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First
Reading
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Psalm |
Epistle |
Gospel |
Isaiah 50:4–9a |
Psalm 31:9–16 |
Philippians 2:5–11 |
Mark 14:–15:39
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What did people go out and expect to see in John the Baptist? Just a reed swaying in the wind? Of course not! Then what did people go out to see? One with a golden tongue wearing fine clothes? Those with golden tongues wearing fine clothes were to be found surrounded by their courtiers, enthroned in palaces. Then what did one go out for? To see a prophet who would provide insight into the times they lived in? Yes, yes!!! and more than a prophet, a forerunner who would announce the coming of a savior for the whole of humanity. John the Baptist was the bridge between the present and the future, who prepared for the anointed one who would bring Good News to all! Some of those who went out to the banks of the Jordan may have understood, many others did not.
What did pilgrims, going to Jerusalem for Passover see in Jesus of Nazareth? Why did they shout their Hosannas and hail him waving their palms? Ah, some hoped for deliverance against the long oppressive domination of the Roman Empire. Some glimpsed a sign of hope like a flower blooming through a dry and stony crevice by the wayside, others had their own personal expectations, but they more often than not were misguided expectations. Even for the disciples, Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem that day only made sense to them long after the pilgrims for Passover had returned to their homes..
Why were the religious authorities so alarmed? Did Jesus teach anything so different or contrary to what the prophets and sages of times past had said? What did Pilate expect to see when Jesus was brought before him? Someone who was posed to challenge civil authority and threaten the peace of the city with an army of fishermen, tradesmen, and farmers from Galilee?
What did those who followed Jesus to a hill outside the city, and saw him nailed to a cross to be tortured and executed expect to happen? That God would come down with vengeance and punish his executioners? That Jesus would escape from the cross and retreat to fight another day? That Jesus would die, and his disciples would scatter in fear, never to be heard from again?
As a measure of its uncompromising and stark honesty, the story of the Passion does not provide definitive answers. Nor is the Passion read on this day to clarify what or why it really happened. Every year the story is meant to evoke disturbing questions in us, every year it is meant to confront us with a rich layer of paradox as it elicits our response. From beginning to end, the Passion story brings us face to face with what is ultimately asked of each of us: Who do we gather here to see? Who do we say Jesus is?
It has always been thus for people of faith. Whatever the first disciples expected when they went with Jesus to celebrate the Passover, they soon began to have second thoughts. Even at night when they were back in the welcoming haven of Bethany, ambivalence hung heavy, pressing upon them. When a woman anointed Jesus with an expensive ointment, some suggested this was an unnecessary extravagance, yet Jesus thanked her profoundly and then made a startling and poignant comment that this was indeed the anointing for his impending death.
Just days later they celebrated the main Passover Seder Supper celebrating God’s deliverance of Israel from servitude in Egypt. Yet Jesus transformed it as they ate. It became obvious that this was his last supper with them as their earthly rabbi, and that the symbol of the Passover lamb was to be reinterpreted into Jesus’ gift to all. The disciples struggled to understand what Jesus was saying when at the end of the meal he took bread and wine, and said to continue to do this for all time in remembrance of Him.
There was the betrayal of Judas, the denial of Peter, the trial and sentence all came too quickly to process. Finally the last chapter in this drama ended in desolation, on a grim hill outside the city.
To be sure, the Passion is hardly the end of the Gospel, but before we get to Easter, it demands that we work through the levels of the paradox of the passion and deal with what it asks us. It is only in asking, “Who do we go out to see this day? Who do we say Jesus is?” that the dried bloodstains on the ground at Calvary become more than the last word on grace, that the empty tomb becomes more than a sign of abandonment, and that Easter morning more than another day when terrible things happen again and again in the afternoon.
And I offer this to you in the name of the Living God, Amen.
