April 13 2024 Palm/Passion Sunday
Liturgy of the Palms
Luke 19:28-40
After he had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. When he had come near Bethphage and Bethany, at the place called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of the disciples, saying, “Go into the village ahead of you, and as you enter it you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ just say this, ‘The Lord needs it.’” So those who were sent departed and found it as he had told them. As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt?” They said, “The Lord needs it.” Then they brought it to Jesus; and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road. As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, saying, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!” Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, order your disciples to stop.” He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.”
Liturgy of the Passion
Isaiah 50.4-9a Psalm 31.9-18 Philippians 2.5-11 Luke 22.14-23.56
In the garden Jesus prays “not my will, but yours be done”. On the cross Jesus quotes the psalmist, “into your hands I commit my spirit”, which Stephen also quoted before his execution. Paul tells us that Jesus ‘emptied himself’, as God’s Beloved Son, Jesus didn’t cling to his privileged status, he surrendered his self-control to God’s will. As Paul tells us ‘he became poor that we, through his poverty, might become rich’.
But today we are also prompted to consider how easy is it for us to become ‘part of the crowd’. ‘crowd mentality’ has been used to explain actions by people that defy rational explanation, and some of those in the crowd, if asked later, cannot explain why they did what they did. Jesus tells the disciples they will soon deny knowing him, and despite their denial of this, they soon find themselves doing just that. The crowd allows ‘rational’ people to judge, punish, and scapegoat others who they do not allow themselves the time to know. We are part of that crowd. It is not an easy thing to accept, it is not where we would prefer to be, but we are, daily, part of a crowd who ‘other’ people, situations and activities that we do not allow ourselves the time to properly understand.
As he rode into Jerusalem, those in the streets shouted ‘hosanna’. This was a plea for divine help in the Old Testament meaning ‘save us now’; but today we hear it as a shout of praise and acclamation and we do not know in what context those lining the streets were using it. Jesus accepts these hosannas even though he knows his friends will betray him, abandon him, the crowd with turn on him, and his only crown will be pain. Jesus, who did not claim equality with God, but submitted himself to God, emptied his own self so he could be filled with God’s love. From his beautiful, bloodied head, his hands, his feet, sorrow and love flow mingled down. Look, he says, this is how you do it. In this glittering sadness, we take up our cross and follow him.
If there is a single day in our liturgical calendar that illustrates the lack of harmony at the centre of our faith, it is Palm Sunday. This festive, ominous, and complicated day of palm fronds and hosannas warns us that paradoxes we might not like or want are woven right into the fabric of Christianity. God on a donkey. Dying to live. A suffering king. Good Friday. And these paradoxes are what give the story of Jesus its shape and weight and texture, while it calls us to hold together truths that appear counterintuitive, and irreconcilable.
Jesus died because he unflinchingly fulfilled the will of God. Because he exposed the sham at the heart of all human kingdoms. Even when he knew who would get the ‘last laugh’ at Calvary, he mounted a donkey and took Rome for a ride. And so we start Holy Week. Blessed is the One who comes to die so that we might live.