Uniting Church SA eNews Reflection 31/3/2026: Holy Week – Easter Vigil
From the excitement of Palm Sunday, we move now to the passion of Holy Week, scrolling through John’s dramatic account (Chapters 12 to 19) of Jesus’ final days, culminating with the crucifixion on Good Friday. The official finish of Holy Week, and start of Easter, is, however, on Saturday at sunset, days back then being considered to finish/start at this time rather than 12.00pm.
The first celebration of Easter is traditionally the Easter Vigil, held either on Saturday evening or Sunday at dawn, a rarity now in Protestant churches, but you can attend a Catholic vigil service at St Francis Xavier Cathedral at 7.30pm this Saturday if you’re interested. Vigil services typically feature a selection from twelve Old Testament readings, the central one of which is the iconic story of the parting of the Red Sea from Exodus 14. No sooner had I discovered this the other day than I was watching the YouTube clip of the Red Sea scene from the 1956 film The Ten Commandments, with Charlton Heston as Moses magnificently commanding the waters to part on behalf of an unseen God in the sky – I commend it to you!
The parting of the Red Sea, God’s salvation arriving in the nick of time, escape from slavery in Egypt to freedom in the Promised Land, the wonderful gift of the Law along the way – all of this prefigures the far greater, universal salvation that Jesus’ death and resurrection delivers. Yet God’s MO in these two salvation stories is so different, you’d be tempted to think that there are two different Gods involved. In one case God intervenes in the world with mighty power to part a sea, allowing the Israelites to escape; in the other, God doesn’t so much as lift a finger to save their own beloved son from a cruel death. Go figure?!
The Red Sea parting is not the central salvific act of the Exodus story, however, rather the gift of the Law is. Here God’s true MO shows itself clearly: it is a spiritual intervention, through God’s Spirit, which inspires Moses and the people to devise the wonderful Law together. This is not an exercise of God’s power, rather the very opposite, a kenosis, self-limitation, letting go of power.
Think of the deal God signs up to: if you follow this Law with all your hearts, God promises, I will no longer need to fight your battles for you, rather you will prosper off your own bat, because you will learn to cooperate selflessly with each other in a way that makes you strong as a nation. It is an early form of no-kings democracy, the Law having no provision for an autocratic ruler, Moses himself being the most reluctant and self-effacing of leaders.
The Israelites eventually chicken out of the deal – O ye of little faith! – and beg God for a king, which, as we know, turns out badly. Yes, faith – our lack of it, our inability to find it within ourselves – is indeed the greatest of all human problems, one that can only ultimately be solved through Jesus. Very aptly described as the “turning point of history” – far more significant, in fact, than the mere parting of a sea – God, through Jesus, incarnates faith into human life, faith to move the mountain of our self-centred grasping, empowering us for a new life of selfless cooperation together.
Holy Week and Easter Vigil this year, therefore: I encourage you to enter fully into the drama and tension of it; but then get ready to let it all go and celebrate bigtime on Easter Sunday. O happy day!
