Holy Week and the Jagged Edges of the World

This is a transcript of a Thought for the Day, broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on 30 March 2026.

Good morning. A world of unpredictable leaders, wanting to present themselves as strong men in control of their region; the use of the military in torturing and killing innocent people; fear and expectation of revolution; the manipulation of public opinion; and national identity shaped by religious ideology – yes I’m referencing today’s news stories but all these underlie the events central to what Christians call Holy Week.

From the excitement and unrest of Palm Sunday through to the cruelty of the death of Jesus on a cross, this Holy Week that Christians engage with and pray through is not a narrative of quiet and peaceful mindfulness. It’s loud, violent and disturbing.

This special week of worship was named Holy Week probably in the 4th century. The word ‘holy’ has the sense of being set apart or separated. The danger is that this can easily lead to an understanding that a holy God is completely unaffected by the world and that Christians should concentrate on spiritual things rather than getting their hands dirty in the grubbiness of the world.

The events of Holy Week say something very different. In them I see a God who experiences the vulnerability of human flesh in the midst of a complex political landscape, and through giving himself up in humiliating death offers a pattern and resources for forgiveness and hope. This is the holiness of God who is present in the pain, sin and uncertainty of this world. That is why some Christian traditions call this week the ‘Great Week’.

In the background to last week’s joyous celebration of the new Archbishop, there was an exhibition hosted by Canterbury Cathedral of prints, poetry and music called Jagged Edges: Stations of the Cross. It arose from a project here in the Newcastle Diocese which engages victims and survivors of church-related abuse. It uses the narratives of betrayal, condemnation and violence of Holy Week as a means to speak both to fellow survivors and to those who have let them down. As Maggi Creese, who works with Chaplaincy to Survivors, comments: ‘Seeing in the story of Jesus, God’s love for and solidarity with those who have been abused, they invite people to engage in the work of repair, reconciliation and recovery.’

Real holiness means being set apart in the sense of sharing God’s purpose and character of love and justice. For Christians, it’s a call to live differently in the midst of the complex jagged edges of the world, following Jesus, believing that change can happen not through the exercise of power and violence but through the way of the cross.