My Reflection as Holy Week Approaches

It's almost the final week of Lent and next week is what is called holy week. I believe Lent is a huge license to hypocrisy and so is holy week. It's really a time to continue the practices that were long predicted in the Bible namely the following which I will quote from the Roman Catholic Good News Translation:

Colossians 2:16 

So let no one make rules about what you eat or drink or about holy days or the New Moon Festival or the Sabbath. 

1 Timothy 4:1-3   

The Spirit says clearly that some people will abandon the faith in later times; they will obey lying spirits and follow the teachings of demons. Such teachings are spread by deceitful liars, whose consciences are dead, as if burnt with a hot iron. Such people teach that it is wrong to marry and to eat certain foods. But God created those foods to be eaten, after a prayer of thanks, by those who are believers and have come to know the truth.

The problem that "holy week" next week is coming is supposed to be a time to reflect on the passion of our Lord Jesus where He gave Himself as a sacrifice for sins but it tends to be a hypocritical time of year. There's their claim that they're going to turn from their sins or repent of their sins. The huge question is do they know the difference between repentance and penance? It's very easy to think of repentance as an act of doing confession, saying the Rosary, burning candles before Catholic saints and angels, to do religious deeds to make up for one's sins rather than a change of mind that begets a change of purpose. If all the priest gives a prescription of repeating the Our Fathers and Hail Marys then that's not repentance just penance.

To say that you're to be "sorrowful" because Jesus died on Good Friday is really hypocrisy. Even the Roman Catholic doctrine doesn't support the idea that Jesus dies every Good Friday and rises every Easter Sunday. Instead, Good Friday should be a time of rejoicing for this reason as Charles H. Spurgeon said in his sermon "Sad Feasts Changed to Glad Feasts":

The Lord of life and glory was nailed to the accursed tree. He died by the act of guilty men. We, by our sins, crucified the Son of God. 

We might have expected that, in remembrance of his death, we should have been called to a long, sad, rigorous fast. Do not many men think so even today? See how they observe Good Friday, a sad, sad day to many; yet our Lord has never enjoined our keeping such a day, or bidden us to look back upon His death under such a melancholy aspect. 

Instead of that, having passed out from under the old covenant into the new, and resting in our risen Lord, who once was slain, we commemorate his death by a festival most joyous. It came over the Passover, which was a feast of the Jews; but unlike that feast, which was kept by unleavened bread, this feast is brimful of joy and gladness. It is composed of bread and of wine, without a trace of bitter herbs, or anything that suggests sorrow and grief. … 

The memorial of Christ’s death is a festival, not a funeral; and we are to come to the table with gladsome hearts and go away from it with praises, for "after supper they sang a hymn" [Matt 26:30, Mark 14:26].

What is there to celebrate about holy week? It's the celebration of the defeat of sin, the once nd for all sacrifice never to be repeated again on the cross and liberation from the power of sin. Salvation from sin is not a reward for those who are already righteous but a gift for the repentant guilty who hunger and thirst for authentic righteousness. This salvation is freedom from a life of sin. But that's not what happens during "holy week". Allow me to tell you of some experiences I have with all this pretentious repentance. It's just like Ahab's sackcloth and ashes. They were all pretentious. They do all the good they can during Lent and Holy Week, avoid getting a fight, making peace with people but just wait until Holy Week is over and Easter Sunday comes in. Is this feasting irreverent? No, it's not irreverent but instead it celebrates the defeat of sin, the new life in Christ and this is feasting for one's redeemed life and continued repentance by the grace of God. 

The fact that forgiveness is given to the undeserving sinner who deserves nothing but Hell makes anybody who's saved to live a new life in Jesus Christ. Yet Jesus showed His love for sinners by dying for them while they were yet sinners The Gospel was never called to water down the holiness of God. Instead, it's because you're holy and He's not and the fact He will never downplay His holiness that He sent His Son to die in your place. Jesus took God's wrath out of sacrificial life. You can't just have sacrificial love or God's wrath as you take time to reflect on His finished work. It had to be both because Jesus wouldn't say "But not My will but Thine." if He didn't love you. God's wrath had to fall upon sin and Jesus who knew no sin became sin for us.

I also think of Palm Sunday which is tomorrow with this thought, "They praised Jesus on Palm Sunday but crucified Him on Good Friday." The unbelieving Jews thought that Jesus came to liberate them from the Romans. They thought He would overthrow the Kingdom. I don't think they took time to write down what Jesus taught them. Jesus didn't encourage them to take revenge on the Romans but to show love to their enemies. I guess that also made them choose Barabbas. Jesus had no fault whatsoever. I guess they would have chosen anyone who's guilty of rebellion against the Romans. But Jesus had no fault. Jesus kept the whole Law perfectly so He could be the sin sacrifice for the salvation of man. 

What may have made the Pharisees even angrier was that my Lord and Savior didn't speak a word against the Roman occupation but against the Pharisees. Matthew 23 became the biggest attack on the Pharisees' hypocrisy and self-righteousness. If the Pharisees themselves didn't choke on their pride they would have accepted it graciously. But the Pharisees were so full of themselves thinking that they were good enough for Heaven by their effort to keep the Law outside God's grace that Jesus' salvation for the worst of sinners was an offense to their pride. But again, pride comes before the fall doesn't it? 

Why I dread the end of Holy Week is how often it has become a license to return back to worldliness. It's just like the practice of sinning from Monday to Friday, go to confession on Saturday, go to Mass on Sunday and repeat the whole cycle all over again. They think that as long as they keep the Lenten sacrifices and the sacraments that they're okay. While the Roman Catholic institution doesn't directly teach a license to sin and teaches you can fall from grace but it has instead taught a license to sin because they teach you could purchase forgiveness through Masses. Maybe these people think that as long as you do more good than bad then you're okay or that as long as you have the sacraments and the priests you can die in grace no matter how sinful your life is. Now who's teaching a license to sin?

True holiness is never limited to just holy week but it's a daily practice. Holiness is something that Christians grow day by day. Good works for the Christian life are not limited to just Christmas and Holy Week. As Ephesians 2:10 and Titus 2:11-14 says that God's grace makes us walk righteous and holy lives because Christ's death defeated the power of sin. Salvation is from sin and not in sin. Nobody should even think that just because holy week is over that you can go back to your regular life. No, the Christian life is not just Sundays, not just Christmas, not just holy week but it's an everyday routine. 

Here's a reminder to Roman Catholics who may be reading this post:

Hebrews 9:11-14 (GNT) 

But Christ has already come as the High Priest of the good things that are already here. The tent in which he serves is greater and more perfect; it is not a tent made by human hands, that is, it is not a part of this created world. When Christ went through the tent and entered once and for all into the Most Holy Place, he did not take the blood of goats and bulls to offer as a sacrifice; rather, he took his own blood and obtained eternal salvation for us. The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a burnt calf are sprinkled on the people who are ritually unclean, and this purifies them by taking away their ritual impurity. Since this is true, how much more is accomplished by the blood of Christ! Through the eternal Spirit he offered himself as a perfect sacrifice to God. His blood will purify our consciences from useless rituals, so that we may serve the living God.

All the rituals are useless. There are no more priests in the New Testament. The veil that covered the Holy of Holies has been torn apart. Everyone now has equal access to God. There's no need for priests to mediate the people like it was in the Old Testament. The Levitical priesthood was abolished and the New Covenant has now been installed. 

Ephesians 4:10-12 (GNT) 

So the one who came down is the same one who went up, above and beyond the heavens, to fill the whole universe with His presence. It was He who gave gifts to people; He appointed some to be apostles, others to be prophets, others to be evangelists, others to be pastors and teachers. He did this to prepare all God's people for the work of Christian service, in order to build up the body of Christ.