“RIDE ON, KING JESUS – HOLY WEEK IS UPON US”
Holy Week comes into our lives where we live, as individuals and as a culture. It reminds us of the tragedy that courses through our collective and individual histories. The week begins in celebration of a new vision of compassion and justice and community, values that enable us to resist oppression. Many of Jesus’ followers are shocked that Rome and Jerusalem are able to absorb this parade and even to crush its values. The Cross reminds us that the powers are always resistant to God, are always resilient in their responses to God’s breakthroughs for justice and love, and are always threatening us with the cost of seeking justice and living lives based on love. Holy Week is God’s final reminder to us of the cost of discipleship, a reminder that asks us to consider our lives and the meaning of our lives.
Holy Week takes both the meaning of our lives and the cost of that meaning seriously. To live out of justice and love means that we will be in danger of being run over by the other parades of our lives – Rome, racism, Covid-19, war in Ukraine, Trumpdemic. We know that the story does not end here on the Cross, but the story does remind us of the cost of living lives based in justice and love. In order to get to the true meaning of our lives, we must encounter the Cross and walk with Jesus through that valley of the shadow of death. Thank God, it is not the final word, but it is a powerful word, and yes, we were there when they hung him on the tree.
So begins the drama of Holy Week – in excitement and high hopes. Yet this story is also filled with resistance and struggle. Jesus rides on into Jerusalem in this atmosphere of liberation and into a belief system that lifts up violence and domination and death. This week encourages us to enter into that drama, entering from whatever perspective we bring and entering in with whatever agenda we have. Some of us bring the high hopes and excitement of Palm Sunday. Some of us bring the puzzlement and confusion of Jesus’ refusal to overthrow the Romans. Some of us bring the struggles of life – trying to figure out why Jesus seems so intent on offering redemption and life to everyone, even the dreaded enemies. Some of us bring the disappointment of Maundy Thursday, when Jesus has an opportunity to strike the blow for freedom – instead he yields so easily to arrest. Ride on, King Jesus – by the way, where exactly are you going?
The drama of Holy Week – some of us know the defeat of execution, of Good Friday. We’ve known sorrows all our days, and this day of crucifixion touches those places of defeat and sorrow and suffering. Were we there when they crucified our Lord? Yes, many of us were, and we continue to be there, with our sons and parents and partners locked up in mass incarceration, with many of us trapped in a cycle of drug abuse and homelessness and domestic violence. Yes, we know that defeat, we know that suffering. We were there when they crucified our Lord. Ride on, King Jesus! Well, maybe, but are you sure that you know where you are going?
The drama of Holy Week is our story and God’s story. Ride On, King Jesus! And he does ride on, not to the throne of glory, or even to the throne of Rome. Rather he is given the death penalty by the state, as it is revealed to him and to us, that we would rather execute Jesus than be transformed by his love. After the cheering crowds of Palm Sunday, he ends up alone and feeling abandoned. The Gospel accounts indicate that all the male disciples flee in terror when Jesus is arrested – only the women disciples stay with him. Although Peter tries as hard as he can to keep his promise to follow Jesus to the end, even the Rock of the church decides to flee before the end arrives. We may not holler out “Crucify him!” but we definitely indicate that he is such a disappointment to us. Ride on, King Jesus – or maybe just ride on out of here.
This is the drama of Holy Week – we’re longing for love, but we’re believing in death. That’s the truth revealed to us in Holy Week – the truth that we do not have our acts together. The truth revealed to us is that we’re always scrambling to find that magic formula that will make us feel better, whether its guns or money or race or sex or sexual orientation or nation or control of women’s bodies – the list seems endless, but they all end up looking like and sounding like Holy Week. We’re longing for love but believing in death.
Ride on, King Jesus – and he does. Not to the throne of Rome but to the death penalty. It’s not the end of the story, but we must go through this part of the story this week. Let us find our place in this old, familiar but oh, so relevant story.
No comments:
Post a Comment