Devotion - Tuesday of Holy Week

Holy Week is a time for worship services. We gather Wednesday with Jewish students for the Seder. There are liturgies Thursday and Friday evening. All this time in church is to bring to mind the events associated with Jesus’ death; it is the chance to participate in his glorious resurrection. We learn, through these liturgies, the way of the cross.

But the true way of the cross is not to be lived in church – it is to be lived in the world. In A Reflection on the Cross, Luther writes, “Real mortifications do not happen in lonely places away from the society of other human beings. No! They happen in the home, in the market place, in secular life.”

The events we gather to observe are significant when those gatherings prepare us for the engagement with the world. They equip us for the challenges we face in daily life. They find their meaning as they prompt us to God’s servants in the world.

Retreat this week to a lonely place, come to church. But in that retreat constantly ask yourself, “How is this time away preparing me for the work that God has called me to do?” It is in answering this question that we most fully participate in the sacrificial way which is the way of the cross.