Thinking Anew: Tomorrow, Palm Sunday, marks the beginning of the most important week in the Christian calendar, observed by solemn liturgical events in churches everywhere.
It is tempting to look back to the events of the first Holy Week, pass judgment on those involved and leave it at that: those fickle crowds cheering Jesus at first, rejecting him a few days later; the religious and political leaders of the time, apparently more preoccupied with their own survival than anything else; the friends and followers of Jesus, who failed so miserably by their betrayal, denial and desertion. The only sign of hope on the human side was the loyalty of the women and John, who were there to the end.
We cannot, however, leave the matter there, for Holy Week is ongoing. While we tend to focus on the trial of Jesus and the consequences for him, the truth is that it was humanity that was on trial and found wanting. When Jesus entered Jerusalem on that first Palm Sunday he was welcomed as a national liberator, but he was much more than that. His intention was to show by example the potential of our humanity for good and how unconditional love can confront evil. His presence there, threatened as he was by petty political and religious intrigue, connects the Gospel to real life, everyday events. Christianity is never about escaping from reality.
But Holy Week reminds us that a characteristic of struggling humanity is the inability to receive and embrace the perfection God wants for us and so to promote and enjoy justice, peace and reconciliation. We are unable to rise above self- interest or other prejudices and are diminished as a result. So in a real sense Judas did not betray Jesus; he betrayed himself. Peter did not deny Jesus; he denied himself. The remainder did not desert Jesus; they deserted themselves.
Last week solemn events took place to mark the anniversary of the passing of legislation in England in 1807 to end slavery, a trade that exemplifies a human failure of the worst kind and, sadly, one in which churches played a prominent role. In 1963 the struggle in America was still going on, with Dr Martin Luther King in prison following a civil rights march.
In Letter from a Birmingham Jail he responded to local church leaders who had criticised the event. He wrote that "the negro's great stumbling block in his stride for freedom is not the white citizens' council or the Ku Klux Klan but the white moderate who is more devoted to 'order' than to justice; who prefers a negative peace, which is the absence of tension, to a positive peace which is the presence of justice." That same attitude was clearly present in the mind of Pilate and the others who tried to destroy Jesus.
Responding to an accusation that he was an extremist, Dr King declared that Jesus was an extremist for love, citing the command to love our enemies and to bless those that curse us. He insisted that the real choice is between being an extremist for hate or an extremist for love, two emotions powerfully present in the events of Holy Week.
In our reflections this Holy Week it is important to make the connection between what happened then and what is going on around us today. We know from experience how costly and destructive hatred will always be: it is well documented in the pages of human history. But this is a week made special, not by hatred and betrayal, but by a love that was indestructible and forgiving and which, 2,000 years on, still encourages us to live in hope for our world and for ourselves.
"The Cross is a way of life; the way of love meeting all hate with love, all evil with good, all negatives with positives". GL