Lent 6C: Philippians 2:5-11, Luke 19:28-40 “Dangerous Words”
It’s roller coaster week for many Christians throughout the world. If we read the gospels as a narrative we will go from shouts of loud “Hosanna” for a great hero to a gruesome death on the cross. And then of course the empty tomb. Let’s pick up where we left off last week. Mary of Bethany has just demonstrated extravagant love for Jesus by anointing his feet with nard from India, at the cost of a year’s wages for many. We pondered this outpouring of love, esteem and anticipatory grief. Jesus had raised Mary’s brother Lazarus from the grave, and this miraculous act had served to increase his popularity to great proportions.
The religious leaders were beside themselves with fear that Jesus’ teachings would sway the Jews and bring the wrath of Rome in addition. The chief priests and Pharisees are quoted in John’s gospel as saying, “What are we to do? This man is performing many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and our nation.” Caiaphas, a high priest, proclaimed that it was better for one man to die than to have the whole nation destroyed.
As we ponder this scene, we see how desperate those in power can become when signs of a new order present themselves. As you may recall, the chief priests and the Pharisees gave orders that anyone who knew where Jesus was should let them know, so that they might arrest him. They also planned to put Lazarus to death, as “it was on account of him that many of the Jews were deserting and were believing in Jesus.”
In the days between what we call Palm Sunday and Easter, Jesus will impart many teachings to the disciples, and hence to us, about living and dying. “I have come as a light into the world, so that everyone who believes in me should not remain in the darkness. I do not judge anyone who hears my words and does not keep them, for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.” (John 12:44-47)
He has demonstrated his solidarity with the common folk by riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, just as many of them will do as they prepare for the feast of the Passover. Jesus would celebrate this feast with his disciples, but in a different way than they expected. “Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end..And during supper Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him.” (John 13:1-5)
I see this act of hospitality on Jesus’ part as similar in meaning to riding a donkey into Jerusalem. It is a reflection of his humility. He uses it to impart another message. “After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example that you should do as I have done to you.”
As he begins to tell the disciples of his immanent departure, he also promises them the appearance of the Holy Spirit, whom God will send in Jesus’ name to remind them of everything Jesus has taught them, and who will continue to teach them everything. This outpouring of God’s love will happen later, on the day we celebrate as Pentecost.
Jesus will speak these sweet words to them, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.”
There are many Christians throughout history who have remained resolute to the gospel in the face of impending death. The third century Christian martyr Perpetua was one. During the Roman persecution of the Christians, she was incarcerated for death in the coliseum. The Romans took great pleasure in demonstrating to bloodthirsty crowds the type of death that awaited those who loved Christ more than Caesar. And so it was that this young mother was led into the coliseum to be fed to the wild beasts. None would devour her, however, so a centurion was sent forth to slay her. As with the animals, she showed no fear. Her dreams had convinced her of her immortality. The man was so anxious in her presence that he could not kill her. She took the dagger from his hand and slit her own throat. Her story became so wildly popular that it would then threaten to usurp scriptural accounts used in worship and it was thus weaned out of the liturgy of the church.
I’d like to use this opportunity to speak of another Christian martyr whose death we remembered just last week. On March 23, 1980, Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador was assassinated because he was considered to be a threat to the established order. It has been 30 long years since that event, and it was finally recognized publicly for the first time last Wednesday. He was one of the bishops who stood behind the daring reexamination of the church’s mission to Latin America in 1968. There, the bishops rejected both capitalism and communism. Speaking of an “injustice that cries to heaven,” the bishops committed themselves to the cause of justice and called on Christians to take the side of peasants and Indians in their struggle for dignity and better living conditions. “The Christian quest for justice,” they declared, “is a demand of biblical teaching.”
The man who reported this event to me, in my Christian history class, was Justo L. Gonzalez, author of The Story of Christianity. Gonzalez would predict, in that 1985 text, that the poor of the southern hemispheres would, in the 21st century, become the teachers of the northern hemisphere.
I found more of his writings in a 1995 publication, Reading from this Place: Social Location and Biblical Interpretation in the United States. He shed new light on a scripture passage that I had merrily skipped through in the past. It can give us another morsel of wisdom to ponder during Holy Week. Of course you remember the denials of Peter, who did not wish to be crucified along with Jesus during that week. It was clear to the people seeking Jesus’ followers that Peter was one of the disciples, because of his speech. He had an accent. He was a Galilean. He was an outsider.
The events of Holy Week are called “the passion narrative.” States Gonzalez, “…much of what is at stake in the passion narrative is the conflict between the periphery that has been visited by the Word of God (Galilee) and the center (Jerusalem) that sees its prestige and authority threatened by that very Word, and by the center’s inability to control it.” (p. 139, vol. 1)
My grandmother was a devout Christian. Every Saturday night she would examine her soul to see if she held any grievances against another. As we enter into Holy Week, culminating with Communion next Sunday, I offer you these words from A Course in Miracles: “Give faith to your brother, for faith and hope and mercy are yours to give…Look on your brother, and see in him the gift of God you would receive. It is almost Easter, the time of resurrection…The crucified give pain because they are in pain, but the redeemed give joy because they have been healed of pain.”
Our closing hymn will tell the story of Holy Week through the perception of a 17th Century hymn writer. It was not appreciated for 200 years thence. Samuel Crossman sings his “plain belief,” that brings him joy. Please join me in singing hymn #222, “My Song Is Love Unknown.”
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