Tenebrae
Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands, I commit my spirit.” Luke 23:46
While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen!” Luke 24:4-6a
My friend Cindy told me the other day that her church has changed their Holy Week tradition. This year she said they are going to have a Tenebrae service. She stumbled over the pronunciation of the word and then began to describe it to me. I told her that in my denomination that service is the norm. That opened up all kinds of questions. What is quite familiar to me is foreign to her. The biggest question that she had was what would happen if a person came into the church on Good Friday but didn’t come back on Easter. A few years ago I had written an essay about a man who comes to a Tenebrae service and dissatisfied with the end returns on Sunday to see what could possibly happen next. His life is changed dramatically by the experience but Cindy raises a good point. What if the person doesn’t come back?
That idea really bothered me. Tenebrae is the Latin word for darkness. As the service progresses the church gets darker and darker. The words of the last hours of Jesus life on earth are read, quiet sad songs are sung and the mood is quite somber. This is the one time of the year when there is no happy chatty fellowship after church. This is the crux of our faith. Every year I imagine how the apostles must have felt. I think about what the world would have been like in those hours when Jesus was not here or in heaven. I may foolishly ignore for hours on end but the idea that he could not be reached is unnerving to me. My view is from this side of the resurrection not from the side that didn’t know what was going to happen. The time between the “into your hands I commit my spirit” and the empty tomb must have been the worst most heartbreaking time to live.
Years ago there were two musicals about Jesus that were popular at the same time. One was Jesus Christ Superstar and the other was Godspell. My faith was of the pray when you’re about to get caught or feeling terribly ill variety at that point but having been raised in a Catholic home and school I knew the story. Somewhere in my heart that was some love and respect for God. Godspell has always been my favorite of the two. The music in Superstar is great but there is a lack of reverence and respect, almost a mocking tone to that one. I liked it but I loved Godspell partly because the whole thing is a more positive look at Scripture, at Jesus but mostly because of the end.
At the end of Superstar Jesus is dead. We sing our way through his arrest, crucifixion and death, the end. Godspell on the other hand, sings us through his life, his friendships, his miracles and then his arrest, crucifixion and death. There are a few moments when the theater is quiet and Jesus no longer dances and sings, loving all the people around him in the processes. It is a dark, sad moment until… BAM! There he is fit as fiddle and ready to save the rest of us. Yeah, that’s the right story!
When my friend Cindy asked me what would happen if someone saw Good Friday but not Easter I couldn’t really answer. After thinking about it I believe it comes down to this. If the person coming into the church has hope in their heart they will ask if that‘s it or is there more to the story. We then can tell them to come back on Sunday. If they are hopeless that dark service may not call to their hearts. They may think, “I knew it. There is no hope.” In the end I think if God gets a person with little to no prior knowledge of him in the door on Friday, He’ll get them back there to hear the rest of the story.
As you walk through Holy Week think about a life without the truth of Easter morning. Think about the darkness of Friday and what life would be if that were the end of the story. Praise God that you know better. Praise Him for his gift to us in the person of Jesus Christ and pray for someone you know who needs that knowledge.
While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen!” Luke 24:4-6a
My friend Cindy told me the other day that her church has changed their Holy Week tradition. This year she said they are going to have a Tenebrae service. She stumbled over the pronunciation of the word and then began to describe it to me. I told her that in my denomination that service is the norm. That opened up all kinds of questions. What is quite familiar to me is foreign to her. The biggest question that she had was what would happen if a person came into the church on Good Friday but didn’t come back on Easter. A few years ago I had written an essay about a man who comes to a Tenebrae service and dissatisfied with the end returns on Sunday to see what could possibly happen next. His life is changed dramatically by the experience but Cindy raises a good point. What if the person doesn’t come back?
That idea really bothered me. Tenebrae is the Latin word for darkness. As the service progresses the church gets darker and darker. The words of the last hours of Jesus life on earth are read, quiet sad songs are sung and the mood is quite somber. This is the one time of the year when there is no happy chatty fellowship after church. This is the crux of our faith. Every year I imagine how the apostles must have felt. I think about what the world would have been like in those hours when Jesus was not here or in heaven. I may foolishly ignore for hours on end but the idea that he could not be reached is unnerving to me. My view is from this side of the resurrection not from the side that didn’t know what was going to happen. The time between the “into your hands I commit my spirit” and the empty tomb must have been the worst most heartbreaking time to live.
Years ago there were two musicals about Jesus that were popular at the same time. One was Jesus Christ Superstar and the other was Godspell. My faith was of the pray when you’re about to get caught or feeling terribly ill variety at that point but having been raised in a Catholic home and school I knew the story. Somewhere in my heart that was some love and respect for God. Godspell has always been my favorite of the two. The music in Superstar is great but there is a lack of reverence and respect, almost a mocking tone to that one. I liked it but I loved Godspell partly because the whole thing is a more positive look at Scripture, at Jesus but mostly because of the end.
At the end of Superstar Jesus is dead. We sing our way through his arrest, crucifixion and death, the end. Godspell on the other hand, sings us through his life, his friendships, his miracles and then his arrest, crucifixion and death. There are a few moments when the theater is quiet and Jesus no longer dances and sings, loving all the people around him in the processes. It is a dark, sad moment until… BAM! There he is fit as fiddle and ready to save the rest of us. Yeah, that’s the right story!
When my friend Cindy asked me what would happen if someone saw Good Friday but not Easter I couldn’t really answer. After thinking about it I believe it comes down to this. If the person coming into the church has hope in their heart they will ask if that‘s it or is there more to the story. We then can tell them to come back on Sunday. If they are hopeless that dark service may not call to their hearts. They may think, “I knew it. There is no hope.” In the end I think if God gets a person with little to no prior knowledge of him in the door on Friday, He’ll get them back there to hear the rest of the story.
As you walk through Holy Week think about a life without the truth of Easter morning. Think about the darkness of Friday and what life would be if that were the end of the story. Praise God that you know better. Praise Him for his gift to us in the person of Jesus Christ and pray for someone you know who needs that knowledge.
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