Holy Saturday (and Monday)

Jesus showed us a world
where disabled people aren’t ignored
and don’t have to beg for sustenance; (Mark 10:46-52)
where sick people don’t have to wait in line for
days or years or for luck to be cured; (Mark 5:25-34, Luke 13:10-17, John 5:2-9)
where people tormented by their demons are freed; (Mark 5:1-13)
where foreigners aren’t treated like animals; (Mark 7:24-30)
where all you do to earn the right to a full belly
is to show up hungry; (Matthew 14:13-21)
where women do not have to depend
on the whims and moods of men for their rights; (Matthew 19:1-11)
where people live for the present moment
instead of destroying the earth to accumulate more; (Matthew 6:19-34)
where we invest in peace instead of weapons; (Matthew 26:52, Luke 19:41-42)
where being poor and hopeless will be a thing of the past. (​Luke 6:20-21)

The oligarchs didn’t like that.
They preferred a world where the disabled,
the sick, the tormented,
the poor, the hungry,
women and foreigners
were beggars, prisoners, and slaves.
Where they could continue merrily destroying the earth.
They didn’t like that he told us we could live without money,
that we could feed everyone who was hungry, or
that he’d set free those the oligarchs had unjustly imprisoned,
deported,
maimed and murdered.
They especially did not like the fact
that on Palm Sunday,
his followers had shown up in peaceful protest,
saying they would follow a new king.

So they took those healing hands
and nailed them still;
they hoisted him up like a signpost and warning
that we should forget such foolishness;
they stilled his voice,
and his followers—except for a few women—fled.
And then, worst of all,
they took his name,
and turned it into a brand,
and used it to sell guns and build prisons.

But the healing,
and the teaching,
and the resurrection,
belong to everyone who desires the world he showed us.
So if you hunger and thirst for justice and righteousness,
please know that all you have to do,
is show up hungry.