+AT THE LITURGY OF THE PALMS

• Luke 19:28-40

Luke provides a straightforward account of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem that is close to the other gospels, except in one tell-tale variation.  At the last overlook before Jerusalem, the Mt. of Olives, Jesus instructs two disciples to go into the “village ahead of you,” find a colt that has never been ridden before, untie it and bring it to him.  If asked what they are doing, say, “the Lord needs it.”  They follow his directions and everything unfolds as he had said it would.  Jesus mounts the colt.  As he starts his descent into the valley before the final ascent into Jerusalem, crowds spread their cloaks in his path and start singing spontaneously.  Only Luke writes that “the whole multitude of disciples began to praise God….”  The song they take up is from the psaltery, (Psalm 118:25-26, which surely seems like a psalm reserved for Temple worship and is also the processional psalm liturgically appointed today just after the Blessing of the Palms.)  It is adapted with the honorific title, “King.”  Some Pharisees ask Jesus to stop the singing, but Jesus tells them that if these people went silent, “the stones would shout out.”

• Psalm 118:1-2,19-29

A cantor invites worshipers to “Acclaim the Lord” and indicates their response, “forever is God’s kindness.”  The worshiper asks for entrance, “Open for me the gates of justice.”  Although once treated like a stone deemed unfit for the construction of the Temple, the worshiper has become “the chief cornerstone.”  This remarkable reversal is the Lord’s doing!  This joyous day would not be possible otherwise.  Happy/blessed is the one who has received acceptance bestowed upon her.  Proceed with leading the sacrificial animal by ropes to the altar, the psalmist continues, and then concludes as he began: “Acclaim the Lord’s goodness/”forever is God’s kindness.”

+AT THE LITURGY OF THE WROD

• Isaiah 50: 4-9a

In a time of doubt, deep despair and cynicism, one stands up to speak: “that I may sustain the weary with a word.”  Despite rejection, the speaker knows his words can renew and restore, because that has been the result in the past and can be again in the present situation/crisis.

• Psalm 31: 9-16

The psalmist expresses distress that is so sharp it is visceral.  He is numb from exhaustion.  He is disgraced before his neighbors and friends.  He has been ostracized, slandered and plotted against.  At his wit’s end, he surrenders to the Lord’s care: “My times are in your hand– O save me/from the hand of my enemies, my pursuers.”

• Philippians 2:5-11

This text from Paul’s letter easily falls into the verses of a hymn, which was presumably adapted by Paul and not composed by him.  It celebrates the scandalous paradoxes at the heart of the church’s proclamation about Christ.  This One, whom the church adores, “was in the form of God,” yet “emptied himself,” becoming a servant at the mercy of humankind, “even to the point of death, even death on a cross.”  But God took independent action; “God has highly exalted him.”  Due to God’s action, when the name of Christ is invoked, “Every knee should bow… and confess ‘Jesus is Lord’ to God’s glory.”

• Luke 22:14-23:49

Lukes’ account of the chaotic, emotionally wrenching roughly twenty-four hours from sunset Thursday to sunset Friday includes many traits that are consistent with the rest of his distinctive narrative and it introduces themes that are developed much more fully in the second half of his narrative, the Acts of the Apostles.

Passover Supper

In the same manner the disciples followed Jesus’ detailed instructions for his entry into Jerusalem, so Jesus now instructs Peter and John to arrange for a room, and other preparations for Passover (22: 7-13).  With everything ready, “Jesus took his place at the table and the apostles with him….”  He took “a cup,” said the blessing and told them to share it now for he will not be with them to drink “of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”  After similar actions with bread, he says, “this is my body which is given for you….”  And adds the instruction: “Do this in remembrance of me.”  He takes another cup after dinner and identifies it as “the new covenant of my blood.”  He discloses that even in this cherished, intimate moment someone at table will betray him.  In the clueless  chatter among the disciples around the table about their status, Jesus uses the moment to confer on them his role of servant.  He singles out Peter by name for whom he has prayed that he will not fail when tempted.  Peter, of course, cannot fathom such a failure on his part.  But, Jesus assures him he will fail not once, but three times that very night!  Jesus rejects violence, in an interjection unique to Luke (25:35-38), with an allusion to Isaiah (53:12).

Betrayal and Arrest

After the Passover meal, they go to a place on the Mt. of Olives, “as was his custom.”  Jesus goes alone to pray: “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me, yet, not my will but yours.”  He returns to find his disciples asleep.  A mob appears on the scene led by Judas.  The betrayal is quick; a kiss.  Jesus is taken by the crowd to the home of the High Priest.  There Peter denies he knows Jesus three times “before the cock crowed.”  Jesus turns and looks at Peter at that very moment.  Peter flees and “went out and wept bitterly.”  Meanwhile, the mob taunts Jesus and accuses him of “perverting our nation.”  Next they take him to Pilate, who asks a few questions but concludes that he finds Jesus innocent.  The crowd adds a charge that would matter to a Roman authority; Jesus is a troublemaker “through all Judea.”  In that case, the matter should go to his superior, Herod, Pilate announces.  Herod has been relishing an encounter with Jesus “for a long time.”  Abuse of Jesus by “the chief priests and scribes” piles on Jesus joined by Herod’s men who mock the charges of Kingship.  Herod sends the case back to Pilate, who reiterates that he finds no merit in the charges being brought against Jesus.  The anger of the mob increases, and they shout, “Crucify, crucify him.”  After three attempts to exonerate Jesus, Pilate caves to the mob and Jesus is led away for execution.  Luke inserts a conversation between Jesus and some women nearby who began to weep.  Jesus addresses them as “daughters of Jerusalem” and tells them not to mourn for him, but to mourn “for yourselves and for your children.”

Execution

Jesus is marched with two criminals to the place called The Skull, “and they crucified him,” Luke writes plainly, letting the horror speak for itself.  Only Luke writes that the first words from Jesus on the cross are “Father, forgive them….”  Jesus exonerates all– friends, family, strangers, accusers, leaders and the mob– adding “for they know not what they do.”  But the crowds joined by the soldiers on duty continue to mock him.  One of the criminals hanging next to Jesus joins in the derision.  But the criminal on the other side of Jesus expresses his belief that Jesus is innocent and asks to be remembered.  To which Jesus replies, “today you will be with me in Paradise.”  At the ninth hour, with daylight fading, the veil of the Temple is rent in two.  Jesus gasps his last breath and utters, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.”  A centurion who witnessed all that had just happened concludes, “this man was innocent.”  Others began to “beat their breasts” while all Jesus’ friends and followers, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, “stood at a distance….”  A stranger, identified as Joseph from the Jewish town of Arimathea, who was a seeker “for the kingdom of God,” asks Pilate for the corpse.  The women followers of Jesus helped with preparation of the body for burial as Sabbath began at sunset.

From the beginning of Passover at sunset on Thursday until the beginning of Sabbath at sunset Friday, Luke tells the story of an innocent man who was betrayed, denied and abandoned by friends, unjustly charged by a frenzied mob led by threatened religious leaders and abetted by weaseling politicians.  This sad story only makes the counter-story Luke tells that much more amazing.  At every twist and turn ion this tragic story, in response to every individual and the crowds who caused his suffering and death, Jesus forgives!  This is a new kind of “king.” who leads and liberates by total forgiveness and  unreserved love.  This is a “kingship” unrelated to any human institutions of monarchy, including the ancient religious establishments and even the representatives of the Roma Empire.

But this is not just the tragic story of one man; this man was fulfilling a mission.  Although he knew what to expect and deeply regretted its necessity, he willingly took on the role of announcing and demonstrating a unique caliber of love as his self-conscious obligation to announce  and to show the Father’s love.  There is one further aspect to Luke’s account.  Jesus not only fulfills this role, he hands it off to those who had perpetrated his execution, but were in time changed by it!  Jesus characterized the community that comes out of these terrible events as those “who serve,” (22:26).  And then he makes the actual hand-off, when he says (only in Luke), “as my Father has appointed me, so do I appoint you….” (22:28)

Michel de Certeau writes in “How is Christianity Possible Today, (The Postmodern God, p. 145 ff), that this change of heart of those who participated in the execution of Jesus actively or passively, as written in the gospels, is “the first statement of fidelity” and it is made possible only because “Jesus effaces himself to give faithful witness to the Father who authorizes him, and to ‘give rise’ to different but faithful communities, which he makes possible”  Following Luke’s agenda, which is completed in the Acts of the Apostles, Certeau continues:  “for Jesus to die, is to ‘make room’ for the Father and at the same time ‘make room’ for the polyglot and creative community of Pentecost….” And the truly exciting prospect is that that experience of a changed heart is as possible today as it was in those whom we have just read/heard about in Luke’s account as de Cereau notes: “the process of the death (the absence) and the survival (the presence) of Jesus continues in each [individual person’s] Christian experience.”

On this “Passion Sunday” and throughout the coming week, the church is not engaged in an historic re-enactment.  Rather, she is leading a pilgrimage.  For those who decide to participate, the destination is personal transformation.