SUNDAY OF THE PASSION / PALM SUNDAY
PROCESSIONAL GOSPEL: Matthew 21:1-11 [A parade with a purpose.]
“Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!” The welcome the people call out to Jesus as he enters Jerusalem – an ancient quotation from Psalm 118 – is a greeting for kings, here a greeting for the long-awaited Messiah who will end the occupation and violence of the Roman Empire and the arrogance and corruption of the Jewish religious leadership. We know that the crowd on the road did not fully understand who
Jesus was… and later rejected and jeered him. Can we join the parade of those who welcome Jesus with joy and authentic hope without also turning away from and turning against him? Can we say that he is “King of our lives” and allow it to be?
FIRST READING: Isaiah 50:4-9a [The obedient servant speaking God’s truth despite persecution.]
The obedient “servant of God” (representing the prophet Isaiah or his successor… or perhaps the nation of Israel itself during Israel’s exile in Babylon) sings about being equipped and empowered by God, and therefore not afraid to speak truth to power in the midst of persecution and hope to those who are weary and suffering. The early Church saw a close connection between the “servant song” passages in the book of Isaiah and the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus. How was Jesus like the servant? What is the word of God that helps and sustains you?
SECOND READING: Philippians 2:5-11 [Jesus – so willing to serve God to the very end!]
Using an early Christian hymn that celebrated Christ’s humble, unselfish, and obedient suffering and death – a path that carried Jesus to ultimate glory as Lord of all – Paul urged his readers to have the same mind, the same humility, the same life path of obedient faithfulness. What would the effect be on our lives if we acted as servants to others, imitating Christ all the way to the potential death on a cross?
GOSPEL READING: Matthew 27:1-54 [“Is it I, Lord?”]
The passion narrative in Matthew emphasizes the rejection of Jesus by the religious and political institutions of the day and even by his own band of followers. His last days involved betrayal and denial, spitting and shame, a crown of thorns, and a cruel cross. Jesus accepted his suffering and death because he loved God and he loved the world. With more explicit references to Old Testament material, Matthew highlights the theme of Jesus’ objective to carry out God’s plan of salvation. Even the soldiers who crucify Jesus recognize him as “the Son of God”! Thus, he is not just one more teacher or prophet or nice guy put to death and martyred by human injustice. His blood – which is not only innocent but powerful and cleansing – is what will save God’s people from the power of sin… what will establish a new relationship between God and humankind. In the end this “King who wasn’t” – a man branded as an imposter whose dead body was sealed by a stone and secured by guards – overcame the forces of evil and the powers of death. Humanity has done its worst, but what humans intended for evil, God intended for good. The Son of God saved others by not saving himself.
A BRIEF MEDITATION
Christians are people of THE PASSION – not the intense enthusiasm and compelling desire either of affection or anger that humans might experience in their daily life and that we might label passion, but passion in the special sense of the sufferings of Christ that occurred between the night of the Last Supper and his death on a cross. The PASSION OF JESUS was neither a random tragedy nor the result of unchecked religious fervor intersecting with political authority to kill, but God’s plan of salvation. Jesus understood that his earthly task, his mission, was to suffer and to die a slave’s death on the cross… to serve us through his own love sacrifice. He fulfilled his mission to the end. What will it cost to take this One seriously and to follow as best as we can?