Book Reflection: Fight Like Jesus- How Jesus Waged Peace Throughout Holy Week by Jason Porterfield

I heard of this book through a podcast I listen to called "New Creation Conversations" in which the host had the author of the book on the show to discuss the book. I was so blown away by the podcast that I had to buy the book, and made it my endeavor to read through this book through Holy Week 2023. The book is a gem that helps us a great deal to walk with Jesus through this crucial week and how every step, every word, every action...literally everything that Jesus did during Holy Week was meticulously calculated and intentional. Porterfield views the activities of Holy Week through the lens of peacemaking, claiming that Jesus moved through Holy Week with the intention of waging peace. The book walks through each day of Holy Week, beginning with Palm Sunday and ending with Resurrection Sunday, each day detailing how our Savior brought a message of peace to an often hostile situation. Here are some of the things I'm taking away from reading this book.

1. My understanding of Palm Sunday was drastically changed because of this book. The events of Palm Sunday show up a couple of times in the book, but this is where the book begins, laying a foundation for what is to come in the rest of the week. My favorite line from this chapter (and maybe the entire book) was "while the crowd shouted cheers, Jesus shed tears." This is in reference to Luke's depiction of the triumphal entry where Luke reveals that while everyone was having a good time, Jesus was weeping and lamenting, saying "If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace." 

Growing up, I always thought Palm Sunday was about a pep rally for Jesus that happened in Jerusalem. As a child, we were often given palms to wave in the aisle as everyone sang the first song of the service, which most certainly included the word "hosanna" in it. In many ways, we were encouraged to identify with the crowd. It seems to me that Porterfield is inviting us to identify with Jesus more than the crowd, pointing out that the crowd didn't really know what kind of King they were celebrating. Do we know the methods that God uses to bring us peace? 

This makes me think about Revelation chapter 5 when John, the revelator, is observing what is going on in the throne room of heaven, and there is a scroll with seven seals, and no-one is found worthy to open the scroll and its seals. When no one is found to be worthy, John weeps- who will open up God's plan for redemption, judgment, and salvation for the world? Who will carry this mantle of God's activity in the world? The answer is found in the "Lion of the tribe of Judah," but when John looks, he does not see a lion, but a lamb as though it was slaughtered, in the middle of the throne. Palm Sunday invites us to think about the fact that Jesus is both the lion and the lamb- the lion who does not fight with his teeth, but by laying his life down for others as the lamb. As Dean Flemming puts it, Jesus fights with lamb power, not lion power. 

I wonder how often we, too, identify with the crowd more than Jesus himself. How often do we want God to fight out battles with lion power instead of lamb power? Hosanna! Save us! Let's pull out our swords and fight! Another question is this- how are we doing following after the lamb who was slain? Jesus is not performing some magical transaction with God to pay for our sins, but he is modeling a life of love for each of us to follow him in. Are we fighting our own battles with lion power or lamb power? God, save us.

2. Monday's picture of Jesus is one that is zealous for the house of God. If I'm being honest, the stories of Jesus going in the temple and losing his temper has always made me a bit nervous. Jesus driving out money changers, flipping over tables, and chasing out merchants is not the kind, cool, and collected picture of Jesus that is often portrayed to/by us. Porterfield points out the result of this action by Jesus- the excluded were brought near, the foreigner was given a place, the sick were healed, the blind see, the lame walk... all of the ones who were excluded by temple worship were suddenly restored to temple worship. This is why Porterfield describes Jesus's actions as radically inclusive. 

Not only were people being physically excluded from temple worship, the poor were also being financially exploited. The money changers were hiking up the exchange rates so much that the poor couldn't participate in temple worship, and the animal providers were doing the same. This leads Jesus to point out that the driving force of the temple was greed, not worship. Read this quote:

"Perhaps Jesus targeted the temple because, as the place where God was said to dwell, people believed that what happened there reflected the heart of God. When religion legitimizes injustice, it communicates to the world that God wills such evil. It makes God appear wicked. By marginalizing foreigners, the temple made God look like a tribal deity who was only concerned with the well-being of God's own people. And by economically exploiting the poor, the temple portrayed God as yet another greedy ruler with an insatiable hunger for his subjects' hard earned money."

This makes me think about our own churches. If someone were to walk in to our churches, what kind of God would they conclude that we worship? What about our individual lives? Is Jesus reflected in our activity, not just on Sundays, but Monday-Saturday too? What kind of picture of God are we painting with our lives, worship, gatherings, services, relationships, etc.?

3. The cross of Jesus is truly astounding. It is astounding, too, how simple we try to make it sometimes. Porterfield invites us to think about the first time that Jesus was almost killed, which happened in Nazareth after he preached a message in his hometown. I'm glad I've never preached a message that made people want to throw me off of a cliff, but maybe that means I'm not preaching like Jesus. 

What blew my mind about this was what Porterfield had to say about it: "getting thrown off a cliff would have been a death filled with rich spiritual meaning." He talks about the Day of Atonement, in which the people collectively made amends for their sins through the activity of the high priest, who would take a goat, confess all sins while laying hands on it, and send it out of the assembly into the wilderness to die as a symbol of expulsion of sin and death of a replacement. What is interesting is that the goats were often thrown off a cliff by the priests to prevent them from wandering back into town. Porterfield continues, "So if dying for our sins was Jesus' sole mission, then getting hurled over a cliff would have been an ideal way to die. Jesus would forever be remembered as the perfect, once-and-for-all scapegoat who bore our sins and died in our place. Our hymns would speak of kneeling at the foot of the cliff. We'd have images of dead goats tattooed on our arms. And once a year, our congregations would gather outside to watch our pastors toss stuffed billy goats off the church roof." 

It is apparent that our basic understanding of "Jesus died for your sins" does not capture a complete picture of the power of the cross (not even close). Instead of dying on the Day of Atonement, Jesus died at Passover, which had a significantly different meaning. God is snatching us out of our sin, out of that bondage, and gifting us with new life. With the death of Jesus, our sin has not only been forgiven, but we have been liberated from its enslavement. 

Conclusion: When we see the cross, I think we are supposed to see a mirror- it is haunting how we often see ourselves participating in the systems of this world that we believe will make for peace, but in fact, we are participating in the very powers and systems that nailed Jesus to the cross. Jesus did not come wielding a hammer, but we did. But, the good news is that the grave is empty, which means that those systems of injustice, violence, and power that nailed Jesus to the cross have been defeated. By submitting to the hammer, Jesus stripped it of its power, and in doing so, showed us a new way of living, a better path to peace- the path of the cross. 

Lord, have mercy.

-Pastor Jared Govin