The Ashes of my Triumphalism
The ashes that mark your forehead on Ash Wednesday came from burning the palm fronds from last year’s Palm Sunday celebration. That’s deep.
Think about it. On Palm Sunday we celebrate Jesus riding into Jerusalem as king. A defeated and oppressed people go wild with hope at the installation of this Righteous Ruler, waving their palm branches and shouting a victory chant. It has been a long, hard road of living under the boot of cruel overlords. Finally, here is The One that will set everything right. And the first act of this new leader ushering in a new kingdom is to smash the artifacts of an exploitative economy. The Jerusalem Temple was a bank where high priestly families made a killing off of international monetary exchanges and a lucrative market selling sacrificial animals for profit. This first century version of Wall Street was located in a part of the temple reserved for the blind, the lame and the Gentiles. They were supposed to gather to meet God in those courts. And as soon as Jesus clears it out, “The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them.” Matthew 21:14
A new day had dawned.
No doubt some of those who waved their palm branches and welcomed this new king were devastated by the news just days later: Their king had been executed. The insurrection of God’s kingdom had failed.
A few may have heard the rumors of the king’s resurrection. Some may have even joined the growing community of followers. But one year later, even they may have been ready to torch their palm branches from the triumphal entry. A horrific persecution was breaking out. Both the Jews and the fledgling sect of Christians were under fire. This kingdom of the meek inheriting the earth sure looked a lot like the old one.
Ash Wednesday is not only a reminder that we are “but dust” – we don’t need too much reminding about that, especially learning of good and decent followers of Jesus having dark sides. No, we get plenty of reminders of our dustliness.
What we do need to remember is that the arc of God’s justice is long. Longer than many lives lived in hope and passing without experiencing it. The saints listed in Hebrews were commended because they never saw the thing that they hoped for arrive. Yet they pressed on.
I sometimes hear Christian radio stations claim, “Always positive, encouraging and safe for the family.” This is interesting to me, because Jesus was not always positive and encouraging. And he stated quite bluntly that he was not safe for the family (Luke 12:51-53). The truth is that I find a form of triumphalism among many Christians that I never really hear from Jesus. It shows up in the form of the prosperity gospel. It’s the “Victory is mine!” chant. It’s “beauty for ashes and oil of joy for mourning” which I know is in the Bible but I don’t always see it pan out that way. Not they way I imagine anyway. Yes, there is a kind of victory and a kind of shalom and a kind of beauty, but they all carry a cross.
If we are to stay on the journey with Jesus, we need to remember that depression may be one of our traveling companions. We need to recognize that good and beautiful followers of Jesus will make terrible, terrible choices. We need to make peace with the slow and erratic way that kingdom of God comes. And maybe, once a year, we need to take a torch to the palm branches of our Christian triumphalism and use those ashes to draw a cross on our foreheads.
“In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” Jn 16:33
A helpful reflection on the, largely unknown, practice of using ashes from last years’ palm branches and what it means for our triumphalist ideas of faith. A worthwhile reflection for Ash Wednesday.
Here are some ways I’m inclined to say, “yes, but…”
1. Yes, triumphalism as it’s often expressed in forms of western Christianity is insufficiently biblical and begs this kind of critique, but the cross, grave, and death are not the climax of the Christian story. The great resource of our “Christian hope” is anchored in the resurrection and ascension of Jesus and the life of the world to come. This is inescapably royal and triumphal.
2. Yes, it is wrong to turn the gospel narrative into an expectation of prosperity or psychological / emotional well being. But, it is equally wrong to so abstract, project into the future, and mystify the kingdom of God (with all the attendant duties and benefits) that we’re thrown back on ourselves to patiently endure the complexities and contradictions of a world still contaminated by sin.
3. Yes, contemporary American, and to a lesser extent ‘western’ Christianity (whatever we mean by that) has under emphasized the political and economic implications of Jesus’ movement. (It’s far worse than that actually.) But, it’s not abundantly clear, to me anyway, that an expectation of ‘social justice now’ is significantly different than an expectation of ‘your best life now’ (read money, health, or wellbeing), either in the distinctly American character (both commodify the gospel benefits into something we can market), nor in the conflating of gospel essence with gospel benefits.
The ashes that mark your forehead on Ash Wednesday came from burning the palm fronds from last year’s Palm Sunday celebration. That’s deep. Think about it. On Palm Sunday we celebrate Jesus riding into Jerusalem as king. A defeated and oppressed people go wild with hope at the installation of th…
Thanks Jason. I appreciate your comments.
1. Resurrection. You’re right here. That’s partly why I put these posts up, so that I can have the “glass I see through dimly” lit up a bit by others. I wish I’d reflected more on the implication of resurrection in the midst of suffering and hardship. I’ll leave my post as is because I like this critique and want people to see how your comment makes sense given my post.
2. I’m not sure I understand you completely here, but I agree there are some here and now benefits to following Jesus which don’t get explored much in this post. Perhaps I’ll do an Easter post taking another stab at it.
3. The difference between a social justice now vs. your best life now is the communal nature of the former and the hyper-individualism of the latter. In fact, the social justice now reality of the dawning (albeit slowly) kingdom is that those of us followers who benefit from the Babylonian/Worldly system will relinquish or even lose some privileges. Of course I believe that people like me who benefit from my skin color and chromosomal pairing will actually be better off with a more socially/economically/politically just reality that re-distributes wealth and privilege.
I’ve got a Bible Dictionary (the Unger’s Bible Dictionary) that has 6,700 entries. There is even an entry on sulfur” but there is no entry on “suffer.” This dictionary (written by white guys in the 50’s) could not see a Biblical narrative with reference to suffering. Maybe it’s to them I’m writing and they are long gone. But I do believe I’ve seen that blindness to suffering and hardship mess with people’s faith journey. “What am I doing wrong – I shouldn’t be lonely or depressed or experiencing this because I’m a Christian.” That may be more of what I’m getting at here.