Entering the Scene

Gospel: Matthew 21: 1-11

Many homilists today will tell us that this crowd that welcomes Jesus into Jerusalem will in five short days turn on him and call for his execution.  But this is false.  They are two distinct crowds of people.  From all three accounts of today's event it is clear that today's crowd is a crowd of Jesus' disciples and followers who are making pilgrimage to Jerusalem for the feast of Passover.  They have organized this symbolic event to make a point.  The Good Friday crowd is organized by the religious leaders intent on putting Jesus to death.  

What point is being made with this parade? Jesus enters the city of peace on animals signifying peace. He does not come on a war steed seeking domination and armed conflict.  He comes in the spirit of peace to bring that peace to all.  Throughout his ministry Jesus entered a town providing healing, freedom from demons, and nourishment.  He told his disciples to go from town to town extending their peace to the place.  The entire ministry and posture of Jesus is one of peace extended to all.  

Symbolic events are important for us to make.  We must recognize they are performative and will not immediately result in what we hope for.  Yet their value lies in what posture we wish to have before the world.  Today's event, if we enter into it ourselves, is to put us in the posture of peace so that we might have that peace in the upcoming scenes of the passion we will encounter, that we might enter into them, see the choices that lay before us in them, and to endeavor to be that posture of peace in all we do each day.

 

A Fateful Choice

Gospel: John 11: 45-56

The religious authorities of Jesus' day are afraid that if everyone follows him that the Romans will come and destroy the nation.  It is unclear why they have this belief.  Certainly there were people calling for Jesus to be made king, but he rejected such a title at every turn and showed no indications of desiring political power or influence.  Jesus in his teachings offered no overt political message, showing no partiality in the people he cared for in his work of healing, liberating, and feeding.  

Yet, this fear of the religious leaders will lead to a fateful choice later this week at Jesus' trial.  They will decide between Jesus and Barabbas.  The choice is an ironic one for two reasons.  The first is that Barabbas means "son of the father" and he was in fact a political revolutionary.  In choosing Barabbas over Jesus, they choose the path of violence which leads to yet another irony in causing what they claimed to have feared - destruction of the nation at the hand of the Roman Empire.  

We too have this same choice to make.  We can choose the path of Barabbas with the excessive attention on politics and power, a path of violence that leads to destruction.  Or we can follow the path of Jesus which is the path of mercy and care for others, a path of providing healing for those ailing, liberation for those gripped by their demons, and nourishment for those hungry in body and spirit.  Set before us is life and death, a blessing and a curse.  May we choose life. 

Doing the Good

Gospel: John 10: 31-42

It is undeniable that Jesus performs many good deeds for people throughout Judea and Galilee.  People are healed, liberated from their sins, and fed in their hunger.  And yet the religious authorities want to put him to death.  Jesus appeals to the good deeds in defending himself against his detractors.  What they find more important than good deeds is their theology - they claim he blasphemes in calling himself God's son, even though Jesus rightly notes that the tradition states we are all children of God.

How often is it the case that we place theology over the practice of good deeds in the life of religion! We denigrate the good work of others because they do not belong to our tribe, attend the liturgy we attend, or subscribe to our theological school.  No matter that they are caring for the sick and poor better than we are! All of that is somehow negated by theology in our petty worlds.  We would rather see people suffer than for our theology to be crossed.  

And therein lies the rub.  It isn't really about theology either.  It is about our power, status, influence, and ego.  Jesus is a threat to the religious authorities of his day because he threatens these things, even though he is not seeking power at all and he does these good things to genuinely help others.  Following Jesus will always be a threat to religious leaders for the same reasons.  The world cannot understand people who do not want power and who only wish to do good for others.