The Passion of our Lord
We are about to enter the most important time in the church year. Holy Week is the time when we remember, re-live, re-enact, re-experience the events leading up to and including the crucifixion of our Lord. Beginning with Palm Sunday (Sunday, April 5) we will stand with the crowd as they watch and celebrate Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem; we will join Jesus and the disciples in the upper room for the Last Supper and then on to Gethsemane for the agony of waiting and the arrest (Maundy Thursday, April 9); we will stand and watch as Jesus is tried and convicted, tortured, crucified and dies on the cross (Good Friday, April 10); and we will join the women as they discover the empty tomb (Easter Vigil, April 11 and Easter Sunday, April 12). Most of the above (Palm Sunday through Good Friday) has been called the Passion of our Lord. Now the word “Passion” in this context comes from the Latin word passio which means “suffering.” This makes sense, so instead of speaking of the “Passion o...