How Christians define what’s ‘good’

In the Christian calendar, this is Holy Week. Holy Week is a time of observances, not celebrations.

The week began with a makeshift protest parade. The parade was more street theatre than triumphal entry. Early in the week, Jesus created a huge disturbance in the temple courtyard. The courtyard incident sealed his fate to be killed as an outside rabble-rouser from Galilee. Gloom was the mood that hung over the observance of Passover by Jesus and his disciples. His sham trial was a bad experience. The trial featured false accusations and indignities. His disciples evidently ran into hiding when things got tough. There was no good news.

It was a week of bad experiences for Jesus and his followers. The assassination of your leader does not call forth celebration. There was no good news to celebrate until Jesus is reported to have come back from the grave. Yet, we Christians call it Holy Week and call the day of Jesus’ crucifixion Good Friday.

The importance of understanding the last week of the life of Jesus cannot be overstated. The writer of the Matthew gospel gives well more than one-third of his total narrative to Jesus’ last week. The Mark writer also gives more than one-third of his narrative to that last week. Luke uses about one-quarter of his gospel to what we call Holy Week. The John writer proportionately gives even more words to Jesus’ last week than do the other three gospel writers.

In understanding and interpreting the life of Jesus, we correctly place him growing up in an unimportant town named Nazareth. He did most of his teaching in rural settings. He was respected as a teacher and gathered a significant following. However, we seriously err if we fail to recognize the significance of his week in Jerusalem.

That final week in the life of Jesus is very important. The story needs to be mastered by serious followers of Jesus. As important as it is to remember the details of that week, the greater challenge is to figure out the meaning of what happened. It is all too easy to follow traditional interpretations and repeat, “Jesus died for our sins and was raised for our justification.” Without denying this central Christian message, I am suggesting there are deeper meanings of profound importance to be found in Jesus’ last week. We have a body of Jesus’ teachings that come from his rural Galilean ministry. The accounts of his final week are a great pageant that depicts with realism the implications of what he taught in Galilee.

Central to the teachings of Jesus is the establishment of the Kingdom of God on earth.

It was to be a kingdom not of might and power, but of justice, peace, love and kindness. To establish this kingdom, Jesus taught the servant ideal. Servanthood was the character of this new kingdom and its leaders. Serving was at the heart of his message. He told his disciples, “If any of you desire to be great, let him be the servant of all.”

Holy Week reminds us that the servant ideal has a modifier. Chapter 53 of the Isaiah writings often is recited by Christians as a description of Jesus Christ: “He was despised and rejected, a man of suffering who was acquainted with infirmity.” Suffering is the modifier of the servant ideal that was taught, advocated and acted out by Jesus.

More than 30 years ago I found the writings of Henri J.M. Nouwen. In the late 1970s, he wrote a small book titled “The Wounded Healer.” His writings explore the phenomenon that we read about in the Isaiah writings and see in the life that Jesus lived. Nouwen was writing about the experience of clergy, but the message is of inescapable importance to every serious follower of Jesus. Anyone who sets out to live the Jesus ideal of servant will at times be misunderstood, rejected and wounded. I well remember reading and rereading Nouwen’s book. The book is well underlined and highlighted.

Nouwen put into words what I experienced in my years as a minister. No one in seminary or at my ordination warned me of what I was about to experience. If I accept the servant/healer role, I will be despised, rejected and wounded. The servant/healer does not go looking for rejection and wounds, but they are inevitable.

I suspect that the vast majority of Christians wrongly understand Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem and joyfully sing “Hosanna.” They then jump to Easter and celebrate with an equally joyous, “He is risen!” In this scenario, they miss the point of the pageant of Holy Week. Jesus was rejected and suffered greatly on his way to the vindication of resurrection.

Jesus taught that we are to establish the Kingdom of God on earth. He prayed for that establishment and taught us to pray that it would happen “on earth as it is in heaven.” This kingdom is established, not by might or power, but by justice, healing, peace, mercy, love and kindness. Along the way those who work for the Kingdom of God on earth will suffer wounds. A few will actually lose their lives. The Holy Week pageant puts life into perspective. Holy week teaches us that wounds are only incidents along the path to the goodness of the Kingdom of God on earth. The day of Jesus’ crucifixion was a very good Friday. It led to the Sunday celebration.

The Rev. Howard Bess is a retired American Baptist minister who lives in Palmer. His email address is hdbss@mtaonline.net.

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