Theology, Thoughts & Coffee
Reading and Class Schedule:
Amy-Jill Levine, Entering the Passion of Jesus: A Beginner’s Guide to Holy Week
- Introduction and Chapter 1, Jerusalem: Risking Reputation, pp. 7-42
- Chapter 2, The Temple: Risking Righteous Anger, pp. 45-62
- Chapter 3, Teachings: Risking Challenge, pp. 65-88
- Chapter 4, The First Dinner: Risking Rejection, pp. 91-106
- Chapter 5, The Last Supper: Risking the Loss of Friends, pp. 109-126
- Chapter 6, Gethsemane: Risking Temptation and Afterword, pp. 129-142
Introduction
Download Introduction and Chapter 1 notes
“In the chapters that follow, we delve into the history and literature of the last days of Jesus’ life. We find ways to question our own lives through the stories of his trials and choices. This Lenten journey challenges us to examine our consciences and find out how deepening our relationship with Jesus and the Bible brings us into closer relationship with others and the world”
“But this study is not simple a review of Jesus’ Passion. It’s also a form of personal introspection. Jesus is about to give up his life, which requires determining what a life is worth. And that means we all have to determine what our own lives are worth. What is worth dying for? What is worth living for? What are our values, and have we lived up to them?
Lent is a time of atonement, a time to repair past wrongs and address brokenness. Atonement is “at-one-ment”, or being reconciled. Paul believes that through the life and death of Jesus, God is reconciling the world—with God, each other, and all of creation. Tikkun Olam, repair of the world.
Jesus says that anyone who wants to follow him must deny themselves and take up their cross (Mark 8:34) and that whoever does not do this is not worthy of him (Matthew 10:38). Following Jesus is not easy. The followers of Jesus are called to place ourselves in solidarity with Jesus through the events of Holy Week from the Triumphal Entry to the Temple to the two suppers, and on to Gethsemane and then the cross.
This study and the story of Jesus’ last days bring with them several challenges: What do we stand for? What do we believe in? When do we stand up for those beliefs? We can also watch the disciples and ask ourselves, when have we denied or betrayed? How can we make it right? Jesus talks about taking up the cross. The Passion narrative shows him doing that. Can those who claim to be his followers do the same? “When a friend comes to you and says, ‘What is the cross that you’re bearing? What is the cause that you have taken up? How much have you risked?,’ do you know what your answer is? That’s entering into Lent. Thatring into the Passion.”
Chapter 1: Jerusalem: Risking Reputation
The Gospels give us four versions of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem (what we call Palm Sunday): Matthew 21:1-11; Mark 11:1-11; Luke 19:28-44; and John 12:12-19. Each has a different emphasis that contributes to the greater whole.
For Jesus the risk of riding into Jerusalem is very real. Pontius Pilate appears to let the Jewish people know that Rome is in charge. “Tensions are running high, as are expectations: of liberation, of freedom, of autonomy. As Jesus enters into town riding on a donkey with the crowd crying out for him, the Passion begins.”
The Meek King: Inheriting the earth, in the Psalms and the Gospels, is not about power, control, and domination but requires humility, not in the sense of being lowly, “but in the sense of being able to listen to others, to share resources, to prioritize community rather than authority, to serve rather than to be served.”
Save Us, Please: The crowd cries out for salvation—redemption and liberation—leading us to ask from what do we seek salvation? “From sin yes. But also from pain, from despair, from loneliness, from poverty, from oppression. We are all in need of some form of salvation. Indeed, the idea of salvation for most of the Scriptures of Israel is not about spiritual matters, but physical ones: the Passover, the setting of the Passion narrative, is about salvation from slavery.
Son of David: Matthew depicts the crowds as praising Jesus and calling him the “Son of David”—a reference to the great king of Israel who brings the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem. This is a reminder of God’s promises of a kingdom ruled by peace, safety, justice, and compassion for all people.
Jerusalem: When Jesus enters Jerusalem, the city is in turmoil, asking, “Who is this?” The response is that it is Jesus of Nazareth in Galilee is a reference to an allusion to Deut. 18:18 thus connecting Jesus to Moses as well as David. Indeed, Matthew’s Gospel depicts Jesus as the new Moses, leading Israel to salvation. Tensions arise because Pilate is also on the scene to secure Rome’s dominion.
The End of the Parade: Where are we in response to Jesus triumphal entry? “When the election is over and the victory is won, now what? Do we expect miracles, or is now the time the work really begins? Can we do more than sing songs? Can we walk the walk? Must we move so quickly from Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday, or can we take time for Lent to do its work? What do we know now, and what might we learn of we looked again, at our Scripture, our lives, our world? Do we see it differently in the light of the good news?
Chapter 2: The Temple: Risking Righteous Anger
The story we know as the “Cleansing of the Temple” occurs in all four Gospels but the details in the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) are quite different from what we read in the Gospel of John. This chapter looks closely at what Mark and John tell us about this well-known but perhaps little understood incident and introduces some of the distinct perspectives present in the Matthew and Luke.
In terms of the actual setting, we know that the Temple complex was enormous, the size of twelve soccer fields placed end to end. If Jesus turns over a table or two in one part of the complex, it is not going to make much difference to the rest of the complex. The action did not stop all business of the day. It is more symbolic than practical in terms of its significance.
Driving Out the Vendors: In each of the Gospels, especially in the Gospel of John, the actions of Jesus appear to be violent. “We might think of his action in terms of righteous or even holy anger. There are times, we may find, that business as usual in not only inappropriate, it is obscene. Something has to be done … if we do not feel some sort of rage when preventable tragedies occur, then something has gone terribly wrong with us.” What is the basis for Jesus’ actions? Why is he so upset? If he “is not condemning the Temple itself, or financial exploitation, or purity practices, what is he condemning?”
House of Prayer for All Nations: According to Matthew, Mark, and Luke the concern is not the Temple, but the attitude of the people who are coming to it. In Mark, Jesus begins by saying that the Temple is to be a house of prayer for all the nations, condensing and then quoting Isaiah 56:6-7. This point even more acute because Jesus is actually standing in the Court of the Gentiles when he makes this affirmation. The Temple is a place of welcome for all people. Matthew and Luke drop out “for all nations” because they know the Temple was already a house of prayer for all nations. They change the focus to one of prayer. “And prayer gets us closer to what is going on in the Synoptic tradition.”
Den of Thieves: Jesus asserts that the Temple has become a den of thieves citing Jeremiah 7:11. This is not so much a place where thieves actually commit robbery as it is a place where they go when they have taken what does not belong to them. The present day comparison to what Jesus and Jeremiah condemn is easy to make. Churches “should be places where people promise to live a godly life, and then keep their promises.”
Stop Making My Father’s House a Marketplace: In John’s Gospel Jesus starts not simply by overturning tables, but also using a “whip of cords” and driving out the vendors. He tells them to stop making the Temple a “marketplace” alluding to Zechariah 14:21. Here Jesus “anticipates the time when their will no longer be a need for venders in the Temple because everyone will have enough and be able to worship in love and peace. A time when there will be no separation between home and a place of worship. “Can we envision this? Can we work toward it?”
Zeal for Your House: In John’s account the disciples provide an interpretation of the scene. They remember Psalm 69:9, “It is zeal for your house that has consumed me.” This leads us to ask, what consumes us? For what do we display zeal? “Jesus talked about finding the ‘pearl of great price’: what is ours?”
But He Was Speaking of the Temple of His Body: In John the Temple scene ends with Jesus saying “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” As John tells us, “he was speaking of the temple of his body.” Here are three things to think about: 1) John tells us that Jesus’ body is the New Temple, a reconciliation for many, how do we respond to such generosity? 2) To take seriously the idea that the community gathered in Jesus’ name is his body requires that this be a place of welcome for all. Is it? 3) The body is also the temple of the Holy Spirit. The human body is of inherent value. Do we care for the people around us? “Lent is a time to think more seriously about how and what and with whom we eat. And that topic brings us later to the two suppers that are part of the Lenten story.”
Chapter 3: Teachings: Risking Challenge
After the events that took place in the Temple, we read that the chief priests kept looking for a way to kill Jesus. They were afraid because of the popularity of his teachings with the crowds. This chapter looks at three of Jesus’ Temple teachings.
Teaching always carries certain risks and Jesus takes many of them by teaching in the Temple. In addition to the possibility that people will misunderstand him, he also risks arrest for false teaching. This possibility is increased because there are those in the crowd who are more interested in tripping him up and goading him into saying something controversial than they are in learning.
Taxation
The question of taxation in the first century concerns the purpose for which the taxes are paid. The question is not “Should we pay taxes?” Rather, “Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor?” This is because some of the taxes went not to provide services for the people, but to provide more money for the Roman Empire.
The question is a trap. If Jesus says do not pay your taxes, he will bring down the wrath of Rome because anyone who refuses to pay taxes to Caesar is therefore Caesar’s enemy. On the other hand, if he says you must pay taxes he alienates those who believe that Rome is in Judea illegitimately.
Jesus response (Matthew 22:21), after observing the picture of Caesar on a coin, is “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” In this way Jesus does not really answer the question so much as pose a question of his own. He asks his inquisitors to decide what belongs to God and what belongs to Caesar. The New Testament offers differing responses on taxes. The question remains, when do we go along and when must we resist.
Greatest Commandment
“Jewish tradition recognizes 613 commandments in the Scriptures of Israel.” One rabbinic tradition says there are 365 negative commandments or prohibitions and 248 positive commandments. “In addition to the list of ten commandments with which most of us are familiar, these other commandments range from the equally familiar … [to] laws about how priests are to offer sacrifices, about how to plant fields, about the military and the monarchy, and so on.” Because societies and their contexts change, these commands need supplementation. This is where groups like the Pharisees come in.
In this context, distillations become common ways of summarizing the teachings of the law. This attempt at summary does not mean that we ignore the particular laws, but it suggests that a brief summary can be an effective means of guidance through which to interpret the whole. We should also remember that there are different such distillations and that the rabbis attempted to preserve all the different versions.
This is the context when Jesus answers the scribe who asks which commandment is the greatest. Jesus response brings together Deuteronomy 6:4-5 and Leviticus 19:18. In John 13:34 Jesus gives a “new” commandment to love one another, just as he loved by willingly giving up his life. The love that Jesus commands is an extraordinary love that risks everything. Here Jesus is not asking anything of us that he does not ask of himself. “When we talk about loving God and loving neighbor, what do we mean by that?”
This also reminds us that whatever love we have for God, God’s love for us is even stronger. “This love of God means that we can be fully honest with God; we can say what is on our hearts and in our minds, no matter how painful those comments may be.” Jesus demonstrates the depth of God’s loves for us.
The Lesson of the Widow’s Mite
Many refer to this as the “widow’s mite” because of the rendering in the King James Bible of the smallest coin in the time of Jesus as a “mite.” “The title ‘widow’s mite’ is wrong for at least two reasons. First, the story concerns two coins, not just one. Our widow could have held back, but she chose complete generosity. Second, the story is not about the money, which is what the focus of the “mite” suggests…The story is about the widow, impoverished, and yet willing to give all that she has.”
Translation issues with the NRSV: particularly that in the Greek Jesus comment is not in fact, “all she had to live on” but instead “her whole life.” Jesus’ focus is not on her economic state; it is on her life. The widow, like Jesus, gives everything she has. Jesus compares her donation to that of those who have contributed out of their abundance. “For a person with something to spare, giving a donation, even a tithe, is not going to create hardship. The widow gives everything.”
Jesus asks his followers to see the widow. She is an exemplar of the way of life he commands. “She does not speak; what might she say? And what might we need to hear?”
Chapter 4: The First Dinner: Risking Rejection
Gathering for the “First Supper”
“It would be nice if Lenten observances started with a ‘first supper,’ a celebration of the woman who anoints Jesus. Jesus states, ‘Truly [that is, “amen”] I tell you, wherever the good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her” (Mark 14:9). Do we tell the story in her memory?”
“The connection between the Temple and this First Supper—as well as the Last Supper—had already been anticipated in Mark’s Gospel. The events at the First Supper connect, over and over again, with the story of the poor widow whom he just met. Each story concerns a single woman, distinguished from among the more privileged people, who displays an extravagant gift. In each case she is silent, and in each case Jesus honors her by valuing her action. We are to see the first woman but we are to tell the story of the second.”
“This is an opening for us to talk not only about this one unnamed woman, but about all those women in the Gospels whose stories are not remembered and not told.”
The Women Who Followed Jesus
A lengthy study could do done on the women who follow Jesus. In addition to the anointing woman in our present story, we have Anna the widow in the Temple, Mary Magdalene, the mother of James and John, Joanna and Susanna, Mary and Martha, the daughters of Jerusalem who weep for Jesus. Also, the various women for whom Jesus grants a healing—the Canaanite SyroPhoenician woman with her demon possessed daughter, Peter’s mother in law, the widow of Nain whose son Jesus raises, the bent over woman in the synagogue, and the women who watch Jesus’ crucifixion and come to his tomb to anoint him. All have their own stories.
“They followed Jesus not because they were seeking freedom from some sort of repressive Jewish system that devalued them; they followed Jesus because he spoke to their heart and healed their bodies, and they found peace in his presence.”
“When we tell the story of the Passion, do we remember to tell the story of the anointing woman whose identity has been lost? Jesus himself calls for her remembrance. He is telling us that when we tell his story, we must tell her story as well.” And it should do more than convey information, it “should motivate and inspire, console and provide courage.”
The Woman—or Women—Who Anoint
“Matthew and Mark basically tell us the same story about an unnamed woman who anoints Jesus’ head at the beginning of Passion Week; John names the woman as Mary the sister of Martha, and in John’s account, Mary anoints Jesus’ feet. Luke is the outlier because Luke depicts the anointing as coming before Jesus starts to move to Jerusalem. In Luke, the setting is also at the home of a fellow named Simon, but this one is a Pharisee rather than a man cleansed of leprosy. The anointing woman, identified by Luke as a simmer from the city, anoints Jesus’ feet. This narrative is not about anointing him for his burial and not about his kingship, but honoring him and showing her gratitude to him.”
“Do we know the names of the people who seek the same things we do? Might we learn from an outsider? And in some cases, might we risk being an outsider who can do what those on the inside can’t, or won’t.”
Mary Took a Pound of Costly Perfume…
We might think of the four accounts we find in the Gospels as variations on a theme. All of them are “correct” in that each one has the same basic structure, and yet all of them are different. “The Gospel writers sing the good news with their own rhythms and we should appreciate them all.”
“In John’s version, we learn that after Mary anointed Jesus’ feet, ‘the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume’… John wants us to experience the Gospel viscerally; not only by reading the words, but with sight and sound, smell and taste. The good news should impact our senses, so that the world we encounter in its light, its sound, and its taste, is transformed.”
“A woman anointed Jesus—who, where, when, why, and to what result? Each time we tell the story, the details may change. And that’s okay. What story do we tell? How do we tell the story? And what do we proclaim not only in memory of Jesus but also ‘in memory of’ that risk taking woman.”
Chapter 5: The Last Supper: Risking the Loss of Friends
The New Testament gives us five variations for Jesus’ Last Supper: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and Paul. The Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) have the same emphasis, as does Paul: Jesus gives thanks, breaks the bread, distributes it, and tells his followers that the bread is his body. Then he takes the cup and proclaims it the covenant in his blood. But there are also variations: For instance, only Luke and Paul mention the “new covenant,” only Luke places the dispute about greatness at the Last Supper, and so on. In John’s version, Jesus does not speak of the bread and wine as his body and blood.
“Rather than rush to harmonize the accounts, we should savor each one. In this chapter we’ll look at several themes that the texts offer: the date of the Last Supper and its connection with the Passover meal…the betrayal, the bread and the cup, and the concern for service.”
The Passover
In the Synoptic Gospels, but not John, the Last Supper takes place on the first night of the Passover holiday. Paul does not give us a specific date but he uses language connected with Passover. For John, the Last Supper takes place twenty-four hours earlier, which means the meal would not have been the Passover Seder. In John, Jesus the crucifixion occurs not on the first day of the Passover, but the day before, when the lambs for the Passover Seder are being sacrificed in the Temple.
John changes the symbolism: The original Passover marked the movement of Israel from slavery to freedom. For John, the Passover symbolically marks the movement from sin to reconciliation. from death to life. “Here we have another reason why churches that celebrate Passover seders might want to reconsider: if Jesus is the Passover, then celebrating a seder is unnecessary.”
Betrayal
Paul, the “betrayal” of Jesus, and translation questions. From Levine’s perspective there is no “betrayal” in Paul’s letters “and so no need for a Judas.” However, in all four Gospels, Judas is present at the Last Supper and he betrays Jesus. “As we move from Mark to Matthew to Luke to John, Judas looks increasingly malevolent. It is therefore difficult to travel back behind the New Testament texts and find the ‘real’ Judas. The Gospels leave us with different stories and so different impressions, each one worse than the previous one.”
“In all four Gospels, Judas shares the Last Supper. He is present in the Synoptics when Jesus speaks of his body and blood, when Jesus distributes the bread, and when Jesus announces that he will be betrayed. Is Judas part of the group, or not? Has he a chance of being redeemed? Can he be saved? Judas too, is in the image and likeness of the divine. He is not a demon, although he may seem to us to be one. He is a human being. And we cannot afford to demonize human beings. Judas calls us to conscience.”
Bread and Cup
When Jesus says “Take, this is my body,” and then lifts the cup and says, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many,” he is using sacrificial imagery. In present times, this language does not resonate well with most of us because we do not live in a culture where sacrifice is practiced. However, at the time of Jesus everyone, Jew and Gentile, understood the practice and significance of sacrifice. It was a way of sharing a meal with God (or the gods if one was a pagan) and it was a mechanism that bound families and communities together.
The Last Supper takes this imagery and connects it with Jesus sacrifice. “If we take the Eucharist for granted, if we take Communion as simply a form of dinner, then we miss the shock. Jesus is giving up his life. Paul takes this so seriously that he attaches a warning to participation. Those who do so in an unworthy manner will face consequences. “Participation in this meal is a joy, a blessing, a sign of life abundant…and a risk. The invitation to the table should come with a warning label: Am I reconciled to others in my world? If I am not, dare I approach?”
Service
Luke and John both connect the Last Supper with the call to service. In John’s Gospel the Last Supper also include the scene of Jesus’ washing the feet of the disciples and the commandment to follow his example. Foot washing is a sign of humility and service that was regularly performed by slaves in the first century. “Jesus point: no one is to lord it over another, and those who claim to be his followers should do what he does, in service to others.” Jesus is demonstrating what true humility and service looks like.
“It is insufficient, Jesus tells us at the Last Supper, to take up the role of a slave when we know there are actual slaves, human beings treated as property. To be a servant leader, to take on the role of a slave, also means to take on the role of freeing others—not only from sin but also from bondage. The risks of sharing that cup and eating that bread are high. We give up personal authority; we serve others, we are to free others.”
Chapter 6: Gethsemane: Risking Temptation
The Gospels again present us with variations on a theme. The name Gethsemane appears only in Matthew and Mark. Luke sets the scene on the Mount of Olives while John places it in a garden across the Kidron valley. When we put these descriptions together we arrive at “the garden of Gethsemane.”
In the synoptic Gospels Jesus suffers in these moments before his arrest and prays earnestly that “this cup” would pass from him.” In John’s Gospel, Jesus is not in agony, he is in control. There is no prayer for the cup to pass, for throughout the Gospel Jesus has been anticipating being “lifted up.” “The Gospels give us a choice, which is a blessing. We can choose which depiction speaks most fully to our hearts: the man of sorrows or the triumphant conqueror. Different people will necessarily have different perceptions of Jesus, and of God.”
The Risks
“Gethsemane is the biggest risk of all. Jesus is about to be arrested. Could he have stopped the arrest? Of course. Could he have run away? Of course. His disciples are armed, so he could have asked them to do something.” The risk is the knowledge that he can save himself and choosing not to do so.
There is also divine risk, Jesus will suffer, and God will suffer as well. “The darkening clouds at the cross are divine pathos. The rending of the Temple veil represents not some form of new access to God, since God is everywhere and everyone always has access. Rather it represents God’s mourning, for in Judaism, the sign of mourning is to tear one’s garment.”
The disciples risk as well. Jesus asks them to stay awake while he prays. “And they can’t. They fail, and yet somehow they are redeemed.” What do we do when we fail our family, friends, neighbors, and God. Anytime we are in relationship, we are always risking something.
Nonviolence
According to both Mark and Matthew, when Jesus is arrested one of those near to him drew a sword and cut off the ear of the high priests slave. Matthew says that Jesus commands that the sword be sheathed, saying those who take the sword will perish by the sword. Luke adds that Jesus healed the slave and said “No more of this!” In John, we read that Peter is the one who used the sword, and Jesus orders him to return his sword and stop the attack.
“All of these incidents speak to matters of self-preservation. When do we fight back and when do we engage in nonviolent resistance? When, if ever, do we allow others to engage in violence on our behalf? Jesus warning that those who take the sword will perish by the sword is not, according to Levine, a prohibition against all use of the sword. “The point is not that one should never take up the sword, but it is a warning about the danger of violent attack.” In this situation, Jesus “does not want the disciples fighting for him, and he does not want others to be injured. He knows what he must do, and he will do so without violence.”
The Naked Young Man
“The naked young man, who flees not only from Gethsemane in Mark 14:52 but also disappears in all the other Gospels, which do not mention him, remains a major topic of discussion in biblical studies.” Some suggest this is Mark himself. Other ideas include an anticipation of the “young man” in Mark who is dressed in a white robe and greets the woman at the empty tomb (Mark 16:5), a disciple of Jesus who was preparing for baptism, James the brother of Jesus, another disciple, or Lazarus. The list is endless.
“Or perhaps he is Mark’s reader—fearful, naked, risking arrest himself, about to face the death of Jesus, and unable to do anything about it. He remains a mystery, and into his mystery we move, step by step, to the cross. We too are vulnerable and fearful, we too have deserted, we too have failed to stop what cannot be stopped. Before we can be built up, Lent will strip us down, and in that rawness, that openness, we can begin to heal. Before we get to the resurrection, there will be suffering, and crucifixion, and death.”