That's the question on everyone's mind when he comes into a Lutheran church for the first time. Rightly so. Here are some answers to different variations of that question, even if you're not asking it. More of these will be posted as they become available. If you have questions you'd like answered, feel free to ask.
The “Passion” of Jesus is His suffering and death. Before “passion” meant any type of intense emotion, the word was a Middle English word (from Latin) used exclusively to refer to the suffering of Jesus on the cross. So we have Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ and Passion plays.
Passiontide is the last two weeks of Lent. Older in the history of the Church than Lent, Passiontide prepares us as we move closer to Holy Week, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, the Vigil of Easter, and the Feast of our Lord’s Resurrection. The first four weeks of Lent have been a time for penitential reflection. And now that penitence intensifies as we begin to read and consider the account of Christ’s passion.
We’ve been on a liturgical descent, of sorts. At the start of Gesimatide, we stopped singing Alleluia and the Gloria in Excelsis. Then, when Lent arrived, we began to fast with our bodies. For Passiontide, we also stop singing the Gloria (“Glory be to the Father…”). There are no organ preludes or postludes. We’re on a journey toward Good Friday which will bring us to the Feast of the Resurrection of our Lord.
The last verse of the Holy Gospel for Passion Sunday says “Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.” So it has been customary in the Church to veil images of Jesus and crosses following the Gospel reading. Why? Our eyes begin to fast, as well. The cross is beautiful; it is a marvelous reminder of the depth of God’s love for us, that He would die on the cross for us. But we are not worthy of this sacrifice. And so the picture of it is taken away for a while. This helps tell the story of Lent. The crucifix will be unveiled on Good Friday as we consider the stark truth that the Son of God suffered and died for us. And the cross will be unveiled at the Easter Vigil, when we begin to celebrate the Lord’s triumph over sin, death, and the devil through the cross.
As the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words. So we teach the story of Jesus Christ and Him crucified not only with words. We also teach it with pictures. Colors, rituals, ceremonies: these all aid our learning about our Crucified and Risen Savior.
Keep watching.
“Triduum” is Latin for “three days.” The Sacred Triduum is the highest time in the Church Year. Everything builds to these three days and takes its shape from these days. The Triduum begins at Maundy Thursday and continues to Easter. All of Lent, indeed all the liturgical year, has been building to this time.
Maundy Thursday is also known as Holy Thursday, the Thursday in Holy Week. “Maundy” likely comes from the Latin mandatum, from which we get our English “mandate.” The “mandate” of Jesus is given in His institution of the Lord’s Supper. The word is also in the Gospel lesson for Maundy Thursday: “A new commandment/mandate I give you; Love one another as I have loved you” (John 13:34). So Maundy Thursday, as we recall the Lord’s institution of this holy Supper through which He gives us His very Body and Blood to forgive our sins, we are also enabled to love each other as we have been loved by our Lord. So after receiving our Lord’s sacrament we pray, “We implore You that, of Your mercy, You would strengthen us through the same in faith toward You and in fervent love toward one another.”
Notice there is no Benediction on Maundy Thursday. Why not? Because the service doesn’t end when we depart. It continues on Good Friday, as well. Accordingly, there is no Invocation on Good Friday. The service does not begin on Good Friday; it began on Maundy Thursday. And there is no Benediction on Good Friday, either. The service, begun on Maundy Thursday, concludes at the Easter Vigil. There is no Invocation on Easter Vigil.
Good Friday commemorates the day of the death of Jesus on the cross. The Tre Ore services are held the three hours during which Jesus hung on the cross (noon until 3). The evening Tenebrae Vespers is a service of progressive darkness, as candles are extinguished until the sanctuary is dark (Tenebrae is Latin for “shadows”).
Finally, the Easter Vigil service marks the conclusion of Lent. In this service, the vestments are changed from violet to white; the “Alleluia” returns to our lips; and we celebrate our Lord’s resurrection “very early in the morning” (Mark 16:2). After this service, the Lenten fast is over, and we are prepared for the Feast of our Lord’s Resurrection in the morning.
I heartily encourage you to come to services on all three of these days. The Triduum has an organic unity that cannot be appreciated by attending only part of it.
According to the Lutheran Service Book:
“In some places throughout the early centuries of the Church’s life, the people of God would hold vigil, which means ‘keep watch,’ through the night in expectation of Christ’s return. A vigil in expectation of Christ’s return at Easter became a common feature of the celebration of His crucifixion and resurrection…During the vigil, those who had prepared throughout Lent to be joined into Christ were baptized. At the dawn of the new day at Easter sunrise, the newly baptized joined the entire church in the chorus of alleluias at Christ’s resurrection from the dead. As a service of watching that ushers in the resurrection, the Vigil of Easter is comprised of six parts: the Service of Light, the Service of Readings, the Service of Holy Baptism, the Service of Prayer, the Service of the Word, and the Service of the Sacrament. Because the Vigil of Easter marks the final day in the sacred Triduum, the service ends with the Benediction, which has not been heard since the beginning of the Triduum, and the Easter Acclamation: Christ is Risen!”
The service is filled with unique features, all of which testify to the truth of Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection and the hope that this gives us as Christians. In the service, the new paschal candle is blessed, symbolizing the hope of the new creation that accompanies news of Christ’s resurrection. Even when there are no candidates for Baptism of Confirmation, the Service of baptism is a reminder to all of us what the Lord has done for us in tehse waters, drowning our old sinful flesh and joining us into the very resurrection of Christ, which we celebrate. Because in Jewish thought, each new day began at sunset, the Vigil is the first celebration of Easter. Midway through the service, at the Easter Acclamation, we move from Lent into Easter. The pastor changes vestments from penitential purple to joyful white; the sanctuary is decorated; and we speak the word “alleluia” for the first time since before Lent.
What’s that smell?
Since the Lord gave instructions for constructing the tabernacle in Exodus 25, incense has played a significant role in worship of the Lord. The psalmist prayed, “Let my prayer rise before you as incense, and the lifting of my hands as the evening sacrifice” (Psalm 141:2). So incense is a picture of the prayers of God’s children, rising to him as smoke rises upward. St. John’s vision uses the image of bowls of incense to represent the “prayers of the saints” (Revelation 8:3-4).
St. Paul describes Christians as having the “aroma of Christ” (2 Corinthians 2:15). Christ’s righteousness, which all the baptized faithful wear, is like the sweet smell of incense, pleasing to the Lord.
So incense has long played a role in the worship of the Christian Church, particularly for solemn Divine Services and evening vespers. Incense usually includes frankincense and myrrh, brought to Jesus at his birth and used as spices to anoint his dead body.
Before it was one of the highest three festivals in the Christian Church Year, Pentecost was a regularly observed Jewish harvest festival. Seven weeks after Passover was Pentecost (Greek for “fifty,” the fiftieth day after Passover), the ingathering of the first fruits of the wheat harvest (Exodus 34:22, Deuteronomy 16:9-11). In addition to serving as a celebration for the beginning of the harvest season, Pentecost also marked the giving of the Law on Mt. Sinai.
Pentecost was a pilgrimage festival, one that required Jews to make the journey to Jerusalem to offer the sacrifice of the first fruits of the harvest. Jews from all over the Mediterranean world were in Jerusalem to celebrate the Jewish festival of Weeks (another name for Pentecost) fifty days after Passover.
Fifty days after the Resurrection of Christ (He ascended 40 days after His Resurrection), the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples gathered in Jerusalem. As St. Luke records in Acts 2, on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descended on the apostles as tongues of fire on their heads, enabling them to proclaim the Gospel in other languages. And each of those present heard the Gospel in his own language.
At the conclusion of his sermon, St. Peter called the crowds to “repent and be baptized…for the forgiveness of sins” (Acts 2:38). Three thousand people who heard Peter’s message did exactly that. So the Christian Church was born.
As Pentecost was a harvest festival and the anniversary of the giving of the Law on Mt. Sinai in the Old Testament, in the Christian Church, it remains a harvest festival. From the harvest field of the world, God gathers His crop of Christians through the preaching of His Word and the administration of His Sacraments, His means of grace. The annual Feast of Pentecost may be properly thought of as the “birthday” of the Christian Church.
The red of the paraments and vestments both calls to mind the color of the fire of the Holy Spirit on the heads of the apostles as they preached in many languages and also reminds us of the blood shed by the apostles and their successors in defense of the Gospel.