Wednesday
that they called him a waster.

The place smelt like the perfume department of a big store.
It was as if somebody had bumped their elbow
against a bottle of something expensive
and sent it crashing to the floor.

But it happened in a house,
not a shop.

And the woman who broke the bottle
was no casual afternoon shopper.
She was the poorest of the poor,
giving away the only precious thing she had.

And he sat still
while she poured the liquid all over his head,
extravagant, fragrant, comforting, tender

And those who smelt it,
and those who saw it,
and those who remembered
that he was against extravagance,
called him a waster.

But they forgot
that he too was the poorest of the poor
and that he was exhausted and fearful and anxious.

Jealousy was in the air
when a poor woman’s generous and tender love
became an embarrassment to their tight-fistedness
and their hard hearts.

That was on the Wednesday …
when they called him a waster.

Very Early. Painting by Shirley J. Veater

The material from Iona comes from Stages on the Way, 1998. Copyright(c) WGRG, Iona community, Glasgow Scotland. wilgooselscotland. Reproduced with permission.

Artworks by Shirley Veater used with grateful thanks. www.shirleyveaterdesigns.co.uk

Blog posts will be released each day until Easter Sunday 4 April

Contributed by Christian members of the Faith and Spirituality Team.

Tuesday

Jesus was a Rabbi (teacher) and throughout the week his main activity was to talk with anyone who would listen. He had a reputation for teaching radical things, not, he said, to abolish the law which Jews observe, but to fulfil it. So, his teaching was not about the letter of the law, but the spirit. And to Jesus the spirit was always love and forgiveness. Many wanted to debate the issues. You can read some of that debate in Mark’s gospel, chapter 11, verse 11, through to chapter 12, verse 37. But if you want a concise summary of the best of Jesus’ teaching, go to Matthew’s gospel and read chapters 5,6,7, what we call “the sermon on the mount.”  From the Iona Community’s Stages on the Way:

It was on the Tuesday
that he gave it to them in the neck.

If you had been there
you would have thought
that a union official was being taken to task
by a group of back bench Tory MPs;
or that the chairman of a multinational
was being interrogated by left wing activists,
posing as shareholders.

They wanted to know why
and they wanted to know how.

They were the respectable men,
the influential men,
the establishment.

The questions they asked
ranged from silly speculations
about whether you would be a bigamist in heaven
if you had married twice on earth,
to what was the central rule of civilized behaviour.

They knew the answers already ….
or so they thought.

And like most of us
they were looking for an argument
with no intention of a change of heart.

But he flailed them with his tongue,
those who tried to look interested
but never wanted to be committed.

And that was on the Tuesday…
the day when he gave it to them…
to us,
in the neck.

Jesus Washes the Disciples feet. Painting by Shirley J. Veater

The material from Iona comes from Stages on the Way, 1998. Copyright(c) WGRG, Iona community, Glasgow Scotland. wilgooselscotland. Reproduced with permission.

Artworks by Shirley Veater used with grateful thanks. www.shirleyveaterdesigns.co.uk

Blog posts will be released each day until Easter Sunday 4 April

Contributed by Christian members of the Faith and Spirituality Team.

Monday

The temple was to be Jesus’ centre of activity for the week. On Monday he went to the temple and found the forecourt was full of stalls selling animals for sacrifice. To buy the animals one had to use the temple currency and the exchange rate was not favourable! The presence of this commercial activity made Jesus extremely angry; a holy place had been turned into a marketplace! In a fury he threw over the stalls and shouted at them all. The temple authorities were very troubled about Jesus and realised he had an agenda that threatened their livelihood.  The story is told in Mark chapter 11, verses 15-19.

There is no particular Christian observance of this day, or on Tuesday or Wednesday. From the Iona Community’s Stages on the Way:

It was on the Monday
that religion got in the way.

An outsider would have thought
that it was a pet shop’s fire sale.
And the outsider, in some ways,
wouldn’t have been far wrong.

Only, it wasn’t household pets.
It was pigeons that were being purchased.
And it wasn’t a fire sale.
It was a rip-off stall in a holy temple
bartering birds for sacrifice.
And the price was something only the rich could afford,
No discounts to students, pensioners or disabled types.

Then he,
the holiest man on earth,
went through the bizarre bazaar
like a bull in a china shop.
So the doves got liberated
and the profit margins got wiped out
and the pigeon sellers got angry;
and the police went crazy;
and the poor people clapped like mad,
because he was making a sign
that God was for everybody,
not just for those who could afford him.

He turned the tables on Monday…
the day that religion got in the way.

Cleansing the Temple. Painting by Shirley J. Veater

The material from Iona comes from Stages on the Way, 1998. Copyright(c) WGRG, Iona community, Glasgow Scotland. wilgooselscotland. Reproduced with permission.

Artworks by Shirley Veater used with grateful thanks. www.shirleyveaterdesigns.co.uk

Blog posts will be released each day until Easter Sunday 4 April

Contributed by Christian members of the Faith and Spirituality Team.

In the Western Church, Easter falls on April 4 this year and during the week preceding it, Christians remember some of the significant things which happened during Jesus’ last days before his death by crucifixion. They call these days Holy Week. It is a week of sorrow and distress; but it ends gloriously in joy and hope with Jesus’ resurrection on Easter Sunday.

Some of the Christian members of the Faith and Spirituality Team have put together a rough sketch of each of those days and included references from the gospel of St. Mark, where you will find a biblical account. We have also given a brief explanation of how Christians observe the day, and a meditation from the Iona Community’s Stages on the Way (used with permission).

Palm Sunday

Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday. Jesus was coming to Jerusalem for the Jewish Passover celebrations with his disciples. During the three years of his ministry of teaching and healing he had gained a huge crowd of followers, mostly humble people who were grateful for his loving, inclusive affirmation. On Sunday he came into Jerusalem. Word had gone before him that he was entering the city and crowds lined the streets to welcome him, waving branches from the trees (palms) crying “Hosanna” which means “save us.” You can read the account at Mark, chapter 11, verses 1-11.

In churches around the world, Christians will celebrate this day by waving palms, some woven into crosses or other shapes, and singing “Hosanna!”  It is a day of joy, but with undertones of sorrow as  they will probably also consider some of the things that happened during Jesus’ last week. When they gather again on Thursday, the tone will be very different. Some thoughts from the Iona Community:

It was on the Sunday
that he took on the city.

Religious freaks usually appear in the desert,
cutting themselves off from the hurly burly
for God wouldn’t dirty his hands
with things of the city,
political things,
criminal things,
beggars and thieves and prostitutes.

But on the Sunday
he rode in,
to claim all he saw
for God does weep in the dust of the streets.
God does cry out in the grand temples and courtyards.
God does yearn for the hustlers and the crooks,
the power hungry and the power brokers,
the fashionistas and the dolly birds,
the addicts and the dealers.

It was on the Sunday …
that he took on the city.

Triumphal entry – Hosanna! Painting by Shirley J. Veater

The material from Iona comes from Stages on the Way, 1998. Copyright(c) WGRG, Iona community, Glasgow Scotland. wilgooselscotland. Reproduced with permission.

Artworks by Shirley Veater used with grateful thanks. www.shirleyveaterdesigns.co.uk