Father, forgive them: Palm Sunday, Holy Week Vigil
Father, forgive them.
Triumphal Entry, The (after Duccio), Wayne Forte - Source
Somewhere during the decade of my thirties—those years God was leading me through significant and often painful growth toward healing and wholeness—I realized I needed a sturdier foundation for all the grief I saw in my own life and in the lives of people around me. Then in 2012, during our first Holy Week in Austin, we attended our church’s Good Friday service, arranged around Jesus’ last words on the cross before he died. Seven members of the congregation responded to one of Jesus’ last words with their own story of suffering. I felt like I’d finally found a way to both adore Christ and acknowledge the lament of suffering in one communal act of worship. I’ve come to rely on this practice to prepare me for a more fullthroated resurrection celebration every Easter. Each Holy Week since then, following the example of our church in Austin, I’ve published a series of lament stories written by friends and colleagues to help us walk with Christ toward the cross. The guest writers tell stories of walking with Jesus on paths of suffering that include every sort of grief: illness, relational disillusionment, anxiety, joblessness, death of loved ones, and the death of dearly held dreams. Their stories have helped form my understanding of cruciform suffering. Along the way I’ve come to rely on a community who can sit with me in my grief rather than try to persuade me out of it. This became the sort of value that defined my relationships— those who welcomed me into their own suffering and shared mine became my dearest friends.
Listen to Last Words - a playlist for our Holy Week Vigil
The holy compulsion motivating the Holy Week lament series contends for this truth: We need to hear other people’s laments in the presence of Christ and his people. Specifically, we need to hear stories outside our own perspective and from all different stages of grief. I need to hear expressions of lament at the beginning, shocking part of grief, the middle, uncharted terrain of grief, and the lament that comes with the ending chapters of grief. I need to be surrounded by people who aren’t afraid to share their lament in all its unpredictability and strength.
This year, rather than inviting new guest post, I’m inviting you to consider your own mourning stories. Each day of Holy Week, we’ll keep vigil with Christ, each other, and our own selves. Each post will include links to previous years’ stories and some reflection questions for you to prayerfully listen to your own lament in the presence of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Please feel free to reach out to me if you have questions or just need someone to hear your story. I’m listening and praying for us all.
In peace and love,
Tamara
The First Word: Father, forgive them for they know not what they do
At that time, Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for them Barabbas; and having scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified. And the soldiers led him away.... [Mark 15:15-16a]
When they came to the place which is called The Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on the right and one on the left. And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” [Luke 23:33-34a]
O Christ Jesus, look with compassion on me, in all of my own sins and failings and all the sins and failings of others who have wounded me, and help me to learn mercy from you, who are All Mercy. Let justice and mercy kiss each other. Then, as I have so often added my own sufferings to yours upon the cross, help me to now add my own words of compassionate forgiveness to yours, that I may learn from your example, and so further comprehend and share in your victory. Let what I forgive on earth be forgiven in heaven and let what has wounded me become the very authority that allows me to heal others.
We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world. If we have died with him, we shall also live with him; if we endure, we shall also reign with him. We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world.
Reflect
“If I’ve ever thought loving these people might just be the death of me, well maybe it felt a bit like that. If I’ve ever chosen to forgive the same ones I knew full well would need forgiveness again and would never know the cost of the forgiveness and never be able to fully restore to me what they stole, then I might be able to identify with the look in Christ’s eyes headed into that heartbreaking city. And I might be able to echo his prayer a few days later when this same crowd called for his crucifixion: Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.”
“Maybe Christ’s first, final words “Father, forgive them” was his own exhale of surrender. He let the weight of the damnable wood of the cross drop into the vast ocean of God’s justice and mercy.”
“Thank you, Father, for giving me a name. Please forgive those who could not name me and help me to become a priestly father who loves and names others well.”
“I watched you as you passed by and wished I had something to offer. Although it was only a glimpse, I had the sense that you have felt this kind of pain before. That this kind of horror was much more familiar to many of you than it should be.”
Lament Stories Archive
Daily Lectionary for Holy Week
Read: Matthew 21:1-11; Psalm 118:19-29
Pray: Book of Common Prayer, The Collect for Passion Sunday (Palm Sunday)
Almighty and everliving God, in your tender love for the human race you sent your Son our Savior Jesus Christ to take upon him our nature, and to suffer death upon the cross, giving us the example of his great humility: Mercifully grant that we may walk in the way of his suffering, and also share in his resurrection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
*Sunday Scripture readings are taken from Year A of the Book of Common Prayer 2019 (Anglican Church of North America). Daily Scripture readings are taken from the 1979 Book of Common Prayer and include both Morning and Evening Psalms (Year 1)