George Santayana is quoted as saying, Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
In the world failure to look back and remember the lessons of the past is a sure way to make sure we are going to make the same mistakes again.
In Christianity the stakes are even higher. A failure to look back at the cross and receive not just its lessons but its purpose does not mean it will happen again in the future. Christ was crucified once and for all time. He will not be crucified again. In this case refusing to look back effects those who refuse to do so. Those who will not look back at the sacrifice of Christ have no future to look forward to. Without the cross there is only a certainty of future judgment. Life, at death, becomes torment without hope.
Holy Week must seem strange to those who are not Christians. A celebration based around the brutal and unjust death of our founder would on the surface seem counter-intuitive. But the truth is, that death needs to be celebrated because without it we have absolutely zero hope of reaching Heaven.
Isaiah says it this way,
Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
8 By oppression[a] and judgment he was taken away.
Yet who of his generation protested?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
for the transgression of my people he was punished.[b]
9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
and though the Lord makes[c] his life an offering for sin,
And Paul says this,
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:a The old has gone, the new is here! 18All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.21God made him who had no sin to be sinb for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
But it is not even enough to look back at the cross. In looking at the cross and receiving Christ’s forgiveness our own pasts are absolved but we cannot stay in the place of forever looking back at the cross. Holy week does not end at the cross or at the grave. It comes to fullness at the empty tomb. It is not the cross that propels us into the future but the resurrection! Jesus died but then He rose again. Death couldn’t hold Him! And death cannot hold his followers either!
Jesus said, I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. John 14:18,19
Here is the thing I am not waiting to start living my resurrected life. I looked back many years ago and received forgiveness from Christ. From that day on I have begun living my eternal life. I am now always looking forward to what God in Christ has for me.
AND YOU CAN TOO! START BY LOOKING BACK AT THE CROSS AND ASKING FOR FORGIVENESS. THEN LOOK FORWARD IN FAITH BELIEVING THAT THE RESURRECTION SHALL BE YOURS.
Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. Phillipians 3:13,14
Lillie-Put 