Holy Week Trilogy Part I: Headlong into Trouble

Luke 19:45:48

Many of my readers are aware that in 2013-14, I faced Stage 3 lung cancer, enduring six months of treatment—radiation, chemotherapy, and surgery—and coming out the other side “cured” (my doctor’s word). Officially NED (“No evidence of disease”) for six years now, and yes, I am celebrating the success of all that effort.

Unfortunately, the fact that I gave up a lung lobe and developed asthma makes me “high risk” for serious complications if I were to contract Covid-19. I serve part-time as chaplain at a Level 2 Trauma Center that now has an Incident Command Center to deal with the coronavirus in our county. I wondered if it was advisable to work in the hospital while this crisis unfolds.

My husband and I drew up a pros & cons list. I did my due diligence—consultation with my doctor, Employee Health at the hospital, my chaplain colleagues, even an ethicist—to be sure I was weighing the issues appropriately. With difficulty and a fair amount of guilt (regardless of how I came out on the question), I came to the practical conclusion that I must self-isolate for now, while the hospital deals with CV-19 patients or until a system can be approved enabling me to contact patients by phone instead of face-to-face. While I experience twinges of guilt, I am staying out of trouble so that in a few weeks I will be able to dive headlong into the troubles of patients with calm strength.

Through the lens of the current pandemic, during this Holy Week I am meditating on the dramatic and humiliating events of Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, and Good Friday. Ever since Jesus turned water into wine at a friend’s wedding three years prior, his ministry was public. He preached the Kingdom of God and healed many people, showing mastery over physical processes as well as natural phenomena (storms on the Sea of Galilee, for instance). While his early years were lived in obscurity in Nazareth, once his ministry took off, his stomping grounds were in Capernaum on the north side of the lake. Crowds followed him, and he could command a gathering of 5,000 people on a hillside. His popularity among the hoi polloi was well documented in the gospels. He did not shy away from needy people or difficult situations.

Generally—though scholars differ on this point—Jesus stayed out of Jerusalem, because the religious elite of Jewish scribes, Pharisees, and Sadducees was inhospitable to him. Was it jealousy? mistrust? scholarly doubt in his claims? In any case, because they were political hotshots, it was not expedient for Jesus to pull their chains and risk a premature shutdown of his ministry.

So he insulated himself from the seat of power in Israel. That is, until it was time. And then, rather than sneak in a side gate and meet with a few friends to talk scripture, he made a very public entry riding a donkey. The crowd of regular people recognized the symbolism and praised “the king who comes in the name of the Lord.” In a very real sense, Jesus was throwing down the gauntlet and opening himself to the dangers of powerful people who wanted his teaching discredited and him neutralized. As they tried to silence his fans, Jesus replied, “If they keep quiet, the stones will cry out!” (Luke 19:40).

After Jesus’s public entry into Jerusalem, according to Luke, he went straight to the temple courtyard and disrupted the moneychangers and rebuked their corruption. He began to teach in the temple. But the tenured professors there plotted to kill him. It turns out Jesus’s concern about their reaction was not unfounded. Luke’s account follows Jesus to various encounters with those religious leaders, who schemed to trap Jesus theologically and personally on points of the Jewish law.

Why did Jesus go headlong into trouble, instead of keeping a safe distance? Given more time, he could have healed so many more people. He could have persuaded so many more to believe him. He could have expanded the scope of ministry to other peoples and countries. But no, it was the time to bring things to a head.

Jesus demonstrated that sometimes, after practical considerations and ministry strategies are fulfilled, the right thing to do is dive headlong into trouble. Because he believed that where trouble percolated there the power of the gospel was needed. Opposition to Jesus was not a reason for him to hide at this point, because—now that the common people had heard and many responded to the gospel of the Kingdom of God—it was time for the religious elite to have their chance to believe, too. For three years it was pragmatic to “stay safe,” in order to get the broadest hearing for his Kingdom message. But the time came to confront the resistance to his ministry and purpose. We know Jesus had not been a coward, for when it was time for his final saving work—sacrificial death for the sins of the world—he did not hesitate to ride headlong into trouble.

The trouble that awaits us, when it is time to confront it, will call out of us all the courage and stamina and resolve required to accomplish God’s assignment. If you, like me, are self-isolating during this time, let God develop strength and valor in your hearts and protection for your bodies, so that you can re-enter the world at the right time to help those in trouble.