> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://joshualore.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Rebecca Bratten Weiss on Holy Thursday and the carnivalesque
- URL: https://joshualore.com/inthemiddleway/rebecca-bratten-weiss-on-holy-thursday-and-the/
- Published: 2016-03-24T19:24:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-03T04:19:36.000Z
- Author: Joshua Lore
- Tags: Uncategorized, christ, Crucifixion, Easter, god, Holy Thursday, Jesus, Lent, Maundy Thursday, Maundythursday, Resurrection, #Migrated-1788408094757, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-09-03 00:01

This is a simply wonderful article by my friend Rebecca Bratten Weiss on our final approach to Easter. I would love so much to just post the whole thing here, but in fairness to not steal eyes away from her excellent blog over at Patheos (link below the fold), here’s a teaser:

> “But when we turn to the Gospel accounts of the day before Christ’s crucifixion, what we find is not solemnity but confusion, sometimes to the point of absurdity. This is not surprising because the long story of salvation history leading up to the culmination of Christ’s earthly mission has been punctuated by the bizarre, even the buffoonish. From the very beginning, Adam and Eve are silly, risking everything for a bit of fruit. Cain is idiotic in his envy; the Tower of Babel is sheer lunacy. Consider the drunkenness of Noah, passed out naked in his tent. Abraham gets into trouble by pretending his wife is his sister but then getting caught messing around with her on the sly. Joseph foolishly flaunts a coat, of all things. Moses is afraid. The Israelites persist in disbelief even after many signs and wonders. Samson comes off as a sex-mad muscular oaf. David is a splendid war-hero who kills his enemies and takes their wives, but the Lord is not having any of that. Consider the trepidations of the prophets, the sulks of Jonah. And through it all, the women of the Old Testament are nothing like the modest dutiful maidens one would expect. Sarah laughs at an angel; Rachel steals her father’s household gods; Rebekah deceives her husband; Ruth crawls into a man’s bed; Esther risks death; Judith cuts off a general’s head. The motif running through the Old Testament is that we humans are fools and scoundrels, and yet God is very interested in us, and willing to be involved in our folly. The procession of divine will through human history is one of constant disruption, reversal of expectations.  
>  
> …On Good Friday we will mourn. On Holy Saturday we will wait. On Easter Sunday we will rejoice. But today, on Holy Thursday, as we celebrate the institution of the Eucharist, we must not forget the cataclysmic nature of this event, the overturning of our own expectations, our own folly and inadequacy, fools for God. We must be prepared to be surprised.”

Please read the entire piece [here](http://www.patheos.com/blogs/suspendedinherjar/2016/03/holy-thursday-and-the-carnivalesque/?ref=joshualore.com), it will be well worth your time.