Holy Week or Hell Week?

Monday Ministerial Musings

By Rev. Mark William Ennis

2024 Blog #13

March 25, 2024

Holy Week or Hell Week?

Yesterday, Palm Sunday, we began the sacred week that we Christians call “Holy Week.” Among ministers, it has long been a joke that “Holy Week” is really “Hell Week.” This old joke comes from the fact that this week is the busiest week of the year for clergy. There are more services of worship during this week than there are any other week of the year. When I was young and foolish, I laughed at this joke and even told it. Now, as I get older, wiser, and more experienced in ministry, I don’t find it to be very funny.

I now think that telling such a joke really diminishes what this week was like for our Savior, Jesus the Christ. For him, it truly was, “Hell Week.”  It boggles my mind, and leaves my soul disturbed, when I think of what he endured during that week, and he did it for every sinful person on earth.

He entered Jerusalem knowing that powerful religious leaders were plotting against him. These leaders, who worked at preserving their own power more than they worked at honoring God, had reached their fill of people following Jesus even as he called those leaders out for oppressing poor, faithful people. Would you or I walk into a city that was plotting against us or would we discretely go somewhere else?

On Thursday of Jesus’ Hell Week, after having a celebrative Passover dinner, he was betrayed by one of his disciples. Have you ever been betrayed by someone that you trusted? What do you think he felt? He had a gentle spirit so I imagine that being betrayed felt worse to him than it would have felt to most people.

It was on Friday, that we call “Good Friday” that Jesus endured torture with a cat-o-nine tails. This was carried out by soldiers of the Roman Empire, but it was engineered by the same temple officials who were out to get him. Few of us understand what real torture feels like, and I am grateful for that. I really don’t want to know such a feeling. I am amazed that he endured this when, having divine nature, he could have stopped it at any time by performing a miracle. That is the ultimate in self-control.

The final torture that he suffered was crucifixion, literally, getting fixed to a cross and hanging there until he died from asphyxiation. This must have felt like Hell to him, and he did it voluntarily. Finally, after he died, he was placed in a tomb owned by a wealthy follower, Joseph of Arimathea.

For Jesus, what we know as “Holy Week” was “Hell Week.” I do hope that we show him a little gratitude for his enduring this for our sakes. Amid our busy lives, let us show gratitude by thanking him. We do this by doing what he told us to do. How about we start now.

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