04/11/2022
Holy Week? How Can Time Be Holy?
Yesterday, Palm Sunday, we entered the week that the church calls "holy." We are so accustomed to saying "Holy Week" that its oddity might not strike us as, well, odd.
But think about it: we refer to holy people (saints [lit. "holy ones") and holy places (sanctuary [lit. "holy place"]. But how can minutes and hours and days be holy?
Here the Torah is, once again, our teacher.
The first part of creation that was called "holy" was not people or a place, but time. In fact, in all of Genesis, the Hebrew verb for "make holy" or "sanctify" (קָדַשׁ [qadash]) is only used once, in Genesis 2:3, "So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy [קדשׁ], because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation."
The LORD sanctified, made holy, the seventh day of creation, a Saturday. Although it is not explicitly called the Sabbath in Genesis 2, the verb for "rested" (שׁבת) is where we get the noun Sabbath (in Hebrew, Shabbat [שַׁבָּת]).
From the beginning, therefore, God sanctified time, that is, he drew certain times into his holy orbit, pulled them into his sanctity, so that they uniquely belonged to him and his people.
We call Palm Sunday through Resurrection Sunday "Holy Week" because these days belong uniquely to the Holy God, our Savior, Jesus Christ. Although his entire life, from conception to ascension, was for us and for our salvation, during Holy Week all of these saving actions reached their summit.
He rode in on a donkey as the messianic Son of David.
He fulfilled Passover in his Supper on Thursday.
He fulfilled the Day of Atonement on Good Friday.
He enjoyed his Sabbath rest in the tomb on Saturday.
He rose, bodily and triumphantly, on Sunday.
All this he did for us and for our salvation.
During these sacred days, during Holy Week, may our Lord Jesus bless you as you reflect upon who he is, what he has accomplished for us, and the gifts he continues to give us in his body, the church.
