Jesus went to Jerusalem NOT to die for humanity but the SERVE humanity! This week is not about suffering as much as it is about “sacrifice”.  “If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. Mt 16:25

The focus of Holy Week should be to understand that this week is about US not about Jesus! He said: “I am the Way”, take up YOUR CROSS and follow me. Comfort those who are poor and oppressed and afflict those who are powerful, famous, and wealthy for the Kingdom of God is about distributive justice not exclusive justice for the powerful, the famous and the wealthy.

“Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Mt 5:10

Jesus shows us the Way to follow him and advocate for the Kingdom of God. Not as a braggadocios soapbox preacher but as a humble voice for those less fortunate. Not as a “superhero”, come to save the day. No, as one who “walks the walk” and not just preach about it!!

NO! Holy Week is about us! We should be out in front of Church leaders and politicians calling for change, for distributive justice, for healthcare for all, for measures to help women avoid getting an unwanted pregnancy, to stop discrimination against LGBTQ persons, to eliminate racism, antisemitism, to ban assault riffles and other instruments of injustice.

Walking the walk means we do what Jesus expects us to do: be willing to risk our lives for others. Resistance to a system of society is to risk your social life, to possibly lose friends and even family members.

“Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but division. From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”…Luke

“If I sit next to a madman as he drives a car into a group of innocent bystanders, I can’t, as a Christian, simply wait for the catastrophe, then comfort the wounded and bury the dead. I must try to wrestle the steering wheel out of the hands of the driver.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer

12:51-53

The Jewish people expected their messiah to be a “knight in shining armor” riding on a white stallion and instead he was a peasant on a donkey.

Jesus echoes the words of the prophet Jeremiah: “Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you?” Jeremiah 7:11

He was afflicting the comfortable- his fellow Jews who were taking advantage of those who were there to worship for the Passover.

Many Jews were collaborating with the Romans for power, fame, and fortune!

There are consequences for speaking out and especially for taking action.

“When the chief priests and the scribes heard it, they kept looking for a way to kill him, for they were afraid of him because the whole crowd was spellbound by his teaching. And when evening came, Jesus and his disciples went out of the city.” Mt 21:18-19

“Then Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, went off to the chief priests to hand him over to them. When they heard him they were pleased and promised to pay him money. Then he looked for an opportunity to hand him over.” Mk 14:10-11

Modern martyrs for righteousness

“Like the early Christians, we must move into a sometime hostile world armed with the revolutionary gospel of Jesus Christ. With this powerful gospel we shall boldly challenge the status quo.” –Martin Luther King, Jr.

If we are worth anything, it is not because we have more money or more talent, or more human qualities. Insofar as we are worth anything, it is because we are grafted onto Christ’s life, his cross and resurrection. That is a person’s measure. Oscar Romero

“In a gentle way, you can shake the world.” Ghandi

“Few will have the greatness to bend history itself, but each of us can work to change a small portion of events. It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.” Robert F. Kennedy

MORE TO COME>CHECK TOMORROW!