Third Sunday in Lent, Cycle C

The profound subject of suffering is a factor in each of the texts selected for next Sunday. Perhaps Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha) was on target when he reached the conclusion that “to live is to suffer,” that suffering is universal — the first of his Four Noble Truths. At any rate, there are few subjects about which we proclaim our message that hold the attention of the members of the assembled congregations as well as the subject of suffering. If we dare to consider seriously the profound subject of suffering that is present in each of these four texts, we can be assured that those who hear us will be involved with us as we proclaim the Word of God next Sunday.

We have an excellent opportunity to show with these texts that on subjects as complex as the subject of suffering, various views are expressed within the biblical accounts, even within the four texts selected for Lent 3, Series C. It should become clear within our study of these texts and in our proclamation based on these texts that the biblical texts do not provide unequivocal answers to all of the questions that we and others may ask about God and the subject of suffering. Nevertheless, the subject of suffering is central in our lives and especially during the season of Lent, reaching a climax in our observance of the suffering of the Jesus of history on what later was to be called “Good” Friday. Therefore, we accept our responsibility of dealing with the subject of suffering here during Lent 3.

Isaiah 55:1-9

The suffering is intense here. There is no food, not even water to drink. With neither food nor water, a person will soon die. When the need is greatest, however, the gift of God and the grace of God are announced. The supply of God’s grace is abundant. There is more than enough for all who hunger and thirst. All are invited to come, to buy, to drink, and to eat from the gifts that God provides, gifts of mercy and forgiveness. When those whose lives are polluted with thoughts of evil and wickedness return to the Lord, God will abundantly pardon. By the grace of God, all suffering is overcome.

The thoroughly theocentric view expressed in this joyous announcement of God’s grace differs greatly from the thoroughly anthropocentric view of Siddhartha Gautama cited above. Gautama concluded that all suffering is related to and caused by desire and by the desire not to suffer. He taught that the way to reduce suffering is to reduce desire and to live the right way, to follow his Eightfold Path of right thought, right speech, right lifestyle, and so forth. For Gautama, the resources lie within the self. They are not external.

For the inspired poet who wrote the Isaiah 55 text, suffering is overcome when a person returns to the Lord. Only beyond the self, receiving the gifts that God wishes to bestow, can anyone’s suffering be overcome. By one’s faith in God, a person is given wine, milk, and the food that sustains life, a life that will be lived in accordance with the thoughts and will of God, thoughts that far transcend human thoughts.

Psalm 63:1-8

The situation for the psalmist here is similar to the situation depicted in Isaiah 55:1-9. The psalmist is physically and spiritually dehydrated and famished; with no outside help, the psalmist will soon die. At the last moment the psalmist turns to God, beholds the power and glory of God, receives the steadfast love and mercy of God, and lives! The suffering of the psalmist is overcome externally. Within the shadow of God’s protective love, the psalmist sings for joy.

1 Corinthians 10:1-13

The Apostle Paul wrote here, as in the Isaiah 55:1-9 and Psalm 63:1-8 texts, that deliverance from suffering and temptation are gifts that God provides for all who will endure throughout these “last days.” Paul urges the Jewish background followers of Jesus in Corinth to remember the history of their people, the spiritual as well as physical food and drink that God provided for them. God especially now by means of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, the Son of God, overcomes their suffering. Help comes from God, beyond the self, in mystical union with God in Christ.

Luke 13:1-9

At least initially, in our study of Luke 13:1-9, it is helpful to consider verses 1-5 separately from 6-9. In Luke 13:1-5 the correlation between suffering and specific sins is the issue. Unlike many other biblical texts, it is stated in Luke 13:1-5 that there is no correlation in some instances between suffering and specific sins. We look at our own experiences and at what we observe in other people and we too wonder whether there is always a correlation between suffering and specific sins. We ponder this when we are relatively healthy and when we are ill. According to this Luke 13:1-5 text, we should not always connect suffering with specific sins. Nevertheless, without sincere repentance, all will perish.

We are the fig tree in the Luke 13:6-9 parable. We are expected to be doing more than merely occupying space in the vineyard. If we suffer by being uprooted and destroyed, it is because we have not been fruitful in the vineyard.

As we look back over these four texts, we see that the persons who consider the causes of suffering differ considerably. All are united, however, in their proclamation within these texts that deliverance from suffering is external, a result of actions received from God. We, by our actions cause suffering, directly as well as indirectly. God by God’s actions overcomes our suffering. These are gifts from God, received by faith, which itself is a gift from God.

The emphasis within most of the texts appointed for next Sunday (Psalm 32; 2 Corinthians 5:16-21; Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32) is on turning to God, acknowledging sin, and receiving forgiveness from God. These are basic motifs within our Christian Lenten season. As we utilize these texts, our proclamation and our parenesis should be focused on these motifs.

Psalm 32

This psalm begins with a beatitude, “Blessed is the person whose sin is forgiven.” The wicked are contrasted with the righteous and shown to be foolish for not turning to the Lord. They are like a mule, without understanding. The psalmist demonstrates how reasonable it is to acknowledge sin to the Lord and to receive forgiveness and peace. The individual Hymn of Thanksgiving is most persuasive; those who hear can hardly fail to respond.

Joshua 5:9-12

In this text the Israelites have established a “beachhead” in the land that the Lord has promised to them. They had just circumcised all of the males among them. The manna with which the Lord had sustained them throughout their years of wandering in the wilderness ceased, and they began to eat the produce of the land. They ate the Passover, recalled how the Lord had delivered them from bondage in Egypt, and were prepared for the conquest of Jericho and of the lands beyond Jericho.

Perhaps we should say that thanks to God in Christ we too have a “beachhead” in the promised land. Let us recall the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus as the Christ, remember our baptism, and be prepared to live courageously as People of God here and now and forever as sinners who are forgiven. This is basically the meaning of Lent.

2 Corinthians 5:16-21

Paul announces here that through Jesus as the Christ God has reconciled us and the world to God’s self, not counting the sins that have been committed, and has made Paul and those who were with Paul ministers of reconciliation. This is the proclamation in 5:17-20a. The parenesis closely follows in 5:20b in the fascinating form of the Greek 2 Aorist Passive Imperative, “Be reconciled to God!” For a discussion of the significance of this Passive Imperative construction, see the comments on 2 Corinthians 5:20b–6:2 in the ASH WEDNESDAY section above.

Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

In the Luke 15:1-3 introduction to the three Lukan parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son, the Lukan writer casts the Pharisees and the scribes as objecting to the idea of Jesus having table fellowship with his own followers. Not only the introduction in 15:1-3, but also the three parables in this chapter are exclusively Lukan. We should notice that in every parable of Jesus that is peculiar to Luke the first-mentioned people or things represent religiously observant Jews, while those that are mentioned last represent repentant and grateful followers of Jesus.

Within the context of the other texts selected for next Sunday, our use of this well-known Lukan parable should focus on the graciousness with which the father in the parable invites both sons to come to him and be glad, receiving forgiveness for the guilt of their sins. For more elaboration on this, see Helmut Thielicke, The Waiting Father (New York: Harper & Row, 1959).

The marvelous, amazing grace of God is the most significant unifying factor within this series of texts selected for us for next Sunday.

Psalm 126

In this community lament during a time of depression, suffering, and weeping, there is no reference to the causes of the suffering of the people. All of the emphasis is on release from suffering and on restoration of the harvest by the grace of God. Release from suffering and the restoration of the harvest are attributed to the good favor of the Lord. Since during the distant past and during the recent past the Lord has done great things to relieve suffering, it is the fervent prayer of the community of faith that the Lord will again graciously relieve suffering and provide a bountiful harvest in the near future. An elaborate healing service or at least a specific prayer for healing would be very appropriate for this occasion next Sunday.

Isaiah 43:16-21

The grace of God shown in the parting of the waters to make a path through the sea for the slaves being freed from bondage will be repeated as God does a new thing for the Israelites who have been exiles in Babylon. The Lord, the Creator and Redeemer of Israel, will make a path through the wilderness, will provide rivers of water for the people to drink as they pass through the desert on their way back to Jerusalem. Even the wild beasts will honor the Lord and will not harm the people. In their gratitude, the people will praise the Lord, the king of Israel.

Philippians 3:4b-14

In this very personal section of his letter to the Philippians that is most likely the last letter written by Paul himself that is included within our Newer Testament canon, Paul wrote that he had gladly given up all of his own previously attained egoistic claims in order to receive a mystical relationship with God in Jesus the Risen Christ. Therefore, for Paul the most important prize accessible was the prize of the upward call of God in Christ, the righteousness of God accepted by faith. This righteousness for which Paul was striving through faith in Christ is a gift, given by the amazing grace of God to those whom God in Christ has made God’s own.

John 12:1-8

Within the unifying theme of God’s grace, John 12:1-8 can be seen to be a testimony that Jesus was with us for a brief time in physical form in order to help, to heal, and to raise Lazarus and us from the dead as an undeserved act of the grace of God. Mary responds to Jesus and to this grace of God as we also should respond to Jesus and to the grace of God, by loving actions of appreciation and devotion. Judas Iscariot, on the other hand, is resentful of Mary and complains that Mary’s action is a waste of valuable physical resources. The Johannine tradition interprets Judas Iscariot’s action as evidence that Judas was a thief and that he was periodically using the resources of the group around Jesus for his own purposes.

LITURGY OF THE PALMS

When Lent 6 is designated “Palm Sunday” rather than “Passion Sunday,” members of a congregation can more readily identify with the experiences of Jesus during Holy Week as those experiences are depicted within the Four Gospels. Ideally, members of a congregation should come together in a variety of worship and study settings each day from Palm Sunday through Easter Day. Consecutive readings of the passion account in a particular Gospel each day during Holy Week in individual homes and in congregational corporate worship and study sessions help us to “relive” Jesus’ passion experiences. In terms of timing, the best time for this is each day or evening during Holy Week rather than at mid-week services throughout the Lenten season or in an extremely long reading on Lent 6.

Most of the texts selected for the Palm Sunday occasion within our Christian tradition emphasize acclamation of the Lord or of Jesus as the Lord. For Israelites and continuing for Jews the Lord (Adonai) is acclaimed through use of Psalm 118 and many other texts and songs. Within our Newer Testament texts there is considerable ambiguity, perhaps deliberate ambiguity, as Jesus as the Risen Christ is called the Lord, and by inference “the King who comes in the name of the Lord” in Luke 19:28-40. In Matthew 26:14-27, 66, as the Lord-who-will-be-crucified, Jesus is betrayed by Judas Iscariot and condemned to death by political and “religious” leaders. Just as it is said in Isaiah 45:23 that to the Lord (Adonai) every knee shall bend and every tongue shall give acclamation, in the “Christ-hymn” in Philippians 2:5-11 Paul wrote that God has exalted Jesus the Risen Christ so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bend and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Therefore, in many ways Jesus as the Christ raised from the dead is “the Lord” to us as Christians what Adonai is to Jews, i.e., Lord God, immanent, personal, self-giving, exalted, eminently divine. These similarities as well as differences between Jewish and Christian perceptions of Lord are especially significant during our Palm Sunday worship experiences.

Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29

This beautiful Hallel Psalm was apparently used by many Israelites during entrance processions associated with one or more of the great festivals. Jews continue to read all or portions of Psalms 113-114 prior to their Seder meal and Psalms 115-118 following the meal. Psalm 118 is significant for us as Christians as well, especially on our Palm Sunday.

When we use this Psalm, we should notice the portions of the psalm that are spoken or sung by various individuals and groups. Verse 19 should be spoken, or preferably sung, by someone “outside the gates” (perhaps in the narthex), verse 20 by a choir, another group, or the entire worshiping congregation, verses 21-22 by the person who had read verse 19 as this person now is entering into the sanctuary, verses 23-27 again by a choir or the entire congregation as the person entering the sanctuary approaches the altar, verse 28 by that person at the altar, and verse 29 by everyone.

“The stone that the builders rejected” in verse 22 is widely used in our Newer Testament as a reference to Jesus. Within the context of Psalm 118 it is an expression of the grace of God with many possible applications.

Luke 19:28-40

Comparison of the entry into Jerusalem accounts in the Four Gospels indicates that only in the latter two (Luke and John) is Jesus acclaimed as the King of Israel. Apparently the oppressive Roman military forces who occupied and controlled the region during the first century perceived Jesus to be a political leader who, with the support of crowds of his fellow oppressed Jews, was a serious potential threat to their own security. They did, therefore, what they always did in such situations. They seized the leader of the oppressed, tortured him privately, and then publicly crucified him to show what they would do to anyone who would be acclaimed as “King of the Jews.”

Given the political situation in Galilee and Judea at the time of the crucifixion of Jesus, if some of the Pharisees in the crowd urged Jesus to restrain the members of the crowd from shouting political slogans, they were doing so in order to try to protect Jesus himself and the other Jewish people from Roman retaliation. Jesus, however, is depicted as refusing to restrain the crowd.

Among the most significant redactions of the Markan account by the Lukan writer in this instance is the addition of the Lukan motif of “Peace in heaven and glory in the highest places.” Also this Lukan motif should ultimately be our focus as we proclaim this text and our faith. The Jesus of history lived this motif. Jesus as the Christ of faith expresses this motif. The Church of Jesus Christ is called to do everything that it can so that there will be peace on earth as there is peace in heaven, to the glory of God. Since only the Lukan entry account expresses this motif, it is especially important for us to focus on this motif during the years that we use Luke’s entry into Jerusalem account.

For those who wrote the Four Gospels, Jesus as the Risen Christ was indeed “Lord.” In the words of Zechariah 9:9 that they applied to Jesus, he was in every way triumphant and victorious, subduing and riding a young, unbroken colt, and at the same time humble, riding on a lowly beast of burden. He was their Lord, coming in the name of the Lord.

From the standpoint of the inspired writers of the Newer Testament documents, what Jesus’ followers did proleptically as he entered with other pilgrims into Jerusalem to observe the Passover, God did actually a few days later by raising Jesus from the dead, highly exalting him, and giving him the name that is above every other name. God did this, Paul wrote, so that eventually every knee (including the knee of Caesar) will bend at the name of Jesus, and every tongue (including the tongue of Caesar) will confess that Jesus (not Caesar) is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

LITURGY OF THE PASSION

Human suffering is obviously the red thread that runs through all of these texts selected for Lent 6 when next Sunday is observed as Passion Sunday. The extensive selections from the Lukan passion account, the influential “Christ-hymn” of Philippians 2:5-11, and the end-of-Lent setting in the Church Year focus attention on the human suffering of Jesus for his people, suffering that he did not avoid. Within a Christian worship service near the end of the season of Lent, the suffering of the Servant of Adonai (Isaiah 50:4-9a), and of the psalmist (Psalm 31:1-5, 9-16) are appropriately placed into juxtaposition with the suffering of Jesus.

Isaiah 50:4-9a

Most people who participate in Christian worship services and hear this text on the Sunday prior to Good Friday probably associate the claims of daily direct inspiration, of suffering at the hands of ruthless tormenters, and of confident trust in the Lord God in this portion of the third Servant Song of the Isaiah tradition with Jesus as they perceive him. As Christians, we can certainly interpret the Older Testament as we choose, and we can certainly picture Jesus as we read and hear about the Suffering Servant of the Lord in this text. Nevertheless, it would be appropriate for us to share in some way with the congregation a recognition that the Suffering Servant Songs have a meaning and a context of their own as a composite expression of the Israelite-Jewish prophetic tradition at its best.

Psalm 31:9-16

Our use of this Israelite individual lament within our Christian worship services indicates that for us also deliverance from human suffering is still futuristic — at the Easter appearance of Jesus and at our own “Easter” appearance. Together with the psalmist we also cry to the Lord (Adonai for the psalmist, Jesus for us) for deliverance here and now.

Philippians 2:5-11

Perhaps no other text in the entire Bible is used as frequently and in as many different situations of the Church Year as is this text. It can be an Advent text, a Christmas text, an Epiphany text, a Lenten text, and a text for Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter, Ascension Day, and Pentecost. In each different situation we should place the emphasis on the appropriate aspect of the text. For Lent 6 observed as Passion Sunday, we should focus on the suffering of the Jesus of history and on his willingness to go to Jerusalem where it was likely that the oppressive Roman occupation forces would seize, torture, and crucify him because they were afraid that oppressed Jews who were being given hope for freedom and liberation by Jesus would rebel against them.

Luke 22:14–23:56 or Luke 23:1-49

Because of the great length of this reading, comments here will be limited to four segments of the text that depict various aspects of the suffering of the Jesus of history.

Luke 23:1-5, 13-25 (The Trial before Pilate). The specific accusations of the entire multitude of elders of the people, chief priests and scribes added by the Lukan writer to the Markan account of the trial of Jesus before Pilate are strikingly anti-Jewish because they are presented as obviously false and pernicious charges. According to this Lukan account, the purpose of Jesus had always been to bring peace to Jerusalem and to the nations of the world. It had never been to pervert the Jewish nation, as the religious leaders of Jesus’ own people are depicted in this trial scene as accusing Jesus of doing. According to the Synoptic tradition accounts, Jesus had advocated the paying of tribute to Caesar and had not called himself a king or a Jewish Messiah. Among the Synoptic accounts, only Luke presents the accusations recorded in Luke 23:2. According to the Luke 23:4, 14-16 account, the Roman official (Pilate) declared Jesus to be innocent of the charges brought against him, but the religious leaders of Jesus’ own people charged repeatedly that Jesus had been agitating the people throughout the land. Only Luke specified that the voice of the Jewish religious leaders prevailed and that Pilate delivered Jesus over to their will (Luke 23:23-25).

The impression is thereby given that not the Romans but the chief priests and the rulers and the Jewish people took Jesus away and crucified him. Since no new subject of the verb is introduced in Luke 23:26, the antecedent of the unexpressed subject of the verb in Luke 23:26 and elsewhere in this section appears to be the Jewish authorities and the Jewish people listed in Luke 23:13. By omitting all of the Markan and Matthean references to Jesus being mocked by the Roman military personnel (Mark 15:16-20a; Matthew 27:27-31a) grammatically the antecedent of the unexpressed subject of the verb in Luke 23:25 and in other verbs that follow is not the Roman soldiers, whom the Lukan writer does not introduce until 23:36, but the Jews. In this manner, the Lukan writer achieved a consistency with the charges made by the same Lukan writer in Acts 2:22-23 and 7:52-58 that the Jews betrayed and murdered Jesus, the Righteous One. The impression is given, therefore, that anti-Jewish invective was more important for the Lukan writer in some instances than was historical clarity.

In the interests of historical accuracy and (belatedly) of justice, we should also specify the subject in Luke 23:26 as “the Roman soldiers” from Mark 15:16 and Matthew 27:27 and from what is known from other sources about execution practices of the Roman occupation forces, so that the subsequent unexpressed subjects of verbs in the crucifixion proceedings in Luke will refer back to Roman military officials rather than to Jews.

Although the Lukan writer’s earliest readers were well aware that crucifixion was a Roman prerogative used effectively to discourage opposition and revolt in the various provinces of the Roman Empire, most Christians who read Luke today do not know the extent to which the Roman military used crucifixion in executing leaders of oppressed people whom they perceived to be threats to their security. Most Christians today focus only on the crucifixion of Jesus. They do not realize that the title that the Romans placed over Jesus on the cross, “the King of the Jews,” had probably been used many times by the Romans before the day when they used it to apply to Jesus in order to transmit clearly to the Jewish people that “This is what we do to your leaders! This is what we will do to any of you who will try to lead your oppressed people and gain popular support that may be used against us!”

This type of careful attention to context in translation will partially counteract the popular supposition among many Christians even in our time that “the Jews” killed Jesus. Actually, most of the Jews who were aware of Jesus and knew what the Roman occupation forces were doing to Jesus on the day of his crucifixion grieved bitterly that another of their leaders in whom they had hope was being shamefully tortured and executed by the hated Romans and that there was nothing short of suicidal action that they could do about it.

This kind of sensitive translation is essential in our time. Since we have ample evidence of these serious instances of anti-Jewish biases in Luke-Acts, it is our responsibility as spiritual descendants of the Lukan writer to counter these biases by sensitive translation and usage. As Paul M. van Buren put it in his Discerning the Way: A Theology of the Jewish Christian Reality (New York: Seabury, 1980, pp. 47-48), “John Chrysostom in the fourth century, for example, or Martin Luther in the sixteenth, never conceived that their vile words on the subject of the Jews would help significantly to produce a climate which a later pagan ruler would take advantage of in order to destroy six million of God’s people,” and “If? we leave unchallenged and do not wipe out the tradition of anti-Judaism which we have inherited, we shall have failed those who follow after us. Whatever we may say about the roots and rise of that tradition, we today — after 1945 — can no longer continue it.” The extent to which we as Christians today shall be willing to counter the anti-Jewish biases that we see in the Newer Testament within the passion accounts and elsewhere will be determined during the coming decades and centuries in our preaching and teaching as, led by the Spirit of God, we interact with the living, dynamic Word of God and pass it on to our children and to their children.

Luke 23:6-12 (The religious leaders accuse Jesus during his ordeal in Herod’s court). Only in Luke’s Gospel is there a story about a trial of Jesus in Herod’s court. As in every instance of Lukan composition, this account is carefully constructed. At its beginning (v. 6) and at its end (v. 12) Pilate is significant. As we move into the pericope from both its beginning and its ending, we see Jesus presented as in the custody of the soldiers of Pilate and of Herod, subjected to their cruelty. Next the Herod figure is introduced and shown to be curious to see what Jesus would do, and then later depicted as frustrated and treating Jesus with scorn and contempt. At the center of the account (v. 10) the chief priests and the scribes are shown to be accusing Jesus vehemently. Jesus in his innocence will answer to no one.

This literary drama composed by the Lukan writer gives the reader the impression that the attitude and actions of the Jewish religious leaders encouraged Herod and the Roman soldiers to treat Jesus horribly and to mock him. Although it is likely that a very small percentage of the heavily oppressed Jews of Galilee and Judea at the time of Jesus’ death cooperated fully with the Roman occupational forces for personal advantage, there can be no doubt that the overwhelming majority of the Jews of that time who knew anything about the Jesus of history were supportive of him, given hope by what Jesus was saying about God and the kingdom of God, and were saddened and grieved when they heard that the Romans with the complicity of the Herodians had seized Jesus and were torturing him. Jesus was one of them, a leader and a hero among his fellow oppressed people. The Jews in Galilee and Judea knew from past experience that once the Romans seized a leader among the oppressed Jews, the people would soon see their leader die on a Roman cross, and as oppressed people they were unable to do anything to prevent this.

Luke 23:27-31 (Prophecy against the “daughters of Jerusalem”). The women who were beating their breasts in mourning and lamentation while Jesus was being led to his crucifixion appear to be presented in Luke as sympathizers with Jesus rather than as his mockers. Nevertheless, the Lukan writer has Jesus utter an oracle of prophetic judgment against them in words that are similar to those of the “Q” material saying of Luke 13:34-35 and the weeping over Jerusalem account of Luke 19:41-44. Therefore, the Lukan writer condemned all of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, especially the women who were alive at the time of the crucifixion of Jesus and their children, to a fate worse than death. With devastating effectiveness, the Lukan writer linked the siege and fall of Jerusalem — an event that had occurred after the crucifixion of Jesus but prior to the composition of Luke’s Gospel — to the crucifixion of Jesus in skillfully portrayed anti-Jewish polemic. If we are interested in proclaiming what actually happened during the final hours of Jesus’ life, we will read only Luke 23:27 and not 28-31.

Luke 23:32-49 (the crucifixion). A comparison of the words of Jesus while on the cross in the Markan, Matthean, and Lukan accounts reveals that the Lukan writer did not use the cry of despair, “My God! My God! Why have you forsaken me?” of Mark and of Matthew and inserted instead, “Father! Forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing,” “Truly, I say to you. Today you will be with me in paradise,” and “Father! Into your hands I put my spirit.” This contrast is clearly indicative of the differences with which the Lukan writer portrays Jesus compared to the Markan and Matthean accounts. In Mark and in Matthew Jesus is a desolate figure as he dies; in Luke Jesus is in control of the situation even while he is dying. The Lukan Jesus forgives those who are crucifying him. He declares that the man on the cross next to him who recognizes the innocence of Jesus will be in paradise with Jesus on that same day, and he puts his spirit into the hands of the Father. (The Johannine writers use neither the Markan and Matthean words of Jesus on the cross nor the Lukan words. Instead, they develop three new sayings for their Johannine Jesus.)

As we speak about the human suffering of Jesus on this Passion Sunday occasion within the context of all human suffering, it will be appropriate for us to relate it in significant ways to the suffering and death of millions of oppressed people during the twentieth century, particularly to leaders of oppressed people such as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Archbishop Romero who spoke out publicly against the oppressors and were killed as Jesus was, each as a leader of the oppressed. As we read the Lukan passion account with its skillfully constructed anti-Jewish polemic, we have a moral obligation to note how the anti-Jewish polemic in it contributed to an environment in which most Christians in Germany raised no effective opposition to what the leaders of their nation did to the Jews of Europe from 1933-45.

John 12:1-11

Monday of Holy Week is introduced with this account that is only in the Fourth Gospel, about an anointing of the feet of Jesus by Mary, the sister of Martha and of Lazarus, whom Jesus, according to John 11:1-44, had resurrected from the dead. The account makes a major contribution to the plot of the Fourth Gospel, with Jesus speaking in support of what Mary was doing and in opposition to Judas Iscariot, who was complaining about the pouring of the expensive perfume on the feet of Jesus when the perfume could have been sold and the proceeds given to the poor. The statement of the Johannine Jesus that “you are always going to have poor people with you whom you can help, but you are not always going to have me” presents the greatest challenge for us even today. It raises fundamental questions about how the financial resources of a congregation should be allocated.

Hebrews 9:11-15

The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews presents Jesus in a way that is very different from the ways in which Jesus is depicted elsewhere in our New Testament documents. Within each of the Four Gospels Jesus is opposed by the priests who manage the Temple under contracts purchased from the Romans; he is certainly not presented as the honored priest entering into the Holiest Place in the Temple to offer his own blood to God. This very different way in which Jesus was portrayed by the writer of this document was a major reason that the Epistle to the Hebrews was one of the last documents to be accepted into the New Testament canon.

Isaiah 42:1-9

By using this “Servant of the Lord” text, as it is designated by Christians, on the Monday of Holy Week, we are identifying the Servant of the Isaiah traditions with Jesus as we as Christians perceive him. That identification, of course, does not give ownership of the Servant concept to us as Christians. The Servant of the Lord still primarily belongs to the Jews, not to us as Christians. The statements in this text about God putting the Spirit of God upon the Servant in order that the Servant may establish justice on the earth in a sense unites Christians with Jews, since, when we are at our best, we as Christians, together with Jews, long for justice and work together to “repair” the world and to be righteous and just in all that we and Jews do.

Psalm 36:5-11

Here also, when we as Christians use this psalm, or any of the psalms, or any portion of the Older Testament for that matter, ideally we use these materials together with Jews, as devotional guides along with Jews, even during our so-called Holy Week. Although our experiences and our understandings of the intended meanings of the texts in the Older Testament are different from those of Jews, we must remember that these were Israelite and Jewish documents before we began to use them and that they remain basically Jewish documents today.