Easter Greeting from Andrea Saccoccio, Executive Presbyter

Dear friends,

Holy Week feels different this year. The world around us feels heavy, darker, and almost combustible with every news cycle. In many ways, it feels more akin to the reality of Holy Week than I can recall in my lifetime. Heightened political unrest creates room for saviors and scapegoats, and volatility bubbles just beneath the surface as humanity struggles under the weight of the high cost of existing amidst endless conflict. Jesus’ message of love and inclusion was sharply political in that it spoke to every aspect of human life together. Care for the Roman Centurion? Include the Samaritan? Let women and children be at the center? Even between his disciples there would have been tension, as Zealots like Peter had no love for tax collectors like Matthew, and the blue-collar fishermen would have distanced themselves from the highly educated Judas. And yet they followed him together, and learned to love one another despite these differences. It was Jesus’ radical call to love that undermined and transformed these social dynamics, and ultimately made him an enemy of the state and even his own people. They were looking for someone to liberate them from their oppressors, and Jesus told them that their real oppressor was their own sin. As you can imagine, that message was as popular then as it is today, and in the end led to Jesus’ crucifixion.

As we walk through Holy Week, I invite you to join me in doing the hard work of owning that we are not very different from those who enthusiastically welcomed Jesus with shouts of “Hosanna!” only days later to change that cry to “Crucify him!” I can say from personal experience that it’s always easier to condemn someone else than face my own pride, greed, selfishness, and lazy theology. The truth of Jesus’ gospel is absolutely revolutionary, and his death to set us free from our sin is a radical act of love–undeserved and unrelenting.

May the upheaval of God’s love in Jesus’ life and death pulse through every part of you as we follow him to the cross this Holy Week to witness our sin crucified, and may the power of the Spirit that raised him back to life raise us with him.

With you in hope and grace,

~Andi

Andrea Saccoccio
Executive Presbyter
Presbytery of Los Ranchos