Word to the Wise
Sunday, March 16, 2008 - Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion
[Isaiah 50:4-7; Philippians 2:6-11; Matthew 26:14-27:66]"I have not rebelled, have not turned back. I gave my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who plucked my beard; my face I did not shield from buffets and spitting."
The threefold cycle of the lectionary allows us the opportunity to experience the events of Palm Sunday and Holy Week in a different way each year. The general story is certainly known to most of us. Jesus enters Jerusalem to great acclamation, and he leaves it carrying a cross to his execution on Calvary. Still, each evangelist tells the story in his own way. Matthew's way is to remind us constantly that whatever is happening is happening because it was prophetically promised in the scriptures. One gets the impression that it was all grimly determined at the outset. Yet, Jesus reminds his disciples at his arrest that if he wanted to he could summon legions of angels to his defense. It seems more like he is determined to fulfill those scriptures. One of the themes that I notice particularly this year in Matthew is related to Jesus' admonition about not resisting. St. Paul states in the second scripture from the Letter to the Philippians: Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. In short, things could have been different but Jesus chooses his destiny. It's not simply a matter of a gospel author (community) picking passages to satisfy a "fulfillment agenda," but a man who would have known these passages to begin with. Jesus knew the fate of prophetic figures. His fate would be no different on one level. On another level it is completely different because his determination to fulfill what he knew to be his mission would result in salvation for all. So, he neither resisted his enemies nor his Father! Each year that we hear and tell the story that begins with Palm Sunday, we are invited to be conscious of the enormous reality that our faith includes. God became human in order that humans could love God completely. But it took place at a great cost, a cost which we should never take for granted. Entering into the events of Holy Week with a real intention to experience them in our imagination and faith can help us to overcome the complacency that dulls our awareness. That piece of blessed palm is only the beginning. AMEN
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