We’ll be sharing a series of videos from Bishop Andrew Asbil throughout Holy Week. You’ll be able to find the videos and transcripts below.
Palm Sunday
It’s Sunday. After three years of preaching and teaching and walking the roads of Judea and Galilee, showing people a different way to live and love, Jesus prepares to enter Jerusalem at the start of a week that will change the world.
The crowds are ecstatic. People stop what they’re doing to watch this prophet from Nazareth entering Jerusalem on a donkey. They throw down their cloaks on the road, they wave palm branches and shout Hosanna – a cry for salvation, a plea for deliverance. But do they understand what kind of king he really is? Do we?
We are called to stop what we’re doing and join in the shouts, too – to mark Jesus’ footsteps in this week of weeks, as he moves toward the depths of sorrow and an even greater triumph. We join with Christians the world over to focus the mind and the heart and the soul on who we follow and how we bear witness to that different way to live and love.
This is the week that turns the world. This is the week that shows us what love and service look like. This is the week that turns power on its head, that shakes the earth and unseats the forces of oppression and cruelty.
Without this week nothing changes. So get ready. Strap in. A week from now, everything will be different.
Tuesday in Holy Week
It’s Tuesday. Jesus stands at the threshold of his final days. In Jerusalem, he teaches, cleanses the temple and rebukes those in power – while the cross looms ever nearer.
And all the while, the wheels of betrayal and violence are already in motion. Behind closed doors, threats are whispered, bargains struck. The ones who fear him most are working to rid themselves of this threat. But we’re not quite there yet.
Today, we stand in the shadow of that story. For clergy and lay leaders in our diocese, this day holds special weight. Many of us will gather at the Chrism Mass to renew the vows we made at ordination and the promises made at baptism – to serve, to lead, to follow the way of Christ.
Anointing is not just a blessing; it’s a charge to walk this road with purpose. Jesus is anointed before his burial, and we are anointed for the work ahead, too. The oils blessed today remind us of our calling: to heal, to serve, to proclaim good news in a world that resists it. We are not mere spectators of Christ’s journey – we are participants in his mission.
This week will ask much of us – watching, waiting, walking with Christ to the cross. But we are not sent alone. We walk together, equipped, anointed and strengthened by the Spirit for the road ahead.
The question is not whether we are called—the question is whether we are ready.
