Well maybe that’s only part of the question. The question may be “What makes holy, holy?”. When you look at how holy is used it might be confusing, such as: holy cow, holy moly, holy smoke, holy shucks, holy guacamole, and the list goes on. Oh yes, we can’t forget an all-time favorite, holy hell.
Unfortunately we have so over used and under practiced the concept of being holy that it really seems to mean little when we say holy week, other than a plethora of rituals and functions that occur during this time. Being holy has denigrated into a thing we observe, rather than what we are.
What does it mean to be holy from God’s perspective? I will give just a couple examples. First, from the Old Testament we find - Qodesh (Hebrew)- a sacred place or thing; rarely abstract, sanctity. Second, we find in the New Testament - Hagios (Greek) - sacred (physically, pure, morally blameless or religious, ceremonially, consecrated). I think you can agree with me there is nothing holy about hell or guacamole if we use God’s view of holy.
But we still have this thing called holy week, what makes it holy? Is it the things we do (such as attending services, fasting, taking communion, …..)? Is it the fact that it is Passover week? Is it the fact that Christ died for our sin during this week? Is it the fact that Christ resurrected and defeated death so we all can have eternal life?
To some degree all of these play a part, but the real thing that makes holy week holy is centered around you and me. We can do all of the ritualistic things to the letter and still have an unholy week.
On holy week the first thing Christ did was enter the temple and proclaim that the church leaders had made God’s house an unholy place. He then taught the people soon after that that they were to do as the teachers of the law said, but not what they did, because they were not holy in their actions.
God has given us an edict to make every day a holy day, 1 Peter 1:15,16 “But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: ‘Be holy, because I am holy.’”. The day or week is only holy because you and I choose to bring holiness to it through our allowing Christ to empower us to be able to live a holy life through His death and resurrection.
Holy week is just another week unless I allow Christ to make it holy through me. All of the rituals and observances of holy week are meaningless without a personal relationship with Christ.
Today is a great day to ask Christ to allow you to celebrate holy week as a holy person!
