Words of Holy Week

I’m very excited.  I just bought tickets to see a live performance of Les Miserable… again.  It could be the fourth time I’ll see it, or the fifth.  I’ve lost count.  I’ve watched the 25th anniversary performance on DVD more times than that.  

I’m a fan.

What amazes me is how the lyrics resonate in my soul differently each time I hear them.  Years have passed since the time before.  I am at a different place in life.  Different experiences have shaped me.  What weighs on my spirit has shifted.

The first time I heard, “to love another person is to see the face of God,” I was about to be married and felt all the fullness of those words.  That line appeared on our wedding invitation.  

Years later, in a cultural moment that felt far more divided and less kind than in my youth, these words lit a hopeful path forward for me.

“I had a dream my life would be, so different from this hell I’m living…”

When I heard these words for the first time, I was living and working with homeless men and women in NYC.  I wouldn’t be able to look in their eyes again without hearing these words in my head, knowing each of them once had a dream for their life, and what they were living was so far from it.

Years later, as a pastor listening to stories of those in crisis, these words echoed just as true.

Words are powerful.  They meet us where we are.  We hear them as we are.

Words inspire us, comfort us.  Sometimes they cut us to the core.  Often, they linger in the air, in our soul, ready to offer meaning if given room to breathe in us.  

As we walk with Jesus this Holy Week, we will hear some very familiar words.  Last words, spoken by Jesus from the cross, for us.  

“Father, forgive them.  They don’t know what they’re doing.”

“Today you will be with me in paradise.”

“Woman, behold your son.”

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me”.

I thirst.

It is finished.

Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit.

Sometimes we hear these words simply as the narrative to the story.  Other times we dig deeper into their connection to prophecy and fulfillment.

This week I invite you to hear these words of Jesus as spoken for you, spoken to you.  Sit with them.  Meditate on them.  Let them linger in your spirit.  

My guess is there is one phrase that captures your life in this moment. That meets you where you are.  That sees you as you are.  In need of forgiveness or feeling forsaken.  Parched by life, or ready to surrender to the Father.

Wherever Jesus’ words find you this Holy Week, know Jesus is there with you.  

And resurrection is possible.