Palm Sunday/Passion Sunday B
March 29, 2015
Isaiah 50:4-9a
Psalm 31: 9-19
Philippians 2:5-11 Mark
14:1-15:47
Will: My preacher friends, and dear members of St. John’s, I think Father Phil can be quite a sneaky priest.
Priya: Shame on you Will for even suggesting such a thing. Only his wife would really know if that were true.
Catherine: Yes, Will, what do you mean by suggesting such a thing?
Will: Well, I think Father Phil is trying to pad his attendance record for today?
Priya: What do you mean by that?
Will: Well, we’re having two services. The Palm Sunday liturgy and the Passion Sunday liturgy and so he gets to count all of us twice for the attendance record.
Catherine: It is interesting that you think that way; perhaps you are thinking like Father Phil yourself.
Will: Well great minds do think alike.
Priya: Yes, and fools never differ.
Catherine: But let not argue about Father Phil’s motive for padding the attendance record. It is more important that we are doing two different liturgies today.
Will: And these liturgies are so contradictory.
Priya: Indeed they are. In the Palm Sunday liturgy the crowd is shout “Hosanna, blessed is the one who comes in the name of Lord.” Jesus is paraded through the streets as a king.
Catherine: But now we have turned to the Passion Sunday liturgy when we read the very sad story about the death of Jesus on the cross.
Will: And the crowd in this story shout, “Crucify him, Crucify him.” This is quite a contrast in reactions to Jesus. Why are there such different crowds of people who have completely different responses to Jesus?
Priya: It could be that lots of the people from the countryside where Jesus lived in Nazareth had come to Jerusalem for the Passover celebrations. They wanted to make a political statement about Jesus to the people in Jerusalem.
Catherine: Well, they did make a political statement but the leaders in Jerusalem were not happy with the Parade of Palms and they were very frightened that people were calling Jesus a king.
Will: Why were the leaders in Jerusalem frightened?
Priya: Israel was an occupied country. The Romans controlled the city of Jerusalem. But the Romans provided jobs for the people in Jerusalem. The Romans were paying for the rebuilding of the temple. They were paying for other public works projects.
Catherine: So, the Romans provided lots of jobs for the people in Jerusalem.
Will: The Jewish leaders of Jerusalem had to negotiate with Romans for their religious rights and freedoms.
Priya: So when people started to call Jesus a king, the leaders in Jerusalem were worried that the Romans would think that someone was beginning a rebellion against the Caesar.
Catherine: So, I suppose the Roman officials in Jerusalem probably told the Jewish religious leaders in Jerusalem: “You better deal with this problem. It is a big problem if people are trying to make another person king in Jerusalem when the Caesar is the king of the world.”
Will: So the Romans officials in Jerusalem had to defend the Caesar against any possible opponent. And the religious leaders thought that Jesus and his followers would really anger the Roman officials and cause them to bring their soldiers to destroy Jerusalem.
Catherine: The Jewish leaders of Jerusalem did not want to “rock the boat” with the Roman officials. And they felt that the only way to keep from angering the Roman official was to deal with problem of Jesus caused by his popularity.
Priya: Hmm….now I think I am beginning to understand the situation which led to the Cross of Christ.
Will: I also understand something else on this day. The crowd of people who followed Jesus and declared him to be a king must have been really disappointed.
Catherine: Why do you say that?
Will: They believed Jesus to be super hero who could do anything. They believed that he would be one who could kick the Romans out of Jerusalem. They believed that he would be a king like David who would bring independence and freedom back to Israel.
Priya: And so the person they wanted to be king ended up dying on the cross. How could such a person be a super hero or a king?
Catherine: Well, it could be that we have to stand back and re-define what we mean by being a king?
Will: What do you mean?
Catherine: Caesar Augustus and his successors were strong kings? But where in the world today are a billion people gathering to commemorate their deaths?
Priya: No where that I know, but billions of people for years have been gathering to commemorate the death of Jesus.
Catherine: So in the end, who has proven to be the greater king?
Priya: The kingship of the Caesar died when they died; but the kingship and the kingdom of Jesus has continued to live on and will live on forever. Who is the greater King?
Will: Jesus, of course. That is why the mocking sign on the cross: “The king of the Jews” is such irony.
Catherine: What do you mean by irony?
Will: I mean the writers of the account of the death of Jesus already knew how popular he had become. Jesus had become the king of hearts of many, many people, including many Jewish people. So, his role as a dying king had a different meaning after Jesus had become so popular.
Priya: There is also something very mysterious about the punchline in the Passion Gospel.
Catherine: What is the punchline in the Passion Gospel?
Priya: The punchline is that one of Roman centurion who was torturing Jesus made the most important statement of all. The centurion as he watched the death of Jesus said, “Truly this man was God’s Son.”
Will: That is strange. It wasn’t Peter, or James or John. It wasn’t Mary the Mother of Jesus or Joseph. It wasn’t Mary or Martha of Bethany. It wasn’t his friend Mary Magdalene. It was a Roman foreigner who made this confession that Jesus was God’s Son.
Catherine: It is strange indeed because a Roman soldier would have only called the Caesar a son of a god.
Priya: So, the writer of the Gospel of Mark wants all of the readers to be like the foreign, Gentile, Roman Centurion and come to this same confession: Jesus, truly you are God’s Son.
Will: Maybe all of us could whisper this confession now too: “Jesus, truly you are God’s Son.”
Catherine: Jesus, you are truly king of our hearts.
Priya: We cannot stop at the event of the Cross of Jesus.
Will: Why not?
Priya: We only remember the Cross of Jesus because of what comes next in the life of Jesus.
Catherine: Please tell me now! What is it?
Will: We can’t tell you now. We are going to hold you in suspense. So, you’re just going have to come back next week for the rest of the story.
Catherine: I can hardly wait.
Priya: For today, let us be glad to confess: “Jesus, you are truly God’s Son.” Amen.
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