Stories we hear often don't get questioned. They begin, and we fall into the pattern of thinking we already have. If we have heard them since childhood, we may settle in to the thoughts we had when we were young. The stories of Jesus' last week have been like that. I needed help to look beyond the glossy songs and story books of a childhood raised in the church.

Twice that week, Jesus tells his disciples how to find what is needed. For his arrival in the city, he sends them to a place where they will find a donkey tied up and gives them the words to say. For the preparation of the Passover seder, he tells them to follow a man with a water jug. I thought that this was a kind of magic, that he foresaw what was needed. But when I read the story closely as an adult, the man carrying the water jug woke me up--Jesus had arranged for a quiet way to get the space they needed. Likely, he had arranged for the donkey too.

The need to make an arrangement that would not put the owner of the donkey or the room at risk reminds us that tensions were high in the city that week. And Jesus did nothing to calm those tensions. He rode into the city.

There are songs and versions of the story that speak of his humility riding on a donkey. Unless we have a fierce donkey protecting our sheep, in our culture we naturally think of horse as proud and donkey as humble. But in Judea in the early years of the common era, horses were ridden by Romans, a sign of oppression. The people of Judea owned donkeys and oxen, and only the wealthy owned these.

You don't have to be an expert scholar to remove the idea of humility from this picture. The clue is there in the story. A Hebrew scripture passage is quoted telling people to take a good look because their king comes riding on a donkey. Jesus is claiming leadership. (The problem with the quote is that the king is described as meek. But Moses was meek. The Hebrew word means someone who has the strength to endure, the strength to push for what is right and good.)

On the day Jesus arrived in the city, Pilate, the Roman governor, also arrived with the soldiers that were stationed with him on the coast. Pilate would have ridden toward the city from the east. Jesus rode into the city from the west. On the eastern road, people moved out of the way of the soldiers, glared at this display of oppressive power. On the western road, people sang and cheered, laid out symbols of welcome and praise. The contrast is intentional.

Religious leaders tried to intervene. They told Jesus to silence the crowd. They knew Pilate would hear of the uproar, and in a city already predisposed to rebellion, this could inflame the population and bring down the fist of Rome. Jesus declares that there is no way to silence this expression of opposition to Rome, this hope of a different way.

According to Matthew and Luke, the first thing Jesus did upon entering the city was to go to the temple and overturn the tables of those selling items to offer with prayers. He drove them out claiming that this place should be a house of prayer. This act increased the tension between him and the religious leaders.

There is another much misunderstood moment in the story of this week. Jesus has been talking about the way the religious leaders use their position to increase their wealth. He says that they walk around in fancy clothes, claiming respect "and devour widows houses..." (NRSV Luke 20:47) At that moment, a widow walks up to the treasury and deposits a small coin. Jesus commands his disciples to see that the temple has stolen all the woman had to feed herself.

That story has been used by many to show that even a small contribution is honoured. But reading the context and tone, Jesus is showing one more example of the way the wealthy of his time oppress the poor. It is no wonder that the empire and the elite of Jerusalem conspired to end his life.

Jesus made the decision not to fight, but he also did not back down. The cross was inevitable. But God's way would turn this injustice into something new on the third day.

Cathy Hird lives on the traditional territory of the Saugeen Ojibway Nation