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| the lovely Jennifer Snell |
Me:
Hi Jennifer - it's so good to have you here today! You’re the author of the Holy
Week chapter in "Let Us Keep the Feast", so I wanted to start by
asking you: what’s your strongest Holy Week memory, good or bad?
Jennifer:
Thanks Jess; it's great to be here. What a good question. Superlatives are
hard! I think I’ll share one of my
earliest Holy Week memories, which continues to impact how I experience the
Church Year.
When I was old enough to finally understand that
Good Friday was a somber day to remember Jesus’ death, I recall telling my mom
that I wanted to spend the entire day in silence. No one told me to do this,
and I didn’t know then that there was such a thing as a silent retreat. (And
perhaps growing up as an introvert in a large family meant that the discipline
of silence was something I would choose to tackle!) But I was given permission
to spend the day alone, and my memories from that day are of quiet walks
through the grass. (I also remember I especially appreciated that year’s Easter
basket I received two days later.) I share this memory, even though it’s not
dramatic, because it relates to how we— as humans— experience the Church Year.
I’ve known other people also who as young children are drawn to the meaning of
the holy day and who long to mark it with something special. We don’t have to
know much about the Church Year to recognize our desire and our need for it.
And now that I’ve learned more about the traditions, I see how they connect to
the actions that kids like me are already trying to do.
Me:
Wow,
Jenn, that's a profound insight. As a follow-up, what do you think the heart of
Holy Week is?
Jennifer:
Ah,
the heart of Holy Week. I love this question. The heart of Holy Week is:
MESSIAH. Holy Week shows us who Jesus is: He is the Messiah, God’s Anointed
One. And the Messiah shows us who God the Father is: He who did not spare His
own Son but gave him up for us all. And the Godhead shows us who we are meant
to be—partakers of His divine nature! But the special focus of Holy Week is:
what kind of Messiah and therefore what kind of God we serve.
In my research for the book, this point really
jumped out at me. Jesus wasn’t the ‘Conquering Hero’ everyone was expecting. He
let himself be killed at the hands of his enemies! His closest companions couldn’t
understand it; Why would God let this happen? Who was Jesus after all? The
Messiah wasn’t supposed to die, right? There were so many puzzle pieces to fit
together, and we see Jesus’ followers struggling with these questions even on
the morning of Jesus’ resurrection. Jesus had a lot of explaining to do, and
one of the tools he used is: The Scriptures. As Jesus walked his disciples
through the Scriptures [while on the road to Emmaus] he proved that God’s plan
all along had been for the Messiah to be a humble servant. The disciples had to
adjust their view on how God would redeem the world, but once they did they
realized that God’s deliverance in Christ was truly… revelatory. The Crucified
Messiah was acquainted with grief and carried our sorrows. There’s no greater
love than this. It’s not just that Jesus is the Triumphant Messiah but that He
is our generous Messiah who loved us to the uttermost. We follow a King who
humbled himself even unto death on a cross; he held nothing back. We serve a
God who raised up Christ from the dead and who gives life to us through His
Spirit. “Love so amazing, so divine...” That’s why Holy Week is worth
celebrating.
Goodness, I can go on about the heart of Holy Week
for a long time! The implications are forever, but the ones that compel me
these days have to do with how we approach pain. Suffering is hard to come to
grips with, and the passion of Jesus which we remember during Holy Week is
heart-breaking. But it’s precisely here, in the worst that can happen, that Christ
has been and has come through, all for us. He understands; we’re not alone in
our pain. In Holy Week we see the extent of God’s love, a love that breaks the
power of sin and death. Christ’s death and resurrection have proved that God’s
reign is ultimate. God wins and He is Good. That’s why we can live through
suffering with hope, and that’s why we have so much to celebrate in the Church
Year. OK; I’ll stop now.
Me:
Oh wow, there’s so much to stop and meditate on in your answer! That Holy Week
shows us who God is, and thus who we are . . . and that God himself understands
our suffering from the inside. What a gift!
Your understanding of the season seems so profound
to me that I’m afraid my next question might not have a good answer – but I’ll
ask it anyway! Did anything surprise you while you were researching Holy Week
traditions?
Jennifer:
OH
my, Yes. There was a TON that was new to me. This book project was the first
time I had ever really plunged into the question: Why is it that there are more
details about Jesus’ Passion in the Gospels than for any other time period in
his life? That’s what Holy Week is all about. What was it about his death-- and
therefore his resurrection from death-- that was so significant to his first
followers? Because of their understanding of these events, which we follow
during Holy Week, such rich celebrations grew in the early church. Our church
year begins with the Advent season, but the story of the church year starts
with the development of Holy Week and Easter. For example, the traditions of
Holy Week as we still practice them today date back at least to the 4th
century! We know this because a dear woman named Egeria (she was probably a nun
from Spain) kept a diary from her pilgrimage to Jerusalem in the 300s. Her
travelogue has heart-warming detail about all the services she participated in,
at the original locations where Jesus lived. She made me laugh and cry as I
read her first-hand account, which is among the earliest sources we have for
the history of Christian worship. Her stories are inspiring and really cool.
So cool, in fact, that the first Good Friday service
I attended after I discovered Egeria was unlike any I had experienced before.
For the first time, I wasn’t just trying to feel somber about the crucifixion:
instead I had wide eyes through everything I witnessed. I couldn’t stop
thinking: Hey, we’re saying the same prayers Egeria described! Wow, we’re
copying what they did in Jerusalem when they honored the wood of Jesus’ cross!
So that’s why we do what we do! I had known before that all of our worship
traditions mean something, but it makes such a difference to know where it
comes from and why it’s all relevant.
Me:
Wow!
Now I’m looking forward to Holy Week more than ever! And now, to close, here’s my last question:
which part of the chapter was your favorite part to write?
Jennifer:
Goodness,
what do I say? I loved preparing the music section. I wanted the list of music
alone to be worth the purchase price of the book! But I guess my favorite was
weaving, all the way throughout, the significance of why Holy Week matters.
It’s about the deciding event of history, the turning point of the year, and
the crux of our lives. Our book title is a quote from Scripture, but the part
that comes before “Therefore let us keep the feast” is: “Christ our Passover
has been sacrificed for us.” That’s Holy Week.
Me:
Love
it! Thanks so much for being here today, Jenn!
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