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Here we find ourselves in the midst of Holy Week and things are moving fast. So very quickly, we have moved through Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, waving our palms and shouting, “Hosanna!” to Jesus’ last dinner with his friends on Maundy Thursday, his betrayal, and the devastating details of his crucifixion. In Holy Week we, together, walk the Jesus story, a story called “the Passion.” Together we stand once again at the foot of the cross and wonder at the sheer enormity of the story. The Passion waits for no one as it crashes down like a mighty wave. And it can feel overwhelming – like trying to fill a Dixie cup from the edge of a mighty waterfall.
Every single year, I find myself needing some smaller piece of the Passion through which to take in the whole – a toehold, if you will, in a series of toeholds, on the way up the perilous mountain toward Easter.
So today I offer you a toehold. Whether you will walk Holy Week at St. Paul’s or in your heart as you travel to some enviably warmer climate, what I offer you in the imposing shadow of the cross is this: consider walking Holy Week as the donkey. In fact, be the donkey. The donkey is the one who carries Jesus on his back through the gates of the city, into the throngs of people shouting joyous welcome and laying palm branches in their path.
In her poem, The Poet Thinks about the Donkey, Mary Oliver reacquaints us with this overlooked character:
On the outskirts of Jerusalem
the donkey waited.
Not especially brave, or filled with understanding,
he stood and waited….
Then he let himself be led away.
Then he let the stranger mount.
Never had he seen such crowds!
And I wonder if he at all imagined what was to happen.
Still, he was what he had always been: small, dark, obedient.
I hope, finally, he felt brave.
I hope, finally, he loved the man who rode so lightly upon him,
as he lifted one dusty hoof and stepped, as he had to, forward.
Imagining ourselves as the donkey helps us remember that, like the donkey, we are part of the story but not the center of it.
The Passion is not about us.
It is about Jesus.
We are part of the tableau, but not its focal point. We are pilgrims amongst pilgrims, one limb of the bigger body. Year by year we pass through the Paschal mystery not as individuals but as community. The Passion calls us to rely upon one another, to acknowledge that we are never meant to walk it alone – that, like the donkey, we walk the path surrounded by others, offering what we can give when called upon and leaning on the people around us for guidance, support and insight.
Into the Passion we go. We are each one tiny star in a vast constellation of faithful people walking the same path, carrying one another along the way. We are meant to share in Jesus’ Passion for one reason: that we might also, together, share in the joy of the resurrection -- in the beautiful, spectacular truth that God never leaves us at the foot of the cross.
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