Wednesday in Holy Week - April 16

Collect for the Wednesday in Holy Week
Lord God, whose blessed Son our Savior gave his body to be whipped and his face to be spit upon: Give us grace to accept joyfully the sufferings of the present time, confident of the glory that shall be revealed; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. 

Once again, the collect appointed for this day has very little history. It was written by an anonymous author for the 1892 revision of the American Prayer Book. It didn’t make it in to the Book until the 1928 version, where it was appointed for the Tuesday in Holy Week. The current prayer book moved it to Wednesday because it fits better with the lessons appointed for this day.

Especially since I don’t know the author, I am emboldened to change one word in the collect. I’ll come back to this, but I take exception to the word “joyfully.” “Give us grace to accept joyfully the sufferings of the present time…”

The collect is about suffering. Jesus endured suffering. Although it’s not explicitly stated in the collect, the important implication is that he endured suffering on his way to glory. On his way to resurrected glory. We pray that we may accept suffering confident in the glory to come.

The collect says that Jesus “gave” himself to shame and bodily pain, to suffering. That wording is a little misleading, too. He clearly didn’t seek out suffering. He didn’t say to himself: I need to go out today and find somebody to spit on me… But he accepted suffering. As Hebrews says, he “endured” suffering. He endured suffering as an inescapable part of human existence. Also, he didn’t draw on divine powers to avoid or end his suffering. He didn’t send a thunderbolt to zap his persecutors. Suffering is an inevitable part of human existence.

The fact that Jesus suffered surely shows that God doesn’t send pain and suffering as some sort of punishment. Jesus suffering: God didn’t send it. Jesus didn’t seek it. Jesus didn’t eliminate it. But Jesus does show us that there is a path beyond suffering to glory.

The problem with the word “joyfully,” at least for me, is that it seems to imply that suffering is necessary or good somehow, something that should be welcomed or sought out. And I don’t really think that’s the intent of this collect and certainly not of the Gospel. Suffering is a part of human life, human activity, human relationships, including Jesus’. It is not something to be sought, but it is inescapable.

There are lots of kinds of suffering, of course. Physical suffering. Shame. Mental anguish. All of the ways that we in our lives we fall short of our hopes. Suffering is a part of all of our lives.

But these are the things to remember:

Suffering is not something to be sought. Never fear that you have not had enough suffering to enter into glory.

Jesus suffered. Never fear that suffering will somehow prevent you from entering into glory.

Looking to Jesus, have confidence, even in the midst of suffering, that glory lies ahead.