Last Sunday morning by chance, I had a brief conversation with a learned friend and former colleague, who just happens to be on the Gospel Reflections mailing list. He thanked me for regularly sending through the email reminder ... then to my surprise he went on to lament about exactly the same things that have been bothering me in the lead-up to Easter. In short, he was questioning why it is that we seem to have almost a morbid approach to our holy week focus with an over-emphasis on sin and death. (He was doing his own reflection on the question in John's gospel "What is truth?" ... and the companion statement elsewhere in John which perhaps answers that question ... "the truth shall set you free".)
So as we hear the story again this year, of Jesus making His dramatic entry into Jerusalem, we are reminded of the one great truth of this world ... Jesus is Lord! ... the truth that "shall set you free" ... but can I rephrase into past tense? ... a truth that HAS set us free!
That is surely a critical point to bear in mind. We have been set free for all time! (past tense, end of story, when Jesus announced from the cross that "It is finished".) In tracking the whole Easter story do we spend a disproportionate amount of time on the rather negative and gruesome aspects of these events, with not enough emphasis on celebration? It's good to re-visit the events of Easter, but maybe Palm Sunday should be seen more as the starting gun for a week of intense celebration, which in turn should be year-round and indeed life-long celebration for us all.
How will we CELEBRATE Holy Week events in our Lutheran Schools this year?
Getting back specifically to our reading for the week ... one final thought ...
The Palm Sunday story is probably reasonably well known to most of us. Interestingly, it is only John's gospel that has any reference to palm branches. But in this version from Mark, a seemingly trivial observation is that more than half of the detail of the account is about finding the donkey!
But perhaps the imagery associated with that is not so trivial for us today. Thomas G. Long identifies the role of DONKEY FETCHER. I started translating that idea to our role as leaders in Lutheran Schools. The disciples were making arrangements, preparing the way, for the ministry of Jesus. So too, we are donkey fetchers today. We make arrangements for the (on-going) ministry of Jesus. If we fail to pay attention to the trivial yet minute detail associated with fetching the donkey, we probably do not adequately set the scene, prepare the environment, make sufficiently ready, for the ministry of Jesus.
(Note also in the donkey fetching scene, the two sets of people involved, as crazy as the request and directive is, just get on with the job ... no questions asked!) In modern-day terms, imagine walking into a new car showroom and saying to the salesman -
"Can I have the keys to this new (never been driven) Holden Cruze? ... my boss needs it for a parade."
"Sure mate ... no problems!" the salesman responds.
That's the bizarre nature of being called on to fetch donkeys for Jesus!
Happy donkey fetching this week (and always)!
Nev
Have been pondering just the same myself with the juxtaposition of easter in the supermarkets/advertising with the bouncy, happy, toothy smiles of easter (lowercase on purpose) and the morose sadness that overwhelms many Christian churces at Easter. I've a dear friend who, in her Christian church (Baptist), celebrates Easter as the most overwhelmingly joyous event in the Christian calendar. Little emphasis on the crucifixion...major emphasis on Resurrection. The excitement over Easter is palpable in comparison.
ReplyDeleteOn another note - interesting observation from a 7 year old grandson..."why is Jesus always talked about at Steeple? We don't talk about God much". Hard to explain the one and sameness to a 7 year old, but did give me food for thought. On quizzing him, his simplified perspective is all about Jesus "being born or being dead", but God is about love and kindness. Got me thinking...