PALM SUNDAY
During Lent we have been preparing for the celebration of Easter by works of love and self-sacrifice. Today, in union with the whole Church throughout the world we remember Christ’s entry into Jerusalem to complete his saving work as our Messiah to suffer, to die and to rise again. We, enter Holy Week that is called the Great Week in the orthodox tradition. The entrance into Jerusalem is one of the very few events in Jesus’ life which is mentioned in all four gospels. It is the only time that Jesus accepts and encourages public acclaim as Messiah. He even goes as far as organising his entrance by telling the disciples to go and fetch the donkey. The key moment in God’s great plan of salvation is about to begin and Jesus knows exactly how it will unfold. The events of Palm Sunday were foretold thousands of years ago. The first reading from Isaiah, one of the four Suffering Servant oracles written at the time of the Babylonian captivity, speaks of a courageous and obedient messiah-figure, who says, “I have set my face like flint” against the beatings and scourging that lie ahead, “knowing that I shall not be put to shame.”
The second reading from Philippians reminds us of Jesus’ total emptying out of His divinity in order that He might identify Himself with the lowest criminal being led to His execution, “obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” We move towards the heavenly Jerusalem only because Christ himself has already made that journey to the Cross for us and now he offers to make it with us as we bear the crosses that come to us. The full drama of the Gospel begins with the crowd’s fickle acclamation of Jesus as King at the beginning of the reading. It is a foreshadowing of the blasphemous mockery the soldiers will hurl at our thorn-crowned Savior a few days later on Good Friday. And yet, we raise our voices joyfully with the crowd, linking the honor given Him, especially by the children. We wonder and rejoice as the veil is raised to permit a glimpse of Jesus, as the Messiah-King and liberator `who is the suffering servant of god. The Church is a master of drama in the liturgies of this week. Through the use of readers for the Passion and the voices of the congregation, we all become part of the action. On Palm Sunday we feel embarrassed to cry out “Crucify Him” with the palm branches still in our hands. It reminds us of our own fickle response and our lack of courage in responding to His love and truth. Yet we know that it was our sins that brought Jesus to Calvary.
Holy Week is a time for us to realize what we’re really like, and to find that the only remedy for our sin is the fathers love for us. Are we ready to join our own pains and fears to the Master’s? Are we ready to add as much love as we can possibly muster to His boundless love? As we recall the Passion story on Palm Sunday and then again on Good Friday we are called to respond and to imitate his life. As God’s family, we are called to be the Church, the Body of Christ in this world. We are asked to look out for one another. It’s not just about “me myself.” It’s about “all of us together.” Christ came to serve and give his life as a ransom for many as a result of this he points us in the right direction. It is important that we who say we are Christians accept the truth about ourselves that truth may not always be good and then in our acceptance of the truth we will be able to look at the Cross and recognise the love of God our Father made real through Jesus. As we reflect upon the story of Jesus coming to Jerusalem we recommit ourselves to Christ and his message of salvation. Over the next few days let us enter fully into Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday and then we will really be able to enjoy the Easter feast when it comes on Sunday with renewed hearts. So let us go forth in peace to meet the Lord this Palm Sunday and Holy Week.
Fullerton T 