2 Jesus Enters the City(from The Passion of Christ: A Gay Vision) by Douglas Blanchard
“Look, the world has gone after him.” -- John 12:19 (RSV)
Everyone cheered when Jesus called for justice and freedom. Crowds followed him into the city, shouting and waving palm leaves. Their chants were not so different from ours: “Yes we can! Out of the closet and into the streets! We’re here, we’re queer, get used to it!” Jesus was a superstar making a grand entrance. But he did it in his own modest, gentle style. He surprised people by riding on a donkey. Some of his supporters, those who had mainstream success, urged him to quiet the others -- assimilate, don’t alienate. Tone it down. Act respectable, don’t demand respect. Stop flaunting it. His answer: I’m here to liberate people! If the crowd was silent, the stones would cry out! It was that kind of day, a Palm Sunday sort of day, a day when everyone shouted for equality and freedom. But was anybody still listening?
Christ, set me free!
___
Next: 3. Jesus Drives Out the Money Changers
More resources:
Crowds greet Jesus with palm branches (excerpt from “At the Cross” by Kittredge Cherry)
___
This is part of a series based on “The Passion of Christ: A Gay Vision,” a set of 24 paintings by Douglas Blanchard, with text by Kittredge Cherry.
Click to go to the beginning
or view the whole series.
Scripture quotation is from Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1946, 1952, and 1971 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
3 comments:
I’ve just been reading the wonderful book by Peter Gomes, “The Scandalous Gospel of Jesus”. He is emphatic that Jesus was a nonconformist. As long as his followers represented dissent from the status quo, they continued in the power of God. But as Gomes says, “What happens when the minority and the oppressed become the majority with the capacity to oppress others? Where, then, is the mandate for nonconformity? How then does one read Romans 12? Where, in a minority status, nonconformity can be seen as courageous and heroic, when the minority becomes a majority, nonconformity becomes dangerous, seditious, heretical.”
That is why this visualization of the passion in modern dress is so important!
How delightful to have the wisdom of the recently deceased Peter Gomes to accompany us on this journey! Thanks, Trudie, for this well chosen quote.
I can relate to Gomes’ words because I was baptized into Christianity as an adult in a country where it was a minority religion (Japan). It was a shock when I returned to the US and experienced some of the excesses of churches here where Christians are in the majority.
Trudie- wonderful quote! And couldn't agree more about the modern dress. It helps us see who he was in his time, not who and what so many have made him out to be.
Post a Comment