Redemption is a drama in three acts – three acts and a brief intermission.

Act One, Scene One – Location: an upper room somewhere in Jerusalem.

In the first act, Jesus shares a special meal with his friends. He knows, although they seem not to, that this will be their last formal meal together. As supper he tries to explain to them what he believes is going to happen and how he hopes they’ll remember him. He uses bread and wine to make his point, but they don’t seem to understand. In fact, as the scene ends, they are arguing about their relative ranks! Who among them will be the greatest? The curtain falls on a frustrated rabbi.

Act One, Scene One – Location: an upper room somewhere in Jerusalem.

Dinner is over, so Jesus tries something else. Taking on the role of a servant, he kneels down and washes their feet, but they still don’t get it. Later they would begin to understand; later they would re-enact Jesus’ actions and ponder them again and again, trying to more fully understand him. We are still re-enacting; we are still pondering; we are still groping toward understanding. Attend a church service on Maundy Thursday evening as Christians do it again, as we seek to grasp Jesus’ meaning in the bread and wine, in the servant’s towel, in the basin of water and cleaning of feet.

Act One, Scene Three – Location: a garden at Gethsemane.

Depressed and agonizing, feeling he has failed, knowing his actions of the past three years are leading inexorably to a final “showdown” with the political authorities, Jesus spends time in prayer. He asks his closest friends to stay awake with him, but they cannot. Falling asleep as he prays, they abandon him emotionally just as they will later abandon him physically. Come spend time with Jesus in prayer. Can you do what his friends could not? Can you spend an hour awake with Jesus? Perhaps a church near you has a Chapel of Repose where you can spend some time with our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. If not, just set aside time for an hour of prayer on Thursday night.

Act Two – Location: a hill called Calvary.

Jesus, struggling under the weight of a cross, staggers up the hill from the city to the summit. Once there, he is nailed to the cross he has dragged along the way. The crowd jeers, the soldiers mock, his friends (so few of them now) weep. Speaking from the cross as he dies, “Forgive them…. It is finished.” It certainly seems to be the end. What more could possibly come after the death of the drama’s protagonist? The Stations of the Cross, the Way of Tears, is a good meditation for Good Friday. Perhaps a nearby church will be offering the Liturgy of the Presanctified (Communion from the Reserved Sarament).

Intermission – Location: a sealed tomb.

The characters have all left the stage. It is bare and as silent as a grave. Is this intermission or has the drama concluded. The principal’s death certainly seems to have ended things! The silence of Holy Saturday is broken only by the Proanaphora, brief lessons and prayers. You can find a form of the Holy Saturday liturgy in The Book of Common Prayer; it is a fine morning interlude of quiet contemplation. What does all that has come before mean? How can there possibly be anything more after this?

Act Three – Location: a garden, the tombstone rolled away.

What seemed to be a tragedy at the end of the second act turns out to be a comedy. The tomb is empty! There are angels where there should be mourners! There are only folded linens where there should be a body! Confusion mixes with joy, disbelief encounters faith, death is overcome by life. The joke is on the powers of evil. But what does it all mean? Many who have missed the first two acts of this drama will be there to see the end of the story; can one truly appreciate the momentous conclusion without having lived through it all? Can they really get the punchline? Try to take part in the full story on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday, but even if you can’t, join in celebration of the Resurrection at Easter services in a nearby church.

Redemption is a drama in three acts. Join in the experience as fully as you can!