Holy Week always feels like a time when we ought to slow a little and 'live' with the narrative. Sometimes I find myself wondering what the story might have looked like from the perspective of people who are not mentioned - who may not have existed. This year I offer a few, off the top of my head, starters for your imagination.
Palm Sunday and the Clearing of the Temple are messy stories - clothes thrown into the street, branches torn from trees (or possibly taken from heaps that had been pruned), animals running amok having been liberated from the Temple precints. I wonder what it would have been like to have been street sweeper in Jerusalem at what was already a busy time - thousands of pilgrims (tourists?) filling the city, traders selling their wares, disposable pottery cups abandoned, dropped food, lost property and so on. Maybe they picked up a fair few coins that had fallen, unnoticed by passers by, but they really could have done without all the extra work Jesus and his crew created!
Imagine yourself standing in the city, a broom in your hands or with a cart to collect rubbish. How do you feel? What do you see? What does the coming festival mean for you? What do you think about what Jesus is doing?