Once again the headlines of the day hit close to home for the events of Holy Week. In the midst of this, the holiest of weeks for

Christians, we are once again saddened by the news that terrorism has claimed the lives of dozens in Brussels while injuring scores more. The mechanism of response is becoming almost thoughtless; we will use hashtags on Twitter to say we’re in solidarity, and we will display the Belgian flag on Facebook. We’ll denounce the evils of terrorism and lament the fear that it so successfully wields. No doubt we’ll move on to another event soon, and Brussels will fade like Paris and other attacks largely have.

In this Holy Week series of remembrances from Jesus’ last days on this side of death we are reminded that terror and oppression are the tools of the Roman Empire to keep people in line and manage the affairs of the populace. If you can keep people afraid you can much more easily manage them and keep them from focusing on things you may not want them to notice. Even modern politics knows how valuable the currency of fear is. We need new bogeymen every so often when the old ones become more familiar and less scary.

Jesus himself was subject to this dynamic, demonized by the crowds, and scapegoated all the way to his death. The terror of the day was real, causing his beloved disciples to hide in fear lest they meet the same fate. On the surface, his crucifixion was quite effective. It was intended, not just to punish him, but also to dissuade others from following in his footsteps. The hope was that after he was taken down from the cross and placed in a tomb, the people wouldn’t remember him for long as his story and his message faded into the next crucifixion and the next act of oppression.

The amazing thing is that the exact opposite happened. Their cross was indeed effective, but not in the way they anticipated. It certainly created fear in the short term, yet in the long term the death it signified no longer scared people. Indeed the first century device of terror and capital punishment is now jewelry that we wear to signify the exact opposite: peace and new life. God’s plan to show the world what love really looks like by bringing Jesus back to life has meant that fear doesn’t have the power it used to; if we don’t let it.

Paul reminded the Romans and us that not even death itself can separate us from the love of God. He freely admits that we continue to be killed, even slaughtered like sheep, and yet the victory of that first Easter guarantees us that we don’t have to worry about our lives because they reside with God in this world and the next. When we remember this (and it is not always easy to remember) fear simply cannot sway us and rob us of our joy and our determination to live the way we have been created to live.

In the case of Jesus and the events of this week then, it is clear to see that the effects of terror and violence did not ultimately work. Today, however, I worry that terror and violence are once again becoming powerful enough to knock us off track. We are getting immune to it in one sense, and yet reactive to it in another, and neither is good. We are no longer surprised when we read about attacks, and yet we are so scared of them that we will sacrifice much in order to try to prevent them from happening to us. In this Holy Week as we walk with our Lord through the terror of his final days, perhaps the best thing we can do is to prayerfully walk with our brothers and sisters around the world who deal with such terror today. We can remember the dead and pray for the injured, not only in Brussels and Paris, but everywhere the evil of terrorism raises its head. The evil adherents to Isis’ ideologies (and others like them), for example, seem not to care if their victims are Christian or Muslim, Arab or Western; they simply kill anyone who defies them and their beliefs.

The most effective responses to such terror are things like hope, faith, and love. It’s perfectly natural to be afraid, and yet we’re called upon to overcome that fear because we know a force greater than the power of death. It’s the entire point of this week. All of these liturgies that walk us through penitence, service, sacrifice, and death are all designed to help us realize the great gift of life we find on the other side. When we remember Jesus, and remember those who are killed; when we remember that death has no power over us, nor do those who threaten our lives, it gives us the freedom to be truly alive. Over the rest of this Holy Week may we walk with Jesus and with those who suffer in order to rediscover and accept this gift again.

Tom+

Compassionate God and Father of all, we are horrified at violence in so many parts of the world. It seems that none are safe, and some are terrified. Hold back the hands that kill and maim; turn around the hearts that hate. Grant instead your strong Spirit of Peace - peace that passes our understanding but changes lives, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen (Church of England)