If you recall the 1978 film “Animal House” you will probably remember the song “Shout.” It was an old Isley Brothers number first released in 1959, but it has become an R and B classic in large part because of the film. Its opening line is, “You know you make me want to shout…” Now imagine the prophet Jeremiah whose words have been rejected by his friends and scorned by his enemies, who is himself an outcast in his own nation. If he could, he says, he would cease to speak, stop his prophetic work. But it isn’t that easy. “If I say, ‘I will not mention (God), or speak any more in his name,’” he laments, “then within me there is something like a burning fire shut up in my bones; I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot’” (Jeremiah 20:9). In other words says Jeremiah, “God, you make me want to shout!” I run the risk of trivializing this passage, but believe me, this is serious stuff. Even if Jeremiah wanted to quit sharing God’s word it would consume him like fire in his bones until he resumed speaking. He simply must go on talking.
Today many of us will gather to remember Jesus’ final meal with his disciples. We likely will celebrate the Lord’s Supper and reflect on its meaning for Holy Week. If we are paying attention, if we are aware of what we are doing and what it means, I really believe we will want to shout, not the Hosannas of Easter just yet, but the news of Jesus’ passion, his willingness to die for a sinful world. How can we remain silent in the face of such a gracious act? How can we not burn with the need to speak? Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, even Saturday of Holy Week are as integral to the Christian faith as Easter is. They are events that need to be shared. And we should be consumed with the need to share them.
I challenge us all to let this day, and the days that follow, move us according to the Holy Spirit, and to respond with an earnestness and honesty that the world seldom sees. Something tragic and marvelous is happening right in front of us. How can we remain silent about it?
Prayer: Lord, help us to speak with clarity to a world that needs the good news of Holy Week. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
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