Tuesday, April 7, 2020
Monday, April 6, 2020
Monday Musings April 6, 2020
This is
the beginning of Holy Week. According the gospels of Mark and Luke, this is the
day that Jesus enters the temple and disrupts the business of the temple. In Matthew,
Jesus does this on what we call Palm Sunday. This act gives impetus for the
Temple elite to begin to plan to kill Jesus. I have always found it interesting
how the so-called leaders of the faith plot for his demise. Could it be because
he was so popular maybe more popular than they were, could it be as likely that
they were afraid that he and his followers would lead a revolt that would cause
Rome to further enslave them, or were they jealous of his abilities to attract
followers, to heal others, and to proclaim in a very concrete way the realm of
God?
Our life
group has been studying The Last Week by Marcus Borg and John Crossan. They talk
about Jesus confrontation of the “domination system” that influences social,
political, economic, and religious aspects of Jerusalem. According to them,
this was one of the main areas of conflict that led to Jesus’ arrest. That Jesus’
resurrection was one of God’s emphatic No for this system. I remember reading
in seminary a book, “I saw Satan fall from the Sky like Lightening.” (Through
the many moves, I have lost the name of the author.) One of thesis statements
of the book was the idea of scapegoating. In the earliest Jewish tradition at Yom
Kippur, the priest would take a goat and would place the sins of the nation on
the goat and sent it out into the wilderness. The author of the book stated
that in some of the same ways Jesus took on that role of scapegoat. He
postulates that when there are two opposing groups, one way of them coming
together is to see a third party as a common enemy. Much like family systems
that speak of triangulation. So, there was a collusion between the Roman
leaders and the Jewish leaders against Jesus. This becomes one of the
understandings of the atonement. Jesus is vindicated by God against this
collusion.
What is
interesting in looking at this, is the fact that such a collusion continues
today. We see some of the religious elite continue to collude with the ruling political
factions. I often wonder what Jesus would say about this collusion. Would he
challenge such a collusion? I would believe he would. Our constitution separates
and gives freedom to religious bodies. Yet, I have seen religious leaders care
more about their influence with political parties that denies that separation.
Lest anyone think I am only talking about one party; it occurs with both parties.
(Though one is more enmeshed.) These leaders attempt to forgo Jesus’ teachings
to focus primarily on their own prestige and power. Thus, you can see these
leaders defy caring for others and just focus on their own agendas without
thinking about how this conveys to Loving God and loving neighbor.
The challenge,
I would give for this Holy Week, is to remember Jesus, remember Matthew 25:31-46,
to remember Ezekiel 34 about the shepherds on the way they treat those that
they oversee. Each of us have a lot to atone for this Easter. If there is one
thing about this virus, we can take the time to reflect and confess our part in
maintaining any collusion. Also, to pray for all of us and especially those
who are front-line medical and those who stock the shelves of our grocery stores.
Have a
blessed Easter.
Eldon
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