391. Holy Friday morning: 1) The Royal Hours, 2) Some often-overlooked Lessons to be Learned from Holy Week

1. The danger of zealotry

Let’s dig more deeply into the story from last weekend.

Why did the scribes, pharisees and priests arrange the execution of Jesus of Nazareth? Try to look at it from their point of view.

Did the authorities in Jerusalem intend to kill their Messiah? Of course not. Rather they did not believe Jesus was the Messiah. Indeed, He did not fulfill many of the Old Testament prophecies. Don’t blame them much. Remember how even John the Forerunner had his last-minute doubts and sent men to ask “Are You the One who is to come, or shall we look for another?”

So the authorities believed they had an obligation to stop to this false Messiah, lest He (or “he” as they believed) start an uprising and the Romans move in and destroy their nation. “Better one man die than that the nation be lost.”

Did they have mixed motives? Of course, as who doesn’t? To be specific, Mark wrote that “it was out of envy that they handed Jesus over” Mark 15:10 – these wise seasoned old men whom this young north-country upstart had made to look like fools. Remember, Jesus was only 33. It must have been so very hard for them to take Him seriously.

They were almost single-mindedly and sincerely zealous for their nation. That was the thing that mattered. Because of that, they could not see the One who was “in their midst”.

And so, as we said earlier, in the end it was not He but rather they who caused the nation they loved so much to be lost. In that way only, I feel sorry for them.

Can you think of other, perhaps even contemporary, examples of people “using” religion for their own ends?

2. The greater danger of religion

This section is taken almost without change from my Post of five years ago. I did not write it to deal with the current world situation.

Note again carefully: It was the religious leaders, not the politicians, who plotted Jesus’ death. Pontius Pilate the governor didn’t want to do it. “Why, what evil has He done?” he would ask on Holy Friday. But the Jewish religious leaders pushed, manipulated Pilate into executing Him.

Dr. Samuel Johnson said, “Patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels.” No, it is not! Patriotism is next to last. Religion is the last refuge of scoundrels. True religion is, of course, the source of enormous good: hope and holiness, joy and consolation, meaning for life and great charitable work. But we have seen for centuries, we see today what horrible things can be done in the name of religion.

Because religion, the quest for the Ultimate, is the highest of all things on earth, it can do the greatest good. But when it goes bad it becomes demonic and can do the greatest evil.

Religious leaders of many kinds have either done great evil or ignored great evil – for the sake of what? the nation? the religious institution? its position? its power? preserving their own position? their own power? Like the Jewish authorities of our Lord’s time, it’s not that they intend to do evil. The problem is that religious leaders are often so sure, so sincerely certain they are right  – that their will is God’s will, their ideas are the truth – that they can be blind to anything else. You see what it can lead to, both 2000 years ago and today, if religious leaders have lost their way.

One of my favorite pieces of advice is that 1960s slogan: Question authority. Not with blind doubt, of course. Authorities, of whatever sort, are often right. But if the Jews 2000 years ago had questioned what their authorities said about Jesus…  what might the world be like today if they had believed in Him?

Question political authorities, of course, but also question religious authorities. Not only the rich preachers on TV, not only the priests who use their position to steal or do horrible things to youth and their duplicitous superiors who cover up for them. Also question your own priest and your bishop and your archbishop. Gently, gently, please, not in a nasty way. * You might be wrong. But clergy also can be wrong, and humility requires that they accept questioning. Furthermore, definitely question the author of this Blog and what I write. I might be wrong, and if you think I am, please let me know it before I go spreading falsehood and foolishness.

• For what it’s worth,  my experience with my Orthodox hierarchs has been very positive. I have found them to be honest, loving, kind and sincere.

Orthodox Christians, this is your obligation, for we are not an authoritarian “top-down” Church. All Orthodox people are guardians of the Faith and of the Church. So if you ever think any of us in positions of leadership in the Church are out of line, misusing our authority, do not let us get away with it.

3. The very great danger of religion aligned with political power

This also is taken almost verbatim from a Post of some years ago.

Now, of course religion should influence politics. This can lead to great social good: Byzantium the greatest of empires, the abolition of slavery, Martin Luther King and racial justice, and much more.

But if religious authority and political power become enmeshed, be afraid, be very afraid. Religion combined with politics can lead to Christian emperors destroying icons, to the Crusades, to the Inquisition, to the 100 Years War, to Isis, to what has lately been done to Jews and Palestinians and Syrians and Iraqis, to what President Putin is doing to the Ukrainians, with Patriarch Kirill’s blessing…

… and, two thousand years ago, to the killing of God.

I think Byzantium had the ideal, in principle if not always in reality: civil authority and religious authority working in synthesis with each other, or sometimes playing against each other if necessary, but not confusing each others’ roles. Did you know: because religion with political power is so dangerous, the Orthodox Church does not allow clergy to hold political office. For our chief work is not to compel but to convince, convert, win people to Christ and His way of love.

That is how our Lord Jesus did it: Do we see Him this Week leading an army? taking over the government? On Friday morning Pontius Pilate will say to Him: “So you are a King then?” Jesus will answer, “You have said it… but my Kingdom is not of this world.”

 The Jewish authorities therefore decided the only way to get rid of Him was to violate their own God-given Law: “Have nothing to do with a false charge and do not put an innocent or honest person to death, for I will not acquit the guilty.” Exodus 23:7  When Pilate wanted to release Him, they decided it was better then to bear false witness (thereby violating the ninth of the Ten Great Commandments) than to let the nation be lost: “If you let this Man go, you are not Caesar’s friend. Whoever makes himself a king speaks against Caesar.” And when Pilate asked, “Shall I crucify your king?”, they concluded it was better to violate the First Commandment and blaspheme their God (“We have no king but Caesar”) than that the nation be lost. “The ends justify the means.”

All in the name of the “greater good”, their zealotry to save the nation. So by abandoning their morals and their God, they succeeded in executing Christ their God – and their nation was lost. What if they had believed? What if… … but they did not.

Can you think of any other examples of religious leaders selling out their moral principles for political gain?

It was written that many of the people hoped in Jesus. But in the end they trusted their authorities, as most people usually do. * Jesus had predicted the end of it all: “The Kingdom will be taken away from you and given to a nation that will bear the fruits of it” – the Church.

• I think the present distrust of government in America is an historical aberration.

Years later Saint Paul would write: “For if God did not spare the natural branches, He will not spare you either.” Romans 11:21  If God did not spare the Jews, when they were unfaithful, what do you think will happen to us who have been grafted on? to us if we are blind? unfaithful? if we misuse the Church and twist our holy religion to our own ends?

Here is something verbatim which I wrote in this Blog during Holy Week five years ago. It still seems relevant today:

“I’m no expert on international politics. However our very Orthodox Vladimir Putin is beginning Holy Week 2018 by threatening the world with an ICBM nicknamed ‘Satan 2’. *  I’m wondering if maybe he should begin Holy Week by taking a closer look at Jesus.”

• April 22, 2022: …and who has just rejected the call from many sources for a Pascha cease fire for the evacuation of civilians. Draw your own conclusions.
• April 12, 2023: …and who is still bombarding Ukraine with missiles and bombs this Holy Week. May God have mercy on us Orthodox.

Holy Friday afternoon at Vespers of Holy Saturday, we’ll look at “The True Source of Power”.