As Jews celebrate Passover and concurrently Christians traverse the sacred days of Holy Week, it's worth nothing just how much both of our traditions share in common, especially at this time of year.
This is the season of redemption for us all, on so many levels; it is a time of renewal and hope. Just this week, the trees are reopening with the many diverse hues of green, along with the the bursting colors of the dogwoods, forsythia, lilac and many other sweet aromatic blooms. Spring is in full swing, being nature's sure sign of rebirth and potential.
Passover is the celebration of the miraculous redemption of the Israelites from their slavery in ancient Egypt. The story forms the original motif of liberation theology -- an assertion of the belief that God acts in history and orchestrates freedom and liberation. The Israelites are liberated from oppression, so they may freely worship God. It is a story of more than being freed FROM bondage. It is also a story of gaining the freedom TO worship and the live responsibly with the liberty that freedom provides.
Holy Week culminates in Easter, wherein Christians celebrate the liberation from sin and death: The sacrifice of Jesus for the remission of sin and the resurrection as assurance in the afterlife.
Both Judaism and Christianity recognize our human condition entails many forms of oppression -- not only the oppression inflicted on humans by humans, but the oppression that simply comes from dealing with the vicissitudes of life, the inner, spiritual challenges of living.
Notably, the Hebrew word for Egypt, Mitzrayin, has a root word, tzar, which translated means "narrow." In this sense, the word "Egypt" suggests a "narrow place." Jewish tradition urges us to think about the Exodus from Egypt in the Bible in symbolic terms. The "narrow place" of Egypt -- more than being a geographical location -- is more significantly a spiritual location. The "Egypt of the Soul," so to speak, is that place of narrow-mindedness, the place where we are stuck on old ideas, bad habits or prejudices.
Both Passover and Easter offer the hope of being liberated from the narrowness of life -- life narrowed by the shackles of our own forging, life narrowed by the fear of living and the fear of death, life narrowed by self-defeating behavior and life narrowed by wrongdoing.
And who is the liberator we recognize during this holy season of the year? Who is it that gives us the will to overcome the narrows? Some call the liberator "God." Some call the liberator "Jesus." Some hear the voice of the liberator in prophets, and some experience the liberator in a variety of scriptural messages delivered by diverse messengers. And what do they all have in common?
Love. No matter what message or messenger one subscribes to, what all peace-loving believers share is the powerful faith that love is the liberator! Love will ultimately liberate the human spirit.
So no matter what religious tradition you observe, may this season of rebirth and hope bring you out of your own "narrows," and may we all come to see that the liberator, while known by many names, shares one name we can all understand. The name is Love. Whatever tradition you observe, may it bring joy, hope and liberation through love in the time ahead
NAN Religion on 04/15/2017