The 4 Chapters #6
T.S. Eliot, The Atlanta Track Club & The Most Important Week in History

By Contributing Author, Robert Shashy

It’s Holy Week. After nearly 40 days of Lent, it’s a good time to reflect on where your relationship with God is at. In His poem Ash Wednesday, published in 1930 after converting to Anglicanism, T.S. Eliot begins with this stanza:

Because I do not hope to turn again
Because I do not hope
Because I do not hope to turn
Desiring this man’s gift and that man’s scope
I no longer strive to strive towards such things
(Why should the aged eagle stretch its wings?)
Why should I mourn
The vanished power of the usual reign?”

A Right Turn

I have regularly turned to this poem at the start of Lent myself to reflect on my desire to turn away from sin. For Eliot, these lines were a reflection on his desire not to be self-sufficient but to rely on God to provide in his new faith. I can relate to this desire to want to lean into Christ. Jesus invites us to do just this in Matthew 11:28-30 where He invites us to take His yoke upon ourselves and let Him do the hard labor. Yet, I did not read Eliot’s poem this year in the name of finishing my final few assignments for my last class in seminary. Maybe you didn’t know it was Lent, or maybe you did and you don’t really celebrate it. Regardless, I feel confident in saying that all people desire to turn from something and not turn again; and we all fail to do so perfectly. That’s okay. That’s what makes Holy Week the most important week in human history.

At the time of writing, it’s only the Tuesday of Holy Week, and yet the Bible has already accounted for Jesus’ riding into Jerusalem on a donkey—identifying Himself as the Prince of Peace (Matt. 21:1-11, Mark 11:1-11, Luke 19:28-44, John 12:12-50). He entered the temple on Monday to cleanse it then cursed a fig tree (Matt. 21:12-22, Mark 11:12-19, Luke 19:45-48). And on Tuesday He avoids four traps of the Jewish leaders, delivers seven woes, explains why He cursed the fig tree and provided a number of other parables and warnings (Matt. 21:23-26:5, Mark 11:27-14:2, Luke 20:1-22:2). Certainly, if He called it quit there it still would be a busy week. Of course, anyone even generally aware of Christianity knows that He shares a final supper with His apostles during Passover on Thursday (Matt. 26:17-75, Mark 14:12-72, Luke 22:7-71, John 13:1-18:27) and enters into His passion through His crucifixion on Friday (Matt. 27:1-61, Mark 15:1-47, Luke 23:1-56, John 18:28-19:42).

I think of everything that Jesus did for me, and yet I feel like in not making time to read that poem (among a number of other small acts) I fell short of glorifying Christ. But Jesus didn’t die for me to read a poem, and He certainly didn’t die for me, or you, or anyone to feel bad about it.

A Wrong Turn

On March 1st, the U.S. half marathon championship was held in Atlanta, Georgia. Jess McClain had a nearly insurmountable lead with about 1.5 miles to go in the race. However, the guide vehicle that leads the runners around the course took a wrong turn and she, along with the second and third place runners, followed the vehicles lead. This ultimately cost McClain the race, the prize money and a spot on the U.S. national team. McClain had tried for years to earn a spot on the national team, and had come up short each time. This time she had run the race well, and yet she still ended up without the prize. Despite immediately filing a protest, United States of America Track and Field said it was the runners’ responsibility to know the layout of the course. Eliot desired not to turn again, McClain took a wrong turn, but those in Christ can rest assured that Jesus is enough.

Even as I write this article, I can look at my sin over the period of Lent, my self-imposed Lenten curriculum, and even the words on the page I’m writing and feel I’m not enough. Yet, the Bible ensures those of us who feel we do not measure up that Jesus’ completed work is sufficient to please God on our behalf. The apostle John writes in his first letter:

“4 You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. 5 They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. 8 The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. 9 By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”

1 John 4:4-11, NASB1995

The apostle begins by ensuring his readers that they have overcome the sinfulness of the world not because of their own works, but because God is in them. Beginning in verse 7 he encourages his readers to love, because love is from God. But he makes it clear that this love is possible because of how it was displayed by Christ when He became the “propitiation” for our sins. This means that Jesus willingly did the work on His people’s behalf that would appease the righteous wrath of God. Paul makes a similar argument in Ephesians 2:4-10. Verse8 of this passage tells us that the saving work of Christ is not of or through ourselves but through the work of Christ. Paul also adds in verse 10 that Christians are saved for “good works.” While what those works are will, Lord willing, be explored in a future article, for now it’s important to see those works are a fruit of being saved, not a necessary ingredient in the actual act of saving. Yes, it is important to serve the Lord well, that was the point my last article. Yet, when we don’t run well—and there’s times we won’t—we don’t have to fall back into the self-reliance T.S. Eliot was seeking to escape or face the failure of a misguided vehicle like in Atlanta.

The One Who Didn’t Turn

In the same letter John writes “if we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9). He also writes a chapter later “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; ² and He Himself is the ^[propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.” (1 John 2:1-2). Both texts are an honest recognition that even after salvation, Christians sin. But both also point to the hope that Christ accomplished with His self-sacrificing death on Good Friday. That’s why this week is so important, because Jesus died for our sins on Friday that the just wrath of God was quenched, and He was raised from the dead on Sunday that we would have eternal hope. There are a number of passages we could look at to reinforce this point, but honestly, I think its enough right now ot encourage you to review the passages I shared at the beginning of the article and to trust the Holy Spirit will guide you in reflecting on those passages. Yet, I want to highlight on passage to consider how Jesus is our Advocate before concluding.

Earlier in this Lenten season I led a few Sunday school lessons on each of the Persons of the Trinity. I was so moved by studying each Person of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit that I ended up writing my final paper for seminary on the Person of the Holy Spirit. In both settings I found John 17 particularly encouraging. This chapter is known as the High Priestly prayer, because Jesus prays to the Father on behalf of His apostles and followers one last time before entering into His passion. In the first part of the prayer Jesus recognizes that the time has come for the Father to glorify Him because Jesus has faithfully obeyed the will of the Father. But Jesus doesn’t take this as an opportunity to toot His own horn, instead He spends much of the rest of the prayer praying that the Father would help Jesus’ disciples recognize Him as the Christ, that they would be protected from the evil of the world, and that they would be united. Of particular interest are verses 20 and 21:

“I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; 21 that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may [f]believe that You sent Me.”

John 17:20-21, NASB1995

In these verses Jesus is praying not just for Peter, James, John and the other men with Him in the upper room, but He is praying for all people who would come to faith throughout time. If you are a Christian, or you become a Christian, Jesus was praying for you. And the request is a major one—unity of the Church and unity of the believers with God. A major part of why Christians can make a wrong turn in life and not lose the prize is because they are united with God, with Christ, because Jesus prayed for them hours before He would be arrested, unfairly tried and then executed while innocent. Holy Week is the most important week in human history because it provides the only source of real hope in the face of human failure—of which there is seemingly an endless stream. Between Easter and Pentecost, I hope to look at how God accomplishes this unity of Himself and His Church, but for now I pray this article has been of some encouragement to you, especially if you feel like you’ve turned and turned again. Remember, you can always turn to Christ your Advocate before the Father. Have a blessed Easter.

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About the Author

Robert Shashy was born and raised in Jacksonville, Florida. He attended Catholic school from kindergarten through the 12th grade, and was devoted to weekly church attendance. While at the University of Florida, he began attending Reformed University Fellowship (RUF) meetings, and deepened his relationship with Christ. He remains compassionate towards practicing Roman Catholics, and believes Reformed Catholicity is key to both the American and global Church. He is in his final semester at Reformed Theological Seminary (RTSO) as a hybrid student, and is an aspiring church leader. Robert feels called by Christ to contextualize American culture to help the Church in sharing the Gospel in the 21st Century, and to inform modern Christians of who the Bible says they are, what society says about them, and how to follow Christ’s lead in those crosswinds. In his free time, Robert is a hobby board game enthusiast, and he looks forward to the day when the Church again embraces her roles of being a safehouse and a hospital.