That’s What Holy Week’s All About, Charlie Brown

from Stand Firm by David Fischler 

For most people, Holy Week is about worship, about remembrance, about gratitude that the Son of God would give His life to save His people. But for some, Holy Week, like every other day of the year, is about politics.David Henson, who says he is a postulant for Episcopal ministry (of course!) makes this claim in a post at his Patheos blog:

Church is the last place Christians should be during Holy Week.
[I]f we want to follow our Savior through Holy Week, if we want to experience Holy Week in a way that reflects our Savior’s own experiences during that first holy week, then we won’t find ourselves in a pew, in a church, in a service.
We would find ourselves in the streets. In anger. In protest. In search of justice.
Just like Jesus.

Yes, just like Jesus. He was in Jerusalem that last week to stick it to The Man, to right wrongs, to protest fro universal health insurance, to demand the shut-down of coal-fired power plants…

Holy Week, for Jesus, began with a subversive, defiant public protest to Roman imperial power on Palm Sunday. During the Jewish celebration of Passover, there would typically be Roman military parade to remind the sometimes rowdy and rebellious peasants to know their place and the consequences of a zealous revolt. On horseback, through the front gate, the Roman officers or client rulers would ride and march.

Yes, that’s exactly the purpose of the entry into Jerusalem. It had nothing to do with repudiating the Jewish belief that the Messiah would come in power to overthrow the Romans and liberate His people from their political rule and calling God’s people to an entirely different conception of the Kingdom of God. No, the triumphal entry was about defying and mocking the Romans and…hey.

Next, Jesus goes to the Temple — the center of religious life, of commerce, of taxation and Roman client oppression — and destroys it all. He overturns the tables, drives out the moneychangers, upsets the most important status quo centers of money, power and religion. He protests the exploitation of Rome carried out by the Temple, enforced by the military. And then he threatens to destroy the whole place — to tear it down all by himself.

The Temple exploited people on behalf of Rome? Backed by the Roman military? Who knew? And Jesus threatened to destroy the Temple, rather than speaking of the destruction of His own body in the crucifixion, a temple that would then be rebuilt in three days? Wow, this is revelatory stuff.

And then there is Jesus, homeless and praying in the gardens — the park — at midnight with his friends when the authorities come to arrest him.
Protest. Disruption of a system of oppression. Arrest. Trial.
Execution.

Jesus was tried and executed to “disrupt a system of oppression”? Must have had the Romans quaking in their boots.

Now, I’m not suggesting that we do anything quite so extreme as our Savior. In fact, I think it would be quite a bad idea to walk into the halls of power and authority, overturn some tables, bust up some computers, assault some moneychangers. And an even worse idea to follow it up with a threat to destroy the whole building and the system it represents.

Of course not. That might result in our being inconvenienced in our fight against The Powers That Be. Why, TPTB might take umbrage and toss our can in jail! Can’t have that. Instead:

On Palm Sunday, protest the imperial power of our day that exploits the poor, the earth and our humanity. Protest the imperial power that would strip us of rights, of our dignity, of our voice. Protest it with mockery and reveal its nakedness for all to see. Laugh in the face of those who seriously think they can own humanity’s future.

Yes, protest. Open your flapper and Speak Truth to Power. Maybe join an Occupy Something rally. Do Something Important.

On Monday of Holy Week, protest corruption and the whoring of democracy to wealth. Make a holy mess of things and show others that the system feeds on the souls of humankind. Live in park if you have to. In a tent. Occupy a space that isn’t intended to be owned: a tree, a blanket of grass, earth.

Get with the program. Defecate on a police car. Rape a fellow Occupier. Spread garbage around to attract rats. That will show them!

On Wednesday of Holy Week, cook a meal and share it with the miracle of friends. Do this and remember all that is good in this world of suffering. Do this and remember that this world is still worth the fight. Do this and remember.

And don’t forget that exquisite 2002 Duckhorn Merlot. This is an Episcopal protest, remember.

On Friday of Holy Week, visit the captives and prisoners and remember the innocent. Protest the injustice of the prison state in America. Protest the death penalty and the unbroken line of state-sanctioned murder that killed our Savior.

Come and see the violence inherent in the system. Jesus died to protest the death penalty.

Then, and only then, can we understand what Easter is really about.
It is not about sin and the saving blood of a sacrificial lamb. It is not about God needing a pure and unblemished offering for all the sins we have committed.

So I guess it isn’t actually about what the Bible teaches, or about Christian faith, but about liberal politics. Thanks for clearing that up.