In working through this past Sunday's texts - It was Palm/Passion Sunday - I noticed something that I had only tangentially regarded before this year. The Triumphal Entry is actually the clash of two religious cultures, one that is reflected in the Temple and the other reflected in those who sit, begging, at the city gate.
The Temple authority is a traditional configuration. It is a closed audience, a hereditary code, an exclusive association of those who have, by birth or "proper" behavior, worked their way into positions of power and recognition. Only the proper ones are allowed access. If there is something wrong with you, if you are a leper or lame or blind or a menstruating woman, if you are poor or unemployed or unusual, if you are a non-Jew or dressed inappropriately, or if you eat the wrong things or think the wrong kinds of ways, well then, you are simply not allowed access. The privilege that keeps all those within the system from falling out are taken for granted and held up as expectations and standards of those who are left outside.
At the gate sit those who have been excluded. They have no access to the benefits of the Temple. Because they are excluded from Temple, they are excluded from business, relationship, association, acceptance and hospitality. These are the pariahs. They are untouchable. To associate with them renders those within the Temple system impure, unacceptable, defiled. The two cultures rarely, if ever, interact. The gate population is to be avoided at all costs. In fact, if the Temple authority could manage it, they would disallow the gate population from sitting and begging at the Temple gate. What an embarrassment they are to those who come from afar to visit the Temple of the Lord.
Jesus comes, borrowing the ancient symbol of royal coronation, to declare to the gate population that there is a new religion afoot. There is a new world coming. There is a new way. In this new configuration, Jews and non-Jews will be equal, in both the sight of the Temple and in the courts of law. Leprosy will become a universal need for care and medical research. Those who are lame and deaf and blind will be supported and cared for and valued. The poor will be employed. Women will be respected and no longer considered the property of men. The divisiveness of the Temple system will come to an end and all people shall be included in the population that is in covenant with God.
The Temple hates this symbol. The Sanhedrin despises the promise. Such radical equality is simply not to be allowed. Such grace is ridiculous to a system that has been so steeped in the law.
The clash goes on. In Indiana, two religious communities are clashing over current legislation. The "Freedom of Religion" bill has been approved by the Indiana Representatives and Senators and signed into law by the Governor. Now, the law in itself has little of so much controversy. It is similar to what has been enacted in other states and federally. What differentiates the Indiana bill from the others is its intention. It comes from the desire of some businesses within the state to refuse service to some segments of the population because those persons practice in ways unacceptable to the business owners. Should a business not have the right to refuse service to persons who do not live up to some moral or religious code?
The question is quite simple, really, and can be applied in a very consistent manner that follows a very basic Christian rubric. Do we stand on the side of Christ or do we represent the Temple culture that Christ's radical practice of equality and respect so deeply insulted?
Holy Week provides a clear answer. Some today stand with the crowd that shouts "Crucify him!" while some stand boldly by him, rejecting exclusionary legislation. What will we do this week? Where do we stand?
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