By Fr. Jon Pedigo
Holy Week liturgies are the most intricate liturgies developed in the Western Church. The intent of the liturgies from Palm Sunday (Passion Sunday) through Easter Sunday is to give the participant a sense of traveling with Christ on his journey to the Cross and Resurrection. The Gospel account of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, the Passover that Jesus celebrated with his disciples, Judas’s betrayal and the subsequent arrest of Jesus, his trial and crucifixion are depicted not only in the reading of the Passion, but also in the liturgy itself. We are given a liturgical lens through which we interpret the last days of Christ.
The Holy Week liturgies encourage congregational participation: certain parts of the Passion narrative are spoken by the congregation, people wave palms on Palm Sunday, wash each others’ feet on Holy Thursday, kneel, sit and stand and touch the cross at Good Friday. On Holy Saturday, the congregation celebrates Resurrection by the baptizing new members into the Church and on Easter Sunday the community reassembles to celebrate the victory of the Resurrection. As members of Grupo Solidaridad, we have an additional lens of interpretation of Holy Week apart from the liturgical lens. We have the lens of social justice. For us to put on the lens of social justice we need to appreciate the social and historical context of Jesus.
Palestine was occupied by the Roman Empire that used broken political structures to continue to oppress the people. The Romans traditionally maintained power by dividing the people against each other and by taking a big cut from a farmers’ land. The farmer kept his land as long as the tribute was paid. The Empire benefit-ed from this system, but 150 years prior to Jesus birth, the method of revenue changed from receiving tributes from the harvest to the land itself. Religiously, the “theology” of the Empire elevated the Cesar (the Emperor) as a god. The Roman Senate was reduced to a chorus of “yes men” who simply supported anything that the emperor, the Caesar, said. Thus, fidelity to the system and faithfulness to Caesar were inseparable. Loyalty oaths and religious orthodoxy were ritualized. Conquered people had to offer incense to the Roman gods. The Jews refused to do this and created a resistance movement. Jesus was born in the midst of this resistance movement.
Land taxation and the confiscation of property were the way that the new system was held in place by the time of Jesus’ birth. The priest class of Jerusalem and their families benefited from this system and as long as Herod supported this system, the entire political system benefited on the backs of farmers. This later system led to massive displacement of people. By the time of Jesus, many homeless persons were reduced to day workers to build new cities and many became landless shepherds.
Pontius Pilate, the visible face of the Empire, yielded power over life and death. King Herod, a puppet ruler who reported to Pilate, was concerned about maintaining his own power and relevance in society. Herod wanted to kill Jesus because Jesus threatened his standing and credibility. Pilate was concerned about keep-ing Jesus silent because Jesus threatened the entire system. Pilate washed his hands of Jesus’ life, he didn’t care about what would happen to Jesus so long as the system of occupation could continue.
The arrest of Jesus was a political play by Herod. Herod tried to justify his action against Jesus as a mere act of law enforcement. Pilate refused to accept the arrest on religious grounds (the only legitimate way that Herod could get away with arresting Jesus and Pilate found no evidence of theological infractions) and so Herod told Pilate that Jesus was actually trying to stir the people up and foment a riot against the Empire. At that point, Pilate sentenced Jesus to death.
Lastly, let us look at the Resurrection through the social justice lens. The Resurrection is more than a miracle: it is a “Cosmic Reset,” where old sins and betrayals are forgiven and all of creation is restored to God’s intentional design of harmony between creation and the Creator and communal peace between human beings. When we look at the Resurrection through the lens of social justice, we begin to see that Resurrection is not only about Christ being raised from the dead, we see the Resurrection as the validation of Resistance. The Resurrection validates Christ’s battle against the forces of social evil. The Resurrection, therefore, is the affirmation that there is now a New Order in which the lion lays peacefully with the lamb.
The Old Order of injustice that led to Christ’s death - the political the manipulation of power over the people, the greed of the rich, the militarism and colonialism of the Empire and the exploitation of poor must forever be resisted not by Christ, but Christ living in each one of us who are baptized into Christ. Resurrection is not something that happened to Jesus, rather, Resurrection is something that is happening now. Every time we raise our voice in defiance against injustice, we are in effect proclaiming the Victory of God over death. Every time we participate in a march in defense of the vulnerable, we proclaim the Power of the Creator over suffering caused by human ambition and greed.
The Resurrection empowers all God’s people to right the wrongs that lead to the suffering and death of the innocent and at the same time the Resurrection invalidates those who claim the high moral ground, but do nothing to alleviate poverty and end the use of violence. In short, the Resurrection is the ultimate confrontation with the Empire and that confrontation continues in our work.
