Walking with Jesus: Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion B

For Sunday, March 24, 2024

Isaiah 59:4-7, Philippians 2:6-11, Mark 14:1-15:47

We are beginning this sacred week with many scenes that have been part of our lives from the earliest days of childhood: Jesus, the wonderful, kind person who loved everyone — spoke to huge crowds — healed people with miracles that showed His care and concern for all who were hurting. He told people He loved them — He told them they were important and special to God — He said the Father sent Him to show everyone how very much He loves everyone all the time. The mad, evil people in charge were cruel and hurt Jesus so much. Why were they afraid of Jesus? Why didn’t they listen to Him? Why were they so cruel? Why did they hurt Him so much and kill Him on the cross? I remember a children's story I heard ages ago that concluded this way: And Jesus didn’t want to see us sad … so He rose up from the tomb to make us happy and show us He loves us. Isn’t He great? … I think so. Don’t you?

Our remembrances of the Passion narratives come from MATTHEW chapters 26 and 27, MARK chapters 14 and 15, LUKE chapters 22 and 23, and JOHN chapters 18 and 19.

They also come from Mel Gibson’s THE PASSION … The Chosen … from Media presentations down through the years … and from our attendance at religious services on Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday. Remember them today! Remember the books, articles and stories we heard. God loves us, Jesus is God.

All are telling us that God loves you and me … right now and at every moment of our lives.

So our assignment this week is to look again at the significance of Christ in our lives. He came to show His love and to save us from our sins and to promise us and lead us to our home in heaven.

Jesus did this in an entirely different way: He didn’t save us through military power but through His unbelievable humility. Although He was God, Jesus came in the form of a slave ... He was nailed to the cross as a convicted felon … it seemed, from His own lips, that He was abandoned. Why had God stooped so low? Why did Jesus empty Himself so completely? He was totally obedient to His Father. Perhaps the bottom-line question is:

Why does God love you and me with such abandon? Why has God stooped so low? He did this because it was God’s will. The Passion recounts the extent to which He willingly offered Himself.

This is why He has been exalted above everyone and everything else … now, WHY? Isn’t it because He Himself is an example of how we are to empty ourselves for the sake of others? Is this how I love? Jesus did this by identifying with the poor, the broken, the humiliated, the marginalized ... those who are not wanted anymore. We see them in the ones Mother Teresa picked up from the gutters and washed, cleaned, touched, and made feel loved ... so that they could know Jesus. So many of them died moments later, smiling … being touched …being loved. We are told to empty ourselves. How am I doing? How are you doing?

Mark’s writing vividly shows Jesus' pain and heartbreak in the Garden, and he doesn’t flinch in his account of the executioner's scourging, mocking, crowning with thorns. He doesn’t write to detail all the horrendous torture; he writes from the point of Easter faith which is exemplified by the Cross. That is the reality of our lives: We suffer, we hurt. Do we do this to show the way that we love will be rooted in suffering to remind others of God’s love for us, and that we love too because it shows us God and His love? The way of discipleship is the way of suffering. Jesus’ despair ends in triumphant hope. The punch line is delivered from the centurion, the representative of the occupying Roman Empire: “When the centurion who stood facing Him saw how He breathed His last, he said, 'Truly this man was the Son of God!'” [Mark 15:39]

So I reflect on:

• I contrast Psalm 22: “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? Why so far from my call for help, from my cries of anguish? My God, I call by day, but you do not answer, by night but I have no relief ...” to Psalm 23: “The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I lack. In green pastures you let me graze; to safe waters you lead me, you restore my strength.”
• Why do these bring comfort? I’m not abandoned … I’m not alone … I am loved … I am special. I review these moments in gratitude as I pray for the strength to share them.

Sacred Space 2024 states:

“Jesus could be described as the suffering servant in Mark’s Gospel. There is the challenge of staying with Him to understand suffering as we tend to struggle to find meaning in it. We pray to be strengthened by the passion, remembering that it is Jesus we want, not suffering.

“The welcome of Jesus to Jerusalem was in marked contrast to the events of the following days. Spending time with key people in the drama helps us to enter more fully into the passion of Jesus and of the world. We pray that we may be able to stay with You, Lord, amid the trials You endured.”