A look at the gaps in the lectionary.
This week: the gap between Palm Sunday and Easter
The text: Matthew 21:12-27:66
The big picture is pretty easy to recap.
Jesus enters Jerusalem, “cleanses” the Temple (which pisses off the leadership). He teaches there (which pisses them off even more). He predicts the destruction of junk. Teaches the disciples some dark stuff. Then a woman anoints Jesus for burial. That’s the first half of the week.
The second half gets covered a lot: last supper, betrayal, trial and crucifixion, and then laid in a tomb.
There’s a lot of ground to cover in the week. And I’ve made it known that I think we ought to cover a bit more of it. I often do this.
Here are recaps of chapters 21-23 and 24-26.
But the person wandering into Holy Week without a plan to actually read along might wonder what’s the big deal.
Jesus pisses of the Temple authorities
I think we all know this. But do we get what is actually happening here? The fact that many condemn a whole sect (Pharisees) as hypocrites and a whole religion (Judaism) as killers is clear evidence we don’t.
In John’s gospel, the leaders have it out for Jesus beginning in chapter seven. The leaders consider his message dangerous. They don’t seek to kill him because they think he’s a heretic. And they think the world will follow him. Which is obviously a valid concern.
In the synoptic gospels, it isn’t so easy. But there is clearly a political divide being exposed. Jesus is popular and transformative. The leaders are afraid of loss of control.
The role of Rome
Many will recognize the nuance in the Passion narrative about Rome killing Jesus rather than the Temple authorities. And historical critical scholarship can aid us in fleshing all of that out and more.
What the events at the beginning of the week reveal is how Rome receives a greater critique than the Temple leaders. In fact, the main critique of the leaders is that they are aligned with Rome. It isn’t generic hypocrisy Jesus charges them with. It is siding with the oppressor.
We often portray the Passion as a religious revolution of sorts. Like Jesus is just critiquing Judaism to improve it. Rather than the whole cultural context.
This is Matthew. So flip back to chapter 5 and see what Jesus has to say about power.
From the Sermon on the Mount
‘You have heard that it was said, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile.
-Matthew 5:38-41
Turn the other cheek is interpersonal. If someone hits you like a slave, make them hit you as an equal.
Give your cloak as well is Jewish court. If your neighbor sues you for something God commands him not to take from you, and the Jewish court system enables it, shame the court with your nakedness.
Go also the second mile shames a Roman soldier. He’s only allowed to make you carry his stuff one mile. Get him in trouble by walking a second with it.
Jesus condemns individual oppression and Jewish systemic oppression and Roman empiric oppression.
The villain in Jesus’s eyes is the oppressor.
The Dark Forecast
Jesus predicts dark times ahead. For the people, the world, and everything. Scholars focus on the late 1st Century brutality of Rome toward the Hebrew people.
This actually acts as a deep contrast to how the church describes Holy Week itself, often as a kind of human mistake.
By centering the Passion on Jesus, and stripping our focus on who is really condemning Jesus and why, we are left with a story of persecution with no actual moral.
When people were outraged in 2020 over the death of George Floyd, they didn’t say “Oh geez, senseless deaths are the worst!” They were mad because a police officer choked a man to death on purpose.
When an assassin’s bullet struck down Martin Luther King, Jr., the world didn’t go, “Oh geez, senseless deaths are the worst!” People saw what white supremacy does to protect itself.
These aren’t generic human sins. They have a particularity to them. Powerful people using power to silence the oppressed. And the people can recognize what is happening.
When we make Jesus’s crucifixion a purely metaphysical death for generic human sins, we miss the potency of the death itself. How it reveals who exactly kills the small voice. And why.
Power. Power kills to preserve power. And because power fears the growth of power among the powerless.
We avoid thinking about Jesus’s threat to Rome, the Temple authorities, and all of the people of influence. And therefore, we avoid recognizing who kills him and why.
The Dark Parables
I am particularly obsessed with the last formal teachings of Jesus in Matthew. There are three very dark parables in a row in chapters 24 and 25. We never associate them with Holy Week. Which is a mistake.
Jesus is teaching about urgency and he talks about a slaveowner who has a faithful and an unfaithful slave. The one who is trustworthy is blessed. The other is cut into pieces.
Then he teaches about bridesmades left out in the darkness. Some don’t plan ahead. The others refuse to share. None works together. The stingy ones get in and the others are left out.
Lastly, a wicked landowner leaves some slaves with talents. One is given a lot. He exploits the poor, makes fat cash, and is rewarded for it. A second does the same and receives the same. A third, given next to nothing, protects it, gives it back and is treated brutally.
We usually tell these parables in the fall of the year. And we argue that they are about doing the right thing. We ignore the evil, vindictiveness, pettiness, unscrupulousness, exploitative, and vengeful character of the master and pretend these are about a God we call good.
They read, in this way, as a test we all fail.
Judgement
Jesus ends the teaching with how we know if we’re good with God or not. If we’ve served the poor: fed the hungry, sated the thirsty, welcomed the stranger, clothed the naked, and visited the imprisoned.
We know we’re good if we’re doing good things.
And we’ll be judged if we exploit them and do wicked things.
Students who have followed Jesus as rabbi for three years should be able to hear when parables don’t sound like God. When the protagonist actually sounds like a terrible human being. And then reject that vision.
And, in the case of the parable of the talents, recognize that the slave who stands up to the monstrous slaveowner (and why isn’t that a tipoff—why would the God who liberates the Hebrews from slavery be a slaveowner?) is the actual protagonist here?
Anointing
And while I’ve already spilled way too much ink already, and you’re ready to move on, we would be remiss if we didn’t make note of what happens the day before Maundy Thursday.
The Anointing of Jesus.
A nameless woman
anoints Jesus
Judas nihilistically objects
Jesus defends
calls it good
says its the gospel
and then says
that the gospel will be shared in honor of her.
As I pointed out on Sunday, Jesus literally says that she embodies the gospel and we’re supposed to remember her. And we skip this story every Holy Week.
So, while a lot of stuff happens during Holy Week, it probably fair to say that we’re messing something up if we don’t read the whole thing.
And I don’t know about you, but I think the fact that Jesus says this last part is important, like super important, so…maybe we should act like it is.