This stops here!

Rachel Held Evans reminded us, in one of her blogs, that the week between Palm Sunday and Easter was a Holy mess

“Holy Week” she writes, “wasn’t perfect for the disciples. They betrayed, ran away, lied, despaired, and doubted… Holy Week wasn’t perfect for Jesus. He wept. He wondered if there was another way.  He experienced the same agony and isolation that inspired the poet David to ask, “My God, my God. Why have you forsaken me?”

 

But maybe that’s how was supposed to be.

Maybe the somber passion of Holy Week, bracketed as it is

between the riotous, victorious noise of Palm Sunday

and the victorious quiet of Easter Sunday

 

teaches us something important

about how salvation comes, about how the work of God is done

 

Perhaps the painful journey of Holy Week reminds us that the only way Jesus could get from that moment when he was declared King, to that moment, as the risen one, he became the King

 

Was to humble himself

Was to enter into the pain of the people

Was to walk into the worst the world could offer,

And carry it all,

All that pain, and fear

All that greed and lust for power

All the failure

Everything - to the cross

 

The whole strange strategy of God is summed up in Philippians 2

Paul, quoting an ancient hymn, says, that Jesus,

though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God

as something to be exploited, but emptied himself,

taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness.

And being found in human form, he humbled himself

and became obedient to the point of death–

even death on a cross…

 

Holy week is thus not a tragic story about a misunderstood man, but a triumphant story about God through Jesus becoming King of the world, not by using the violence and force of the world.

 

but by using the power of unselfish, sacrificial love.

 

That’s why he entered Jerusalem.

That’s why he went to the cross.

and gave his life, as a lamb lead to the slaughter (Isaiah 53)

 

This is a story about how God works

about how the victory of love is truly one

about how the kingdom of God is established on earth

 

and it involves a Crucified God.

 

We need this story, because, as Anne Lamontt once put it, we are Easter people,

Living in a Good Friday World

 

We live in a world that worships power

That seeks domination

That embraces affluence as merit

 

we live in a world where people use power, and dominance, and wealth

and yes, violence, to get what they want

 

we live in an oppressive world

where people struggle and are crushed,

And raise their voices

Crying

 

Lord,  Save us, now

Save us now

 

and we need to remember that the way of Jesus collides head on

with the way of Pontius Pilot, with the way of the world

 

and that salvation comes, not through the abusive and oppressive use of power

not through violence,

but through humility, and sacrifice

through generosity and compassion

through forgiveness and love

 

healing comes, newness comes

as we enter into the mess

stare hate in the face

and say “this stops here”, and refuse to participate in the hate, the racism, the violence, the abusive oppression of others