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Holy Week Reflections: Tuesday

Tuesday March 26

Journey through Holy Week with daily reflections from the Rev Roddy Hamilton

Mark 11:27-33

Again they came to Jerusalem. As he was walking in the temple, the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders came to him and said, ‘By what authority are you doing these things? Who gave you this authority to do them?’ Jesus said to them, ‘I will ask you one question; answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. Did the baptism of John come from heaven, or was it of human origin? Answer me.’ They argued with one another, ‘If we say, “From heaven”, he will say, “Why then did you not believe him?” But shall we say, “Of human origin”?’—they were afraid of the crowd, for all regarded John as truly a prophet. So they answered Jesus, ‘We do not know.’ And Jesus said to them, ‘Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.’

Reflection

The audacity of the man
To return
After yesterday
How dare he!
Yet here he is
The disrupter
The oncoming storm
The great pretender
Back in the temple
And the walls shudder with every word
Throughout this day of entrapment and trickery:
‘By whose authority do you speak?’
‘Shall we pay taxes to Caesar?’
‘Is there a resurrection or not?’
‘What is the greatest commandment?’
(More is written of this day than any other day in Holy Week).
The temple is nervous
And heaven is jittery
As the debates between religion and faith
Empire and love
Go on all day;
Each argument
A tangled clash
Shaping what happens next.
Which way will the kingdom turn:
Redeem the temple
Or die because of it?

No one knows
But everyone cares
Outcomes are being calculated
And one man is in the firing line
The omens are grim.

This is not audacity
This is love.

Prayer

Holy God
When we do not understand
And we feel out our depth
When debates take the floor
And our care for each other is put to the side
When the future turns on a shouting match
May that which is the Word
Turn our arguments into acts
Of peace,
Of justice,
Of hope.

The Rev Roddy Hamilton is minister of New Kilpatrick Church, Bearsden