Laughing Last
Holy Week and the Death of Death
“If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith” (1 Corinthians 15:13-14).
This Sunday, March 29, 2026, is Palm Sunday. It begins the unfolding drama of Holy Week in the Christian Church. Holy week is the final week of Lent — a time of solemn reflection, repentance, fasting, and preparation. Holy Week is a bit of a roller coaster ride for those who keep track of the story.
Palm Sunday commemorates the “triumphal entry” of Jesus, where those welcoming him into Jerusalem for the last time in his earthly ministry provide makeshift banners with palm branches waved in his honor. Jubilation and celebration welcome the one whom many believe will fulfill the promises of God’s blessing to Israel and to all the world, once and for all.
Sadly, as Holy Week progresses, it takes on a more somber tone.
Plots by political and religious leaders to get rid of Jesus once and for all find their way into the story. After all, Jesus’s ways of peace are a threat to Rome, who rules through aggression, war, and power. And Jesus’s ways of grace are a threat to local religious leaders who assert their power through rules and through fear. So, the religious and the not-so-religious, the liberals and the conservatives in power, all finally agree on one thing: Jesus must die!
Maundy Thursday (Holy Thursday) of Holy Week reminds us that Jesus is aware of what is going on around him, even though his closest friends and followers do not. He gathers them together during the Passover meal, and uses the meal to prepare them for his forthcoming death, and to prepare them for how they are to live in response to the fear-driven world around them. It is what we in the Church call the Lord’s Supper, or, the Eucharist (from the Greek term meaning “thanksgiving”). Later that night, Jesus will be arrested by religious leaders who value power and fear more than they value the ways of love and peace taught by Jesus. They sell out to the ways of Rome in order to keep their place as influential religious leaders (and yes, this still happens today!).
Good Friday, the Friday of Holy Week, was not so “good” in its first version. Jesus is subjected to a mockery of a trial, sold out by some of his own followers, and is turned over to be killed by Pilate after his own political standing is threatened through manipulation (yes, this kind of things happens today, too!). And Jesus dies a brutal, torturous death on “Good” Friday.
Saturday is an “in-between” kind of day. It is often a day of watching, waiting, and anticipating what God will do next. It is very much like much of our life experiences: We attentively wait on God’s next move, even while we’re surrounded by what seems to be bad news.
THEN CAME SUNDAY! This Jesus who was dead, as the Gospels proclaim and as Paul spells out so eloquently in 1 Corinthians 15, comes to life again. This is no mere resuscitation, by the way. When a person is resuscitated, that person gains a temporary reprieve, but will some day die again. The resurrection of Jesus is a once-for-all kind of thing: Death has been defeated and can never touch him again. As Paul puts it: “For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him” (1 Corinthians 15:22-23).
Holy Week begins with cheers, as does life for many of us. It includes times of deception, betrayal, selling out, and tragic death. Our lives have moments like that, too. However, Holy Week culminates with a new season: A season of joyous resurrection, where the most frightening thing we can imagine — death — is defeated once and for all. First, it is defeated by Christ through the resurrection, and then he shares that same resurrection with us.
A playwright from the mid-16th Century once wrote: “He who laughs last, laughs best.” Easter is the beginning of the last laugh. It is not the empty mocking laughter of short-sighted politicians or their religious flunkies. It is instead a laughter unfettered by guilt, shame, deceit, mockery, or death. Come, join the laughter of God, and embrace the defeat of death and the fullness of life!