WHY JERUSALEM?

When I was in graduate school, I had the privilege of attending several meetings of the Jesus Seminar. There I met John Dominic Crossan, NT Wright, Marianne Sawicki, Robert Miller, and Marcus Borg. (I think having Revelation for a name helped a little.)

During one meeting, I asked the group, "Why did Jesus need to go to Jerusalem?" His Galilee-based, grassroots movement was doing great. Going to Jerusalem was suicide. Even his disciples knew this; they did not want to him to go to Jerusalem, especially Simon Peter. It did not make sense. But Jesus went anyway.

Crossan volunteered John 7, where Jesus' brothers tell him, "No one who wants to be widely known acts in secret. If you do these things, show yourself to the world!" We all know how this story ends. But I don't think for a moment that Jesus went because of what his brothers said.

Gabriela Silang did not need to take over leadership after Diego was assassinated in 1763. Jose Rizal did not need to come back to the Philippines in 1892. Bonifacio did not need to go to the Magdalo camp in Cavite in 1896. Ernesto Che Guevara did not need to go to Bolivia in 1967. We also know how these stories ended.

When Jesus entered Jerusalem he did so with over 5000, made up of mostly farmers and fisherfolk. Sunday's lection from Luke (and its parallels in Mark and Matthew) tells us the masses welcomed them with hosannas! Historians tell us that Pontius Pilate also entered the city from the opposite direction with a Roman Legion. (That is 6,000 fully armed soldiers!).

Jesus did not need to go to Jerusalem. Jesus did not need to cleanse the Temple with a whip. But he did anyway. The Passion narratives report that every single day the authorities tried to arrest him but they were afraid of the masses who protected him. So, they arrested him at night, with a Roman Cohort. (That is one battalion!)

First came a movement. Then an execution. But surprise of surprises, the movement continues to this day!

Jesus knew that for every one that is executed in Jerusalem, God will raise up ten; for every ten, God will raise up one hundred; for every hundred, one thousand! Jesus knew exactly what he was doing!

Thus, movement, execution, and continuation. These three remain, but the greatest of these is continuation.

#Lent2022
#IAmWithJesus
#NoToMarcosDuterte2022
#FreePalestine
#JusticeForMyanmar
#JusticeForNewBataan5

*art, "Entry into the City," John August Swanson (from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives).

IN MEMORY OF HER

The depth and breadth of interpretations about Sunday's Johannine lection have filled volumes. Mark and Matthew also have versions of the narrative. In Matthew's and Mark's, the woman who anoints Jesus with expensive perfume is unnamed. Jesus tells his disciples to remember what she did in memory of her. John's Gospel does exactly that. The woman who anoints Jesus is named. She is Mary, the sister of Martha and Lazarus.

A reading of the gospels focused on his followers would show that, more often than not, they cannot understand what Jesus does and what he says. Over and over Jesus has to explain his words and his actions. Over and over Jesus tells them about his suffering and his resurrection and they misunderstand him. All four gospels end with women coming to the tomb to anoint a dead body! No one among Jesus’s named disciples believed that he will rise again.

But one woman in the whole narrative does believe: the unnamed woman in Mark and Matthew; Mary of Bethany in John. She anoints Jesus for burial because there would be no body to anoint later. There would only be an empty tomb—as the named women disciples led by Magdalene discover when they came Easter morning with their anointing oils.

Only one person believed that Jesus will be raised up. One woman. Mary of Bethany. And she was right!

#Lent2022

#IAmWithJesus

#NoToMarcosDuterte2022

#JusticeForMyanmar

#FreePalestine

#JusticeForNewBataan5

#StopTheKillingsPH

*art, "Mary of Bethany and Jesus," anonymous, wood carving (from the vanderbilt library digital archives).

THE PRODIGAL SON

There was a man with two sons.

He was rich. He had property. He had land. He had slaves. He had two sons. The younger asks for his inheritance and squanders it. He goes back home and is welcomed back by his father. With a feast, a robe, sandals, and a ring. The older is angry, feels slighted, and left out so the father reminds him that “you are always with me and all is mine is yours.”

In the end, everybody lives happily ever after. Father and sons. Still propertied. Still landed. Still slaveholders. Still rich.

There was another man with two daughters and a son.

He was propertied, landed, and filthy rich from illegally-gotten wealth. He actually wrote a letter noting that his only son was lazy and lacked willpower. This son, his junior, now thinks he can be the president of his country.

My friends, I think we should stop identifying rich fathers, rich landowners, and rich slaveholders with God. Or God's representatives. The parables of Jesus were subversive speech. They indicted the status quo. They challenged Pax Romana. They proclaimed good news to the poor.

They were the reasons Jesus was executed by the Romans.

#NoToMarcosDuterte2022

#JusticeForNewBataan5

#EndTheCultureOfImpunity

#FreePalestine

#JusticeForMyanmar

#StopTheKillingsPH

#readingtheparablesofjesusinsideajeepney

*art, "The Prodigal Son," JESUS MAFA 1970 (from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives).

THE PARABLE OF THE FIG TREE

For three years the owner of the Fig tree has waited. For three years he longed for one thing, fruit from his tree. Three years pass and there were none. So he orders his gardener to chop it down. Waste of good soil. His gardener pleads, "Give it another year. I will dig around it and put manure." Give it another year.

We call them people with "green thumbs." People who love plants. People who sing and talk to them like they were people. People like the gardener who pleads, "Give it another year." People who know that some Fig trees take up to six years to bear fruit. People who celebrate the inter-connectedness of all life. People who believe in second chances for everyone and everything. People who know the magic properties of manure.

Then there are people who treat everyone and everything as property, as commodity, as disposable. And every single day they
acquire square kilometers of prime agricultural land, ancestral domain, and public lands for profit. There's a term for this insatiable greed: development aggression.

And they chop down everything and everyone blocking their way. Not just Fig trees.

#JusticeForNewBataan5
#IAmWithJesus
#EndTheCultureOfImpunity
#StopTheKillingsPH
#FreePalestine
#JusticeForMyanmar
#NoToMarcosDuterte2022

*image from "what we can learn from the parable of the fig tree" available online at crosswalk.

GOD SPEAKS

Sunday's lection is on the Transfiguration again after two weeks. This time around let us focus on Moses and Elijah, the two key figures in Ancient Israelite faith traditions.

My Jewish teachers taught me that one of the best ways to understand the Hebrew Bible, especially the Law (Genesis to Deuteronomy) and the Prophets (Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Twelve [Hosea to Malachi]) is to focus on who speaks for God in these traditions.

In the Law, God speaks through Moses. In the Prophets, God speaks through Elijah, Elisha, Deborrah, and the rest of the prophets. For Sunday's lection, God tells Peter, James, and John to listen to Jesus. God speaks through Jesus.

Dear Friends, please take note. None of these spokespersons of the Most High are Christian! Not one! Those of us who take pride in calling ourselves Christian should stop thinking that we have exclusive access to God.

God speaks through anyone God chooses. God especially speaks through those whose lives proclaim good news to the poor, freedom for the prisoners, recovery of sight for the blind, liberation for the oppressed, and God's Jubilee of justice!

God speaks through Teacher Chad and Teacher Jurain!

#JusticeForNewBataan5
#StopTheKillingsPH
#FreePalestine
#JusticeForMyanmar
#NoToMarcosDuterte2022
#IAmWithJesus

*art, "The Transfiguration," JESUS MAFA, 1973 (from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives).

FORTY DAYS WITH SATAN

Sunday's lection from Luke is also found in Mark and Matthew. The Spirit drives Jesus into the wilderness in Mark. In Luke and Matthew, the Spirit leads Jesus. Being driven and being led are very different descriptions. The former conjures an image of Jesus going with hesitation, even reluctance. The latter paints a picture of readiness and willingness.

Wilderness conjures up a lot of ambivalent images for us who study scripture. God appeared to a hardheaded Moses through the burning bush in the wilderness. The Israelites wandered almost aimlessly in the wilderness for decades. Many of them died there, including Moses. John the Baptist was a "voice of one calling in the wilderness." The wilderness does not seem like a very hospitable place. Yet, God's surprises abound in the wilderness!

And then there is the number 40, a long time in scripture. It rained 40 days and nights during the time of Noah. Forty years separated the crossing of the Red Sea and the crossing of the Jordan River. Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness. Matthew and Luke add that he fasted. This narrative is the basis for the 40 days of Lent.

Most of us grew up imagining that Jesus was alone in the wilderness during those 40 days. He was not. Jesus had company: wild beasts, angels, and Satan. God's surprises do abound in the wilderness!

My friends, let us never forget. Satan did not betray Jesus. Judas did. Satan did not deny Jesus. Peter did. Satan did not plot to arrest and kill Jesus in secret. The chief priests and scribes did. Satan did not abduct, torture, and murder Jesus. The Romans did.

Satan is also not behind the Anti-Terror Law, the War on the Poor, the War on Drugs, the culture of impunity that pervades our land, the relentless red-tagging of peace activists, or the recent abduction and murder of Teachers Chad and Jurain and the rest of the Bataan 5. We all know who are responsible and should be held accountable for all these.

Lent began last Wednesday. Who among us wants to spend 40 days in the wilderness with Satan? Who among us is ready to respond to the challenges Satan asked Jesus? If we have access to resources, is feeding the hungry enough? If we have glory and authority, for whom will we use these for? If we had angels to command, who will we order them to save and protect?

Who among us is ready to respond to one of the key challenges in the Gospels: if we are rich, are we ready to sell everything we have, give the proceeds to the poor, and follow Jesus?

Maybe we should ask these questions to everyone running for public office.

#IAmWithJesus
#Lent2022
#EndTheCultureOfImpunity
#JusticeForNewBataan5
#StopTheKillingsPH
#FreePalestine
#JusticeForMyanmar
#NoToMarcosDuterte2022
#ChooseJustice

*art, "Jesus is Tempted," (JESUS MAFA) from Vanderbilt Divinity Library digital archives
 

THE TRANSFIGURATION

We love to call this Sunday’s lection as the Transfiguration. It is found in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. I like to call it the Metamorphosis.

Moses, Elijah, and Jesus all experience mountain-top encounters with God. All three went through very trying and challenging times in their lives and their encounter with God enabled them to complete the tasks that God called them to do. The three went up caterpillars; they came down butterflies. Metamorphosis.

But not everyone who encounters God comes back as a butterfly. Take Peter. In the mountain, Peter experienced something so special, so unique that we expected him to come out as a butterfly. He does not. He opposes Jesus’s journey to Jerusalem. He eventually denies Jesus. Three times!

Everyone who encounters God in God’s mountain needs to come down. When Moses came down, he led in the birthing of a people whose love for Yahweh was expressed in love for neighbor, especially the poor, the orphans, the widows, and the strangers. When Elijah came down, he continued the struggle against Israel’s oppressive kings and began a prophetic tradition committed to justice that ended with John the Baptizer. When Jesus came down, he followed the path that led to Jerusalem, to his execution in the hands of the Romans, and, eventually, to the Empty Tomb!

To believe in metamorphosis is to believe in God's power to change the world, to transform caterpillars into butterflies, and to, eventually, remold even Peter!

To believe in metamorphosis is to believe that goodness will triumph over evil, that hope is stronger than despair, that faith conquers fear, that love is always greater than indifference, and that life will always, always, conquer death!

#IAmWithJesus
#StopTheKillingsPH
#NeverAgainNeverForget
#NoToMarcosDuterte2022
#FreePalestine
#JusticeForMyanmar

*art, "The Transfiguration," JESUS MAFA, 1973 (from the vanderbilt divinity library digital archives).