I love the Christian Holy Week, or as the literal Welsh translation calls it “The Great Week”, that week from Palm Sunday through to Easter Sunday. I can see myself in so many of the characters – part of the crowd that gets excited because everyone else is excited on the Sunday. I often don’t need to know what’s going on to get emotionally involved – to cry at a single musical theatre song, to cheer when someone wins something even if I’m not sure of the event. People’s emotions connect with me, which means I could also see myself as part of the angry mob too because I could so easily get caught up with the moment.
I can understand why the disciples asked Jesus why he was curing the fig tree, why he trashed the temple, wonder what he was on about when he said the temple would be rebuild in three days; have traveled with him for so long and yet still not got the message.
I could so easily have been Judas, not so much betraying but trying to force Jesus’ hand in, what I saw was a safer or more effective way; could have been Peter who one day totally gets it and calls Jesus Messiah then later on denies him when he’s afraid of the consequences.
Knowing the end of the story I’d love to say that I would have just done the cheering, just done the Messiah acknowledging, not denied, not thought Jesus wasn’t sure what he was doing, would have totally got what was going on. But that’s because I know what happens next.
I realise, if I’m totally honest with myself, if I was there and didn’t know what came next I would be as fallible as the rest of those there. I would have slept when I should have been awake, would have run away when I should have stayed, would have hidden behind locked doors rather than have walked boldly.
So this year as I listen to the Bible Society read to me the The Great Week stories – I try to remember how fickle and fallible that I truly am. And then remember that God knows that anyway and loves me unconditionally anyway.
My little dog, Renly, and Mikey the greyhound who I walk twice a week. Photographed 25th March 2024 by myself. Both dogs but both not only very different in size but in temperament. Mikey is very nervy and scared of his own shadow whereas Renly would take on the world
I am really enjoying working my way through Holy Week, looking at things differently and see what God reveals to me, and then sharing it with you.
Today the verses read in churches are Judas betraying Jesus [Matthew 26:14-16] and Mary anointing Jesus at Simon the Lepers house [Matthew26:6-13] Interestingly the gospel of John puts Mary anointing Jesus as six days before Passover and the day before Palm Sunday. But I’m going with the Matthew order because it suits my story letting and the point I’d like to make. See we all change things to suit what we would like to say 🙂
So there are three key people in these stories –
Judas, who has followed Jesus for about three years, has been picked as one of the top twelve, knows Jesus intimately, was there when Peter said “You are the Christ”, and yet wants to force Jesus’s hand. It is like he has worked out, though what he has heard from Jesus, what the ultimate goal is, and so he wants to take control, do things his way and move things along a bit. He knows that the high priests want to do something to get rid of Jesus, but I think Judas believes that if he takes control then Jesus will smite all who are oppressing the people. Really following from Jesus’s trashing of the temple the religious leaders were exploiting the people in their worship as much as the Romans were exploiting the people in their regular work life. So Judas had it worked out and “knew” he could sort things out.
Simon the Leper, was high up in society, has money and influence, and sees in Jesus maybe a kindred spirit. He knows this is someone he needs to get in with, to get to know better. He can pick up that there is something about Jesus that he likes and wants more of. So he invites Jesus to a meal to chat with him, to find out more about him, to work out whether he is worth supporting.
Mary, the woman who “wastes” an expensive perfume anointing Jesus. Tradition says she could have been a prostitute but we don’t know, but from Simon’s reaction she isn’t the sort of person who should be messing with the man he might sponsor. We never know where she gets the perfume. It has been said she saved it up from her prostitution work, but that was a lot of perfume so either she was a high-class prostitute or she was quite old. I do like the idea of her being a high-class whore and that some of the men eating with Jesus at the moment, and maybe even Simon himself, had known her intimately and it had been some of their money that had paid towards that perfume. Anyway wherever it came from she doesn’t care. She is so in love with this man and sees so much in him that she wants to just abundantly worship him and not give a stuff what anyone else things.
So we have
The believer who wants things done their way
The almost believer who wants more proof before they commit
The abundant worshiper who crazily worships without need control, details or proof.
So which one are you? Which one am I?
I would say I’m all three.
Sometimes I get mad at Jesus because I believe I know what the right way would be, what God should/shouldn’t do. But then I and either God doesn’t tell me what I want to hear, or for a situation I don’t get the answers I think are right for that given situation. This is because God see the bigger picture. But I still, at times, would like to force God’s hand.
Sometimes I am wary of committing and would like a bit more proof, please. Like that whole thing of not being open about what I believe, not telling people I’m praying for them. But also at times not praying or doing because I’ve felt I’ve been let down by God before and so I don’t quite trust them.
And then there are times when I need no proof and don’t care what the outcome is or what other people thing but just trust in Jesus and am able to worship with a free heart.
I believe all three of these people appear at this part of the story to help us see who diverse we are. None of these people are wrong [Jesus had to be crucified so it wasn’t Judas who did it but it was God’s plan – another blog maybe???] All were doing what we all do at certain times during our Christian walk – getting mad and trying to control God, wanting more proof, unhindered worship.
I think we need to learn to be kinder on ourselves and realise God knows us fully, loves us fully, died for us fully, and so it is ok to roll between these different ways that we accept Jesus, but also at the end of Monday’s post, come back to forgiving – ourselves, each other, God – and not feel guilty for “getting it wrong again”
Also when I think too often we think of singing as singing. And there is nothing wrong with that. But as when Mary anoints Jesus she is worshiping by making a bit of a spectacle of herself and giving away something important. Sometimes, I think, that for me that can listening to the old ladies I see on my dog walk and not judging, not telling them what they should do, but really listening, and then giving it to God afterwards. Sometimes it is chattering to the birds and the trees and the sea and the sky and telling it how amazing it is.
With Mary it moves back to that thing from Palm Sunday of what would I be willing to give to Jesus in extravagant worship, like with the laying of the coats in front of the donkey?
I planning, at least at this end of the week, to do a blog post for every day of what the Western Christian Church calls Holy Week. So we start with Palm Sunday.
Being brought up in an Anglican church every Palm Sunday we would get give Palm crosses. Little things of dried palm leaves woven into a cross.
As children we would then use them as swords and fight each other on the way home. The meaning totally missed!
But it got me thinking about the palms that were allegedly strewn as the feet of the donkey Jesus was on as he rode into Jerusalem. How big were they? Where did they come from? Who thought of it first?
Did you know that is it only in John’s gospel that it states palm leaves? In the other three gospels it says people lay their garments or cut rushes to lay in front of Jesus’ path. Always interesting how Church tradition picks on one thing and we all decide that was what it was.
I have just googled palm leaves and found out they are not as big as I thought. They would not have been that hard to gather and wave and strew.
They are a good size but not huge. I think this procession is a bit awesome. Though its a shame they aren’t stood at the side of the road so we could see how a donkey would have managed walking over them
But then this morning my husband went to church and this is what he came back with – being held by a small cuddly donkey I bought from the Isle of Wight Donkey sanctuary.
My first thought when I saw it was the Doug Horley song “Have we made our God too small?” Do click on the link and have a listen.
But in truth I do wonder if we have made our God too small. We give out small dry crosses when at the time the people grabbed whatever was nearest and acted out an honouring. In ancient Near Eastern cultures it was seen as customary to cover the path of someone seen worthy of honouring. So here were the local people maybe not quite realising who Jesus was but understanding he was something worth honouring, and so they honouring him with whatever they had at hand; whether their cloaks, palm leaves or reeds. That doesn’t matter. But they took what they had to hand to honour Jesus as he boldly but peaceably rode into the main capital city just a few days before the biggest Jewish festival of the year.
We do do this. Look at pictures of when our royalty die or are crown.
Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral parade. See the flowers being thrown.
But we almost keep the whole doing that for Jesus as something quiet. I do know some churches do parades on Palm Sunday. The ones I’ve been involved in have been small, almost embarrassed affairs where we all huddle together for safety and talk to each other hoping not to engage with anyone else!!!
I was going to say if we really got the enormity of the whole Palm Sunday thing what would we do, but we have to remember these people mention in the gospels – whether fully true or exaggerated by writerly poetic license – did not know what the significance of Jesus riding on a donkey into Jerusalem meant but they still turned up. They still made a bit of a fuss. They still gave of what they had.
I think, because it is mentioned in all four gospels, it did happen and it was a big enough event for many people to say they remembered it. It is alleged that Mark interview Peter for his gospel, and also we have to remember that both Matthew and John were there. So even if they remember it slightly differently once they knew the significance it still happened.
Oh and I’ve also realised that we see Sunday as a day off or a day to be at church but for those ancient Near Eastern peoples it was a working day. For the Jews it was the first day back at work after Shabbat. They took time out of their working day to watch this enigmatic person ride by on a symbol of peace when they were in a country oppressed by a strong military junta. Now that is even more amazing!!!
So again what would I do, what would you do, if we were there and if we knew Jesus was coming to our town? We don’t know this is his final Sunday but we do want to do something honouring. We are willing to take time off work for this.
What would we do? I don’t think we would just shyly wave and fiddle with these woven things we get given at church on Palm Sunday. I’d like to think I’d take off my new DryRobe and let his donkey trample over it and not feel either disgruntled or proud that I had done that. What would you give?
Aspirational Adventures 