Some of you are planning Holy Week now. Or soon. And you wonder what you might say. Have you ever pondered what follows as a fresh approach to Holy Week. I suggest you do.
The last week of Jesus raises a question for every Christian for all time. In fact, it is a question that spawns a host of questions. The Gospel of Luke tells us that Jesus at least had a good idea, if not more, of what awaited him in Jerusalem. Whether it was because of his cavalier fellowship with those otherwise rejected by the religious authorities that wanted to control ordinary behaviors. Whether it was his rather egocentric claims of his relationship to God, indicating he was God’s Son in a unique way. Whether it was his capacity always to turn the interrogations of his behaviors upside down into a deeper wisdom that unmasked the one asking questions. Whether it was his authority to permit his chosen few followers to break through the boundaries of the authorities’ regulations of acceptable, worthy behaviors. Whether it was his undeniable ability to heal people and to liberate them from unclean evil forces. Take your pick.
They picked a fight every day of the last week with him. He chose only to respond and sometimes not to respond. Sure, he flipped over some tables in protest but he did not attack, he did not raise his fists, he did not fight. Jason Porterfield suggests even the whip he used was limp. One scholar said in the last week the lion of Jerusalem’s powers opened its mouth and Jesus stuck his head in it.
Jason Porterfield, Fight Like Jesus: How Jesus Waged Peace throughout Holy Week.
The question his behaviors and words of the last week raise this question for you and me every day of every week of life: Will the way of Jesus be our way or not? Which raises questions like this: Is the Christian way the way of violence? Or like this: Is the way of Jesus the way of self defense or the way of appeal to the powers and authorities? Or like this question: How do you resist and disobey in the way of nonviolence? If we don’t ask this question and these questions we are not watching our Lord carefully enough.
Porterfield wants us to and he leads us day by day through Jesus’ last week. You can’t help but be surprised by how Jesus responded. And didn’t respond. He opens with a stunning observation I know doesn’t register with me often enough. Jesus entered the week weeping over the city and its people as he says If you only knew… . His tears set the tone for the whole week and our every day. He entered that city with lament unlike those who thought he was the one who end oppressions and injustices once and for all. Porterfield asks us to think of the entire week through the lament of Jesus. What if we approached the powers in lament? Would we, as he says, learn to fight like Jesus? On social media? In politics? In cultural battles that seem driven by power rather than a compassion born of lament over suffering and injustice and the absence of peace?
Jesus lamented over the people because of its violence and he knew its violence could not and would not bring peace. Irony, isn’t it? Jerusalem means the city of peace and here its forces were converging with violence while Jesus eschewed violence in order to bring the peace otherwise unattainable. Porterfield points his finger at peace for Jesus as the flourishing of all relationships, and that flourishing is not spawned by violence. His descriptions in this book are breathtaking.
The last week celebrated Passover. Passover celebrated God’s liberation of the children of Israel from slavery in Egypt at the hand of Pharaoh. Any celebration of liberation evokes hope and provokes acts of courage, and evocations and provocations are what the powers of Jerusalem most feared. No doubt some giving Jesus a big clap as he entered had such liberation in mind. But not Jesus. He rode a donkey to unmask the power of the armed horses of Rome, and he shut down the fanfare emperors and tyrants conjure for themselves. Jesus was a dissident in his approach to peace. Power would not bring it. Or, better yet, only a revolution in understanding what true power is could bring it. Only self-sacrificing love to the bitter end, the kind displayed in washing feet and in the new command to love one another and in a death on the cross for others, could bring his kind of peace.
Porterfield’s Fight Like Jesus is an informed, thoughtful, reflective, and therefore show-stopping guide to the last week because, instead of gloating over the defeat of resurrection it reveals to us the kind of Jesus who conquered death for the sake of peace. A peace attained not by might but by the Way of the Lamb. I don’t know Jason Porterfield but I’m glad he asked me to read this wonderful book and write this foreword. His life and his book converge in these pages as a witness to the kind of peace we all need. I know I do and I pray you will put this book in your book bag or back pocket or on your reading stand and read it each day of Holy Week.
My foreword to Jason Porterfield’s book.
Wow, this is such a helpful way to frame Holy Week. I’m really looking forward to our interview with this author in a few weeks on the Kingdom Roots podcast. I can’t wait to learn more.
WOW! This is one book I must read! Scot, you didn't tell us anything about this book's publication and where or how we can get it. At age 91 I'm picky about which books I will use some energy to read. I read reviews of books all the time, but seldom do I consider buying those books. But your tantalizing introduction to this book leads me to think that here - finally - is an author grappling with the conundrums we tend to overlook in Jesus' last week. Yes, I'd like to wage peace like Jesus. Thanks, Scot, for this post today. How do I get a copy?