Over and over again I heard people writing about this ‘strange’ Easter…and about how we wouldn’t be able to celebrate it in the ‘usual way’. And I wondered – with some frustration – when did Easter become unstrange? and usual?
I found Nick Baines’ daily blog post https://nickbaines.wordpress.com/ insightful. The main point I drew from his reflections was that Jesus almost never does the expected.
No doubt as he enters Jerusalem on a donkey, everyone is non-plussed but delighted… the disciples seeing a Jesus who – unusually – appeared to be welcoming the attention of the crowds, even intentionally attracting it. It must have been a bit like a flash mob, with all the spontaneity and joy of that, and the comedy factor of a conquering hero on an Eeyore…. plus the promise of hope of liberation from Roman rule.
In the temple the approval and reflected glory of the disciples is overturned as rapidly and unpredictably as the money-changers’ tables. Now who is this man they are following? A liability… a danger…a madman full of a physical fury they have never witnessed before. In a territory where other powerful and well-connected tribes draw the fixed red lines of behaviour, Jesus disregards the people and the lines as though they were made of tissue paper.
In the temple courts, set a series of the most fiendishly Machiavellian questions of theology that the religious sects could collectively devise, Jesus conjures answers that resound with truth and wisdom like a magician making coins appear from behind his opponents’ ears.
At Simon’s house, he scandalises the respectable dinner guests (probably merely puzzles his disciples, if any were there) by welcoming the touch of an Untouchable… validating her unrestrained emotion as she beautifies the functional cleaning work of a slave… intuiting the significance of this liturgical anointing of his feet in the public space… declaring that this personalised act of costly, reckless, embodied, spontaneous worship would be celebrated as long as humans tell stories…
And on the eve of the Passover, Jesus rocks the disciples’ mental model of the social norms as he himself gets down on the floor – the posture of the slave – and washes their feet. Embarrassment, revolt, bluster, silent and confused submission follow… More shock and confusion ensue when Jesus allows himself to be taken by the temple guards.
Where is the miracle-worker now? Where is the one who has somehow slipped away from violent or pressing crowds, appeared at will on the waves? All the way to the point where they witness his lifeless body deposited in the tomb, they must be asking, ‘When will he use the power we have seen on so many occasions to do the impossible?’ And as throughout the week, Jesus defeats their expectations, eludes their predictions, refuses to fulfil their ego-bound short-sighted hopes and desires…
And then defeats death for all time _ _ _
And here’s the question that is burning in my chest as I write this: where in our church life is this Jesus?
Where is the Easter Jesus who leaves us confounded, overjoyed, angry, wrong-footed, fearful with awe, doubled up in hysterical laughter at his outrageous audacity? Where is the Jesus displaying undiscriminating unconditional love and boundless disregard for our expectations?
Where?
Footnote: If you have examples of where this Jesus is, I’d love to hear. I am not saying they do not exist…
In my next post I’ll explain why I wanted to hear about the unpredictable Jesus this Easter.
