Not Easter Week!

Contrary to popular opinion, this is not Easter Week! Starting on the first day of the week, Easter Week is next week, Sunday April 16 and following.

This week is Crucifixion Week.

Crucifixion Week begins with Jesus' entry into Jerusalem, at what we call Palm/Passion Sunday. It is no Triumphant Entry, however. Jesus arrives at Jerusalem and decides to enter the city in the symbolic form of an alternative king who comes for coronation. This is great news for those who beg at the Temple Gate. The population exists there as a gathering of lepers, the blind, the lame, the deaf, the poor, the Mudblood, the menstruating, the ugly, the broken and the damned. Unable to work, they sit and beg. There is no social safety net for the rejected and excluded masses of Bethany and Bethphage. They see Jesus as new hope, the possibility of social systems that will consider them, attend to their needs, see them and care for them. As Jesus rides past them, as a new king for coronation, these suffering masses applaud, yell, bow down, genuflect. chant and honor the new king who comes to deliver them from their miserable state.

These are tense times. Passover is pending. It starts Friday at sundown. Passover is the ancient recognition and celebration of emancipation from the slave pits of Egypt. It honors liberation from the oppressive power of the Empire. It is dangerous to be Empire in a season of celebration of liberation.

Of course, the Temple had reached accommodation with Rome. As long as Judaism remained a benign family and spiritual religious practice, it would be allowed to exist within the boundaries of the Roman Empire. As long as religious sentiments were held behind closed doors and out of public discourse, then the Temple remained safe. The moment that Judaism became a public display, however, the second it stepped from the realm of personally held beliefs, it became a threat to the Pax Romana.

On Sunday, the Temple authorities heard the stirrings. It threw the ruling classes of the Temple into turmoil. Some would-be prophet from Galilee, named Jesus, had caused a riot at the Gate. He arrived at Jerusalem in full public demonstration, as a new king for coronation, riding on an animal (or two, in Matthew's case) that had never before been ridden. The people at the Gate were all roiled up, chanting that their new king had come to deliver them. No matter what the Temple authority said or did, they could not hide the purely political statements that were inherent in this symbolic Jerusalem entry. The Pax Romana was in danger, and the very existence of the Temple was at stake.

Jesus marches on through the Gate to the Temple. The people of the Gate imagine that they might follow, but doing so would simply be too dangerous, too risky. Perhaps this "Jesus of Nazareth" would work for them, do miracles on their behalf, free them from their malaise, deliver them from their suffering. While they refused to accompany him to the Temple, their hope rode in with him on his pack animal. The Temple authorities were waiting with a less-then-warm-welcome. Jesus had endangered the already tenuous relationship between the Temple and Rome. One can only imagine Jesus, leading the Gate people to the Temple, meeting with a harsh arrival, turning to what he hopes is a throng, only to discover that Jesus stands utterly alone.

Jesus exits Jerusalem. He returns to the Temple on Monday, seeing for himself the economic and social injustice that is connected to the Temple. Jesus throws over the tables on the money changers, who charge a premium for the transfer of currency for the Temple-tax shekel. He sees, too, the many and varied animals that had been brought to the Temple for would-be sacrifices. Jesus knows that those animals would be sold instead, that only one animal would be sacrificed and the rest simply collected as additional revenue. Jesus sets loose the animals from their pens and cages. That is Monday. On Tuesday and Wednesday, Jesus returns to the Temple, where he teaches God's will as opposed to Temple injustice. The people of the Gate remain at the Gate, however. The people of the Temple remain at the temple. Nothing changes.

On Thursday, Jesus gathers with his disciples for a traditional Passover celebration. They dine. During the meal, Jesus alters the traditional liturgy with a new act that involved bread and wine. After they eat, Jesus leads his disciples (and others) our to the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus prays while his closest associates sleep. Finally, after waking them, Jesus is betrayed and arrested. He faces several sham trials, one before the High Priest and another before Proconsul, Pilate. Pilate offers to release Jesus. The Roman bureaucrat even pits his release against a notorious outlaw, named Barabbas. But the crowd wants Jesus' blood. They chant for his crucifixion. They demand his death. Pilate is powerless before them and washes his hands of the affair, saying, "His blood is on your heads."

They taunt Jesus. They beat him. They spit at and on him. They tear his skin with a crown of thorns and flog him repeatedly. The guard is allowed its fun. Finally, they lead Jesus out of the city to Golgatha, a high hill from which all will see those who oppose Roman authority hoisted on crosses. This is the hill upon which Jesus is lifted high on the Cross of Crucifixion. Hour later, thinking that God had abandoned him, seeing in the small crowd not a single one of his followers, Jesus breathes his last. Utterly alone, Jesus dies. The hope of those at the Gate dies with him. The Temple is safe.
The week ends with Jesus dead in a borrowed tomb. He is simply dead.

This is not Easter week! But next week is!