March 16, 2008
Jesus’ impact has not so much been written on, as ploughed into the history
of the world. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Holy Week begins with a processional.
Jesus rides into Jerusalem from the East by way of the Mount of Olives. He
hears the shouts of the poor: Hosanna, save us now!
Pontius Pilate rides into Jerusalem from the west, from his palace in
Caesarea.
He enters at the head of the Roman Imperial army.
The Jesus procession proclaimed the kingdom of God; Pilate’s procession
proclaimed the power of the empire.
(This is an idea developed in M. Borg and J. D. Crossan’s book: The Last
Week.)
These two processions embody the conflict that led to Jesus’ crucifixion and
death on Friday.
The poor shouted because they wanted release from the way things were – The
Pilates of the world had the power, the money, and they intended to keep it
that way.
It is inevitable – there will be a collision.
It will be a collision of the world’s system of power and wealth and God’s
system of the power of love.
The imperial procession had the power to define the “Way things are.”
But the Jesus procession was one of teaching, healing, loving, and
questioning the way things were by the shining of a new light on the way
things are.
Jesus, upon entering Jerusalem, overturned the moneychangers’ tables and
said that as long as people were being treated unjustly outside the temple,
there could be no business as usual.
Jesus proclaimed and lived a better way…………He challenged the way things
are – and they crucified him.
Yet we know that’s not the whole story.
Which processional are you in today? Do you justify the way things are with
a toss of the head and “that’s just the way things are. Besides we do not
have the power to do anything about it anyway.” And then go back to hiding
inside your Ipod, your home, inside your soul.
I pray you won’t rest easy this week.
Jesus is here to challenge your justifications for life as it is now. Jesus
is here to challenge injustice and inequity whether or not it is in Columbia
or Darfur.
If justice is crying out, justice will one day be served.
Movement to light can never be stopped. Stay tuned.
