One of my favorite Holy Land excursions, with both BYU Jerusalem Students and commercial tour groups, is a walk up the Wadi Hamam or "Valley of the Doves." This is likely the route that Jesus would have taken from Nazareth to the Sea of Galilee, and we always begin our walk with a devotional about the call of the disciples and then singing "Come, Follow Me." I like to imagine that we are ourselves following Jesus along this trail, walking with and learning from him.
One of my personal preparations for Holy Week and Easter is to read in the week before Palm Sunday the accounts of Mark often called "The Road to Jerusalem," focusing on the three Passion Predictions (Mark 8:27–38; 9:30–37; 10:32–45). This allows me to imagine myself walking with Jesus to Jerusalem for the final week of his mortal life. While some Christians of high liturgical traditions do this by observing a formal period called "Lent," I would like to encourage you, and myself, to spend some time walking with Jesus in the coming weeks as we prepare to commemorate his atoning sacrifice and celebrate his glorious resurrection.
Prophetic and Apostolic Encouragement
Several weeks before Easter in 2023, the First Presidency wrote a letter directing that only a sacrament meeting focusing on Jesus' atoning sacrifice and glorious meeting should be held on Easter Sunday. With more time for families on that day, they called upon to worship at home "to commemorate this most important holiday."
Then, in the opening talk of the April 2023 General Conference, in response to a First President Letter, Elder Gary Stevenson of the Quorum of the Twelve said,
The First Presidency’s letter caught my attention, and it caused me to
reflect on the way our family has celebrated Easter through the years.
The more I thought about our celebrations, the more I found myself
wondering if we are inadvertently shortchanging the true meaning of this
holiday, so central to all believers in Jesus Christ.
Those thoughts led me to ponder the difference between the way we have celebrated Christmas as compared with Easter. . . . Our family celebrations at Easter, however, have been somewhat
different. I feel our family has relied more on “going to church” to
provide the meaningful, Christ-centered part of Easter; and then, as a
family, we have gathered to share in other Easter-related traditions. I
have loved watching our children and now our grandchildren hunt for
Easter eggs and dig through their Easter baskets.
But the First Presidency letter was a wake-up call. Not only did they
invite all of us to make sure our celebration of the most important
event to ever happen on this earth—the Atonement and Resurrection of
Jesus Christ—includes the reverence and respect the Lord deserves, but
they also gave us more time with our families and friends on Easter
Sunday to do so.
It seems we are all trying. I observe a growing effort among Latter-day Saints toward a more Christ-centered Easter. This includes a greater and more thoughtful recognition of Palm Sunday and Good Friday as practiced by some of our Christian cousins. We might also adopt appropriate Christ-centered Easter traditions found in the cultures and practices of countries worldwide.
(Gary E. Stevenson, "The Greatest Easter Story Ever Told," Liahona [May 2023]: 6-9).
Over the years—first with the publication of
God So Loved The World: The Final Days of the Savior's Life in 2011, then through this seasonal blog with ideas for personal and family celebrations, and at last with
Greater Love Hath No Man: A Latter-day Saint Guide to Celebrating the Easter Season which I published with Trevan Hatch in 2023—I have gathered ideas on how we can better prepare for marking and celebrating this most holy season.
While Latter-day Saints do not observe Lent or even Holy Week as an institution, there is much that we can learn from the devotion of some other Christians as they prepare for Easter. In accordance with Krister Stendahl's concept of "holy envy," while we do not need to adopt the practices or beliefs of other religious communities, we can be inspired by their devotion to find ways to more fully worship God within our own faith tradition.
Here are two excerpts from Greater Love Hath No Man, one that gives the background of Lent and describes how some Christians observe it, and another that shares some suggestions for Latter-day Saints that might help you spent more time in the scriptures, be more prayerful, repent and prepare spiritually, and offer more service to prepare for Easter.
Celebrating Ash Wednesday and Lent in the Christian Tradition
(Greater Love Hath No Man, 20-21)
Lent is a season of Christian
observance that prepares believers for Holy Week. Among the many traditional
Christian groups, forty days of fasting is observed over six, seven, or eight
weeks, with Sundays excluded in Western Christianity and Saturdays and Sundays
excluded in Eastern Orthodox Christianity. The origins of pre-Holy Week fasting
date to at least the second century, with forty days (Latin, Quadragesima) of fasting being firmly in
place by the late fourth century in both the East and West, as is documented by
Egeria in her account of the preparations for Easter that she observed in her
visit to Jerusalem. While
Romance languages still use words based upon the Quadragesima for this period, English and other Germanic languages
use variations of the word “Lent,” signifying “season of spring” or “springtime.”
In Roman Catholicism and among some
Anglicans, Lutherans, and Methodists, Lent begins on Ash Wednesday and ends
during Holy Week on Maundy Thursday. In Eastern Christianity, Lent begins on
Clean Monday. Both Ash Wednesday and Clean Monday function similarly. These are
days of confessing, seeking forgiveness, and committing to an attitude
adjustment of forsaking sins. On Ash Wednesday, a priest places ashes on the
foreheads of Catholic Christians in the shape of a cross while uttering some
version of, “From dust you came and to dust you will return.” The ashes come
from the prior year’s palm branches, which we will see in our discussion of
Palm Sunday below were used to commemorate Jesus’ triumphal entry. This
practice by ancient Israelite practice, where ash was a symbol of mourning and
penance (see Job 42:6; Jonah 3:5–6; Esther 4:1; Daniel 9:3; Matthew 11:21).
The
activities and observances of Lent are symbolic of Jesus’ forty-day wilderness
retreat. Jesus’ fast and abstinence during this time is the model for
Christians as they prepare for Holy Week. Three areas of discipleship come into
focus during Lent: (1) righteousness toward God, as manifested through prayer
and repentance, (2) righteousness toward neighbors as manifested through
almsgiving and charity, and (3) righteousness toward oneself as manifested in
fasting and avoidance of sins and luxuries. This last area of focus includes
abstinence of various carnal passions, weaknesses, or gluttony—individuals may
choose to forego meat, sugary foods, alcohol, profane speaking, gambling,
laziness, video games, frivolous spending, etc. In addition, many increase
personal prayer and devotional Scripture reading in their daily schedule. The
practice of fasting during preparations of Holy Week are based on Matthew 9:15:
“The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they
will fast” (NRSV). In addition, to be successful while contending with evil and
even casting out demons, Jesus said, “This kind can come forth by nothing, but
by prayer and fasting” (Mark 9:29 KJV).
Fasting comes in different forms. Many Christians fast by eating one meal per
day, allowing some flexibility for additional smaller meals for those who
require it.
In some cultures, pre-Lenten
festivities provide opportunities for merriment and indulging of pleasures
before the beginning of the fast (and, at times, have devolved into sexual
promiscuity and debauchery). The most well-known of these festivities is Carnival
and Mardi Gras, which ends the day before Ash Wednesday on “Fat
Tuesday,” also called Shrove Tuesday. Although these somewhat “wild”
celebrations might have a negative conversation to us, marking a clean division
between normal time and the special period of preparation for Easter is
important. During the week prior to the beginning of Lent, Christians eliminate
all animal products from their homes. They do this by making foods containing
eggs, milk, etc. Consequently, eating pancakes on the last day of festivities
before Ash Wednesday (i.e., Shrove Tuesday) became a widespread tradition in
England, just as eating king cake became a tradition during Mardi Gras in
Louisiana. Some participants bake a little baby Jesus doll into the cake. The
person who receives the piece with the doll is destined for a prosperous year
and might be required to make next year’s cake. Discussions during this last
festive meal typically center on what pleasures each participant plans to
sacrifice during Lent.
Suggestions for Latter-day Saints
(Greater Love Hath No Man, 29-30)
Latter-day Saints do not
have a history of preparing for Holy Week and Easter through practices such as
Lent and Lazarus Saturday, but just as we love to get ready for the Christmas
season each year, we can more intentionally prepare ourselves and our families
through scriptures, music, decorating, and other traditions that we can choose
for ourselves. Because Jesus’ entire ministry was a prelude for his great
saving work, one thing we can do is to make his ministry one of the focuses of
our study in the time between our celebrations of Christmas and Easter. For
instance, after studying Matthew 1‒2, Luke 1‒2, and the Book of Mormon
prophecies about Jesus’
coming in the month leading up to Christmas, we could then supplement our other
personal and family scripture study by also reading about Jesus’ ministry from one of the Gospels. While Latter-day
Saints do not generally observe any kind of formal Lenten fast, we could
certainly use our monthly fast before Easter to express gratitude for the life
and mission of our Lord Jesus Christ and to pray for deeper, richer testimonies
as we approach Easter. Being mindful of what we are preparing to celebrate can
also encourage more personal devotion, greater charity, and more selfless
ministering. In his 2018 Ash Wednesday homily, the late Father Peter Van Hook,
pastor of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Provo, encouraged his congregation not
only to think of what they were giving up for Lent but also to think of
what they could do more during that preparatory period—he encouraged
renewed, more frequent prayer, richer scripture study, and more service to
others.
Just
as we decorate for Christmastime, as the Easter season approaches, we can make
a concerted effort to fill our homes with spring flowers; display prints of art
depicting the ministry of Jesus, such as vignettes by traditional painters such
as Heinrich Hofmann (1824‒1911), Carl Bloch (1834‒1890), Jacques (James) Joseph
Tissot (1836–1902), Frans Schwartz (1850‒1917), and Harry Anderson (1906‒1996),
as well as Latter-day Saint artists such as Minerva Teichert (1888‒1976), Simon
Dewey, Greg Olsen, Walter Rane, J. Kirk Richards, and Liz Lemon Swindle;
and shifting the music we play, perhaps gradually listening to more religious
and classical music. Just as many families gather many evenings in December for
family devotionals to prepare for Christmas by enjoying Christmas stories,
reading scriptures, and singing carols, many Latter-day Saint families might
find that holding daily devotionals in the week or two before Easter can become
another treasured tradition. For instance, the texts from Mark and John that we
have discussed could be studied individually or read together with our families
or with groups of interested friends, forming the heart of daily devotionals
that could also involve hymn singing. Borrowing from the old Christian
tradition of gathering around an Advent wreath for the four weeks before
Christmas, lighting a new candle each Sunday and holding a devotional, the
Huntsman family has started a new Holy Week tradition. We have created a
flowery “Easter Wreath” surrounding a purple candle, a red candle, and a white
candle. Starting with Lazarus Saturday, when we recall Mary’s anointing of
Jesus, we light the purple candle that night and Palm Sunday, Monday and
Tuesday, remembering the kingly phase of Holy Week in each of our daily
devotionals. Then on Wednesday, Thursday, and Good Friday we light the red
candle as well, recalling that Jesus is also our priest. Finally, Easter
morning, we add the white candle to celebrate Resurrection morning.
While
the greater part of this book concentrates on how to use the week leading up to
Easter to prepare ourselves to fruitfully celebrate the atoning work of Jesus
Christ, the scriptural preludes to Jesus’ last week in this chapter might be
used to set the stage for our own journey through Passion Week. After starting
with the story of the blind man healed in stages near Bethsaida on Sunday,
family home evening the next day might focus on Peter’s confession, taking the
opportunity to discuss the importance of a fuller, deeper testimony of the
person and work of Jesus Christ. This could be supplemented with a conference
talk such as the October 2004 address “Pure Testimony” by President M. Russell
Ballard, a member of the Quorum of the Twelve since 1985 and that quorum’s
acting president since 2018.
Because music can invite the spirit in a powerful way, consider singing a hymn
such as “Testimony” or a selection from the Children’s Song Book such as
“Search, Ponder, and Pray.”
Then, after reading the passion predictions over the course of the next three
days, the story of Bartimaeus could be the topic for Friday. Then the next day
could cover the Bethany episodes, discussing the symbolism of the raising of
Lazarus and the Mary’s anointing of Jesus and how they were preludes to Jesus’
final week. Families with young children might even enjoy baking Lazarakia
together or having some other treat that would make the pattern of daily family
gatherings to read, sing, and pray a fun as well as spiritual experience. These
and other ideas for each of the days of Holy Week have been gathered together
in Appendix H: Celebrating Holy Week—A Family Resource Guide.
