Tag: Holy Week

Easter Reflections: Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story

Donna Joy

When Jesus cleared the outer courts of the temple it was about far more than what and who he was clearing out.

It was also about who He was making room to let in.

Jesus was clearing space to welcome

the foreigner

the poor

the oppressed

the discriminated

the marginalized.

The religious leaders of the day set up a system designed to keep people out, and put people down, in order to maintain and reinforce their own power. They were using exorbitant fees, gross exchange rates, and extra rules to enforce exclusivity and increase shame.

On what we now call Easter, Jesus continued the process of making space for inclusion as he announced his resurrection. Women at the time were so marginalized and devalued their testimony was not even considered credible in a court case. Yet it was women he first entrusted to tell his story.

The entire Passover celebration, from the preparation to the final glass of wine, reinforces the theme of liberation and the pull of slavery. The religious leaders of the day had turned what was intended as a celebration of liberation into an act of oppression. Every act of Jesus during Holy Week was intended to set the oppressed free once again.

I believe Jesus is still drawing people out of oppression, out of the ways we marginalize, judge and oppress each other.

Jesus also still seeks to rescue us from the slavery of the things we think will set us free.

For the past forty days as I’ve decluttered my stuff, I’ve had to process through new ways of thinking of how I interact with things, and what I prioritize: What’s out, what’s in? What oppresses and what sets free?

The past year+ of Covid19 has made many of us process through what we prioritize, what’s in, what’s out, what oppresses, what sets free?

I believe the story of Easter, and the entire life of Jesus, calls us to work through a similar process. What are we holding onto because it is tradition? What are we holding onto because it makes us feel comfortable? What are we holding onto that keeps us in power while making the marginalized, poor, foreigner and oppressed unwelcome in our spaces?

What are we holding onto that covers over real?

What are we willing to let go of to make space for others?

What are we prioritizing?

Who are we prioritizing, who are we giving power to, and who are marginalizing?

Maundy Thursday Reflections

Donna Joy

Jesus spent Holy Week decluttering.

I mean, as far as we know, he lived a pretty minimalistic life anyway, with no home and no real possessions that we know of.

Yet, he still spent Holy Week decluttering.

After his Palm Sunday donkey ride, Jesus went to the temple to clear out the obstacles which were getting in the way of worship. He overturned the tables of money changers and angrily shouted at the people exchanging goods.  The temple’s purpose had been covered over with materialism, judgementalism, racism and legalism, which blocked the way for other nations to come worship. Many people clung to those practices as essential parts of their religion. To Jesus, they were cluttering up the space and covering over what was real.

That’s the core of what decluttering and minimalism are about: clearing space for what is most important, making room for what you prioritize.

Jesus spent Holy Week making space for what was most important and clearing out everything in the way.

Today is the day traditionally known as Maundy Thursday, which means Command Thursday. Jesus entered the Passover Seder, a meal full of ritual and rules and reduced the rules down to one. He cut through hundreds of religious rules to bring focus to a single thought. A single command. A single example:

Clear the space. Keep it simple. Don’t get lost in all the clutter – just love others.

Love others the way I love you.

That is the focus, and that is enough.