IT WAS DISGUSTING
by Bob Wickizer
Scripture: Isaiah 50:4-9, Psalms 31:9-16, Philippians 2:5-11, Mark 15:1-47
Title: It Was Disgusting
Author: Bob Wickizer
Text: Isaiah 50:4-9; Psalm 31:9-16; Philippians 2:5-11; Mark 15:1-47
Welcome to the one Sunday of the year I refer to as "schizophrenic Sunday." Palm Sunday is the entry door to Holy Week. The day is marked by churches around the world putting on elaborate passion plays that have become profitable tourist attractions in some areas of the world. We go to church and witness the spectacle of crucifixion. We ponder the horror of a government colluding with religious authorities to brutally execute an innocent man. We leave church all mixed up inside and head home to a family dinner.
Chances are, if you are attending a western Christian church (that is not Orthodox), and if you are white and of European background, your Palm Sunday or Easter family dinner will include a ham dish and a vegetable or potato dish served with cheese. Variations of this menu arose in Europe that were deliberately planned to be as offensive to Jews (It is totally non-Kosher) as they could possibly be. We look at it and say "yum" but this year please give it a second thought because that meal in particular is part of the backdrop of the cultural anti-Semitism we carry around.
I call our observance of Palm Sunday "schizophrenic" because we move from the glory and grandeur of a king riding into Jerusalem to the bloody and brutal execution of the son of God. The drama sears into our consciousness questions like "How could they do such a thing?" "Didn't they know who they were executing?" "Why did it have to happen like this?" And on and on the questions go.
Let me get you started with a few cultural tidbits we often miss. First is the ride into Jerusalem on a donkey. Three hundred years before that fateful Sunday, Alexander the Great rode into Jerusalem through the same East gate, through the same side of the city and straight to the mount of the Second Temple that was even then almost two centuries old. Most of Alexander's conquests ...
Author: Bob Wickizer
Text: Isaiah 50:4-9; Psalm 31:9-16; Philippians 2:5-11; Mark 15:1-47
Welcome to the one Sunday of the year I refer to as "schizophrenic Sunday." Palm Sunday is the entry door to Holy Week. The day is marked by churches around the world putting on elaborate passion plays that have become profitable tourist attractions in some areas of the world. We go to church and witness the spectacle of crucifixion. We ponder the horror of a government colluding with religious authorities to brutally execute an innocent man. We leave church all mixed up inside and head home to a family dinner.
Chances are, if you are attending a western Christian church (that is not Orthodox), and if you are white and of European background, your Palm Sunday or Easter family dinner will include a ham dish and a vegetable or potato dish served with cheese. Variations of this menu arose in Europe that were deliberately planned to be as offensive to Jews (It is totally non-Kosher) as they could possibly be. We look at it and say "yum" but this year please give it a second thought because that meal in particular is part of the backdrop of the cultural anti-Semitism we carry around.
I call our observance of Palm Sunday "schizophrenic" because we move from the glory and grandeur of a king riding into Jerusalem to the bloody and brutal execution of the son of God. The drama sears into our consciousness questions like "How could they do such a thing?" "Didn't they know who they were executing?" "Why did it have to happen like this?" And on and on the questions go.
Let me get you started with a few cultural tidbits we often miss. First is the ride into Jerusalem on a donkey. Three hundred years before that fateful Sunday, Alexander the Great rode into Jerusalem through the same East gate, through the same side of the city and straight to the mount of the Second Temple that was even then almost two centuries old. Most of Alexander's conquests ...
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