Photo by Caleb Woods
Before immigration at the border became such a controversy, there was a puzzle that most of us grew up knowing. As the puzzle goes, there was a man who was constantly carrying a load of goods in a wheelbarrow from the U.S. side of the border into Mexico. He was crossing time after time and the officials at the border knew that he was smuggling something, but they never could discover what it was. One of the border officers finally said, “You win! We know that you are smuggling something, but we can’t figure out what it is. What are you smuggling?” The man replied, “Wheelbarrows!”
Two things were in operation here. One is expectation as they never expected that wheelbarrows were the issue. They were looking elsewhere! Second, what the smuggler did was absolutely outrageous.
I was thinking about these two words, expectation and outrageous, when I read a column in the Inquirer (March 24, 2021) by Julie Coleman. The title of the article is “Antique Doors Stolen Off Hinges”. This has become a bit of a crime wave in our fair city for two reasons. The thieves take them off the hinges during the day in the sight of all those who walk by or live in the neighborhood. No one bothers to stop and ask them what they are doing. They look like your average worker doing some handyman work. The doors are worth quite a bit of money, $10,000 for some. They don’t expect a criminal to being doing such a crime in broad daylight. The act is so outrageous that it defies belief that such a crime is being committed.
We are approaching Holy Week in the Christian tradition which begins with Palm Sunday and ends with the celebration of Easter, the Day of Resurrection. As we approach this Holy Week, I think that it is important to have in mind these two words, expectation and outrageous. Jesus is making more and more claims in public with such questions and answers as, “Are you the messiah? His answer is, “You say that I am!” He is healing people which has gotten a lot of public notice and His teachings have certainly become threatening to the Pharisees and the Sadducees, members of the priestly cast. He alludes to the fact that he is the Son of God which is a really outrageous and an unbelievable thing to say. He did not hide except for humankind’s ability to let outrageous things and expectations stand in the way of seeing him for all that he said that he was.
The disciples were no better than the man in the street for they could buy into the outrageous part for they witnessed those events of healing. However, their expectation of who He was lacked real insight. Their expectation clouded their “faith sight”. They were jockeying for position in His new government. They were looking for a political messiah who would set the people free from the Romans. They thought that He was a political messiah in spite of his outrageous acts.
This notion of hidden in plain sight is the backdrop for this Holy Week. He is making everyone take notice even the one who states to Jesus on the Cross, “If you are the Son of God, come down from that cross!” Most of us during this Holy Week know how this greatest story ever told will end, but the danger is to blame the disciples and others for being clueless. If we were there, we would certainly have known that Jesus was the Son of God. BUT TO MAKE HOLY WEEK REALLY REAL we need to do the following.
During this week all Christians need to be reminded of outrageous expectations and antique doors and a wheelbarrow for Jesus was hidden in plain sight. They wouldn’t admit it, but some secretly believe that we would have acted differently. We would have known who he was. We would, however, have acted no differently than the disciples even if we are convinced that we would. That is the power of being hidden in plain sight. If we want Holy Week to be holy and take us to a deeply spiritual place that is what is needed to be driven home. We hear that question in the Good Friday hymn, “Were you there when they crucified my Lord?” We can’t get to Easter without answering, “Yes, I really would have been there with all my hopes and fears. and faith and doubts"
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