Life

Holy Week reflection: Easter promises change lives

Something that's always struck me is how Holy Week is punctuated by simple things.

It starts with Jesus' Triumphal Entry – no trumpets or military might but simply a donkey and some palm leaves. Jesus is betrayed for a few simple coins. When he gathers for the Last Supper, he institutes the Church's central sacrament with the simplest fare – bread and wine. And there is little simpler than two lengths of wood formed into a cross.

These simple things are the props that help us visualise the week of all weeks – part of a narrative that not only changed the course of human history but changed the story of eternity.

In the humility of Jesus on a donkey; in the empathy of Jesus at his betrayal; in the peace Jesus exuded at the Lord's Supper and in the power of Jesus' submission to death on a cross we find the simple made profound. The most wonderful thing about Holy Week is that in its events not only were these simple things transformed: so too are our ordinary lives in the promises of Jesus.

The Rev Adrian Dorrian

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Vicar, Lecale Area Mission Partnership

Church of Ireland Diocese of Down and Dromore