Holy Week: Dark To Light
A Lesson From Psalm 88
Christians across the globe are currently quite busy with Holy Week. For those unfamiliar, Holy Week runs from 3/24 through 3/31 this year, which is earlier in the calendar year than most years.
Today is referred to as Maundy Thursday, 3/28. Jesus death on the cross will be observed on Good Friday, 3/29. And then, Easter songs of praise will ring out on Easter Sunday, 3/31 celebrating the resurrection of Jesus from the grave. During the Lenten season, and especially during Holy Week, the Christian church goes on a short journey from dark to light.
The US Debt Clock has used this same theme to communicate out to the American people. The overall messaging from the US Debt Clock is quite clear. The old financial system is going away and a new one is emerging. Plainly stated, the old is gone and the new has come. We are moving from dark to light, financially speaking.
The United States, often errantly referred to as a “democracy,” is actually a constitutional Republic. We are not sure if anyone knows who exactly is behind the US Debt Clock communications, but we can be certain that some person or some group is trying to communicate something to the American people. What if Space Force or another military branch is behind the US Debt Clock communications? Wouldn’t that be something?
During Holy Week, Christians ponder the overwhelming fact that we were dead in our trespasses and sins before Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. As enemies of the Creator God who, by the way, happens to be holy, we were at odds with God. To be blunt, we were in a very dark place. As a result of this sad and dark state of affairs, we were in desperate need of help! We would have been wise to cry out to God to help us and save, like the Palm Sunday followers did when they cried out "Hosanna,” which means God save us. Yes, God’s help was absolutely necessary to save us from this wretched, dark predicament that we were in.
The world we are currently living in is quite dark right at the moment. However, most people have elected to ignore most of the “darkness” and pretend everything is just fine. It is good to remember that people sometimes have to go through a period of darkness so they can eventually “see the light” and run towards it to forever escape the darkness.
As we all do our best to navigate an extremely dark period in our nation’s history, be reminded that even Jesus had to first enter a dark place. Psalm 88:16-18 says this.
Your wrath has swept over me; your terrors have destroyed me.
All day long they surround me like a flood; they have completely engulfed me.
You have taken from me friend and neighbor—darkness is my closest friend.Psalm 88:16-18 (NIV)
From earlier verses in Psalm 88, it describes the darkness as one that would be felt by a prisoner being placed in an underground pit, which would have been a space that was pitch black or void of light.
I am overwhelmed with troubles and my life draws near to death.
I am counted among those who go down to the pit; I am like one without strength.
I am set apart with the dead, like the slain who lie in the grave, whom you remember no more, who are cut off from your care.Psalm 88:3-5 (NIV)
It is hard to imagine that the Creator God, who said “Let there be light” in the creation account from the the first book of Genesis, considered darkness His only friend on that dark and dreary Thursday evening in Jerusalem.
Would Jesus have been placed in an underground holding cell as a prisoner of the Jewish leaders on Maundy Thursday evening after being arrested in or near the Garden of Gethsemane? We cannot know for sure, but it would have made sense for Caiaphas, the high priest to have a place to hold prisoners in or under his home.
In modern day Jerusalem, this place is called Gallicantu or Caiaphas’ home.
This is believed to be the location of the palace of Caiaphas, the Jewish High Priest who sat in judgement over Jesus, where Peter's triple denial took place.
It makes sense that the religious leaders homes would have been in the “upscale” part of town. And some of these houses would have been built on the hillsides around Jerusalem with access to deep, underground “basements” that could have served to hold prisoners. Check out the picture on the bottom left.
Of course, we can never be certain that this is the exact place where Jesus was held prisoner. We simply know that he was held prisoner on that dark Thursday evening.
Yes, a person sometimes needs to first experience total darkness or be “scared of the dark” to find solace in the light. Or better stated, when referring to Jesus, a person (or God in this case) needed to first “go to a very dark place” so that He could bring others into the light. Sometimes, sacrifice is required.
Is Donald J. Trump going through some dark times? Yep.
Is our nation experiencing a dark period of time in its history? Yep.
Will these dark days eventually lead to darker days? Yep.
Will this dark period of time be temporary and eventually lead to light? Yep.
Dark to light - this is the path Jesus was on during Holy Week, and it is the same path we are on in America, both politically and financially. Should the lights go out, so to speak, trust in the Savior God who already experienced the darkness of the holding cell pit on Maundy Thursday evening, the darkness of death on a cross on Good Friday, the darkness that came over all the land when Jesus died on Good Friday, and the quiet darkness of the tomb where He was buried.
God bless your Holy Week journey from dark to light. On behalf of our team at The Fruited Plain, happy Easter!
President Trump said that he hoped to have American businesses back in full force by Easter Sunday, citing the holiday as “a special day for many reasons.” Health experts advised that this timeline was not feasible.
"Easter is our timeline” when defeating the “invisible enemy.” What a great timeline that would be. We will all soon see “the light at the end of the tunnel.”
What virus was he talking about and did he mean Easter 2024?
With the name Francis Scott Key in the news right now with the bridge collapsing on the East coast, it is good to remember “In God Is Our Trust.”
