Advance Lectionary study & Holy Week

In some ways, Holy Week is a strange week for advance lectionary blogging. We journey through the week remembering what caused Jesus’ death – but next Sunday’s lectionary is EASTER, so our daily blogging focuses on the resurrection. It’s rather like being in choir, where much of Lent is spent practicing the glorious Easter music.
The danger is that we will forget Lent and Holy Week altogether. I once attended a church that did their Easter Cantata on Palm Sunday – so as to “free up space” for the busy Easter Sunday service. We never did convince them that Easter was an entire season, and that the second Sunday of Easter might be a better week. That congregation just conveniently ignored the Crucifixion.
But there are advantages too. Lent and Holy Week are not meant to be times when we try to forget the resurrection and “re-live” the horror of the first disciples. All of life, good and bad, is seen through the lens of Easter. One of my goals this Holy Week is to get better at living the truth of the Resurrection at the same time I live the truth of pain, brokenness, and sin. Imagine someone going through surgery without an anesthetic – a common enough event in places without modern medical facilities. A mature patient doesn’t pretend that there is no pain, and they certainly feel the pain. At the same time, they put their trust in the procedure and the surgeon, and find it easier to go through the pain because they know better times are coming.