Today, my sisters and brothers, we celebrate Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem for the last time. We come together to celebrate Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion. We come together today in celebration for the commemoration of the last week of Jesus’ life on earth. Today is the introduction for our entry into Holy week.
In the opening Gospel from Luke we heard of Jesus’ welcome into the city of Jerusalem, a moment of blessings, popularity and welcome. We hear of Jesus riding on the colt of a donkey with a saddle of cloaks across it. We hear of cloaks being thrown across the road just as a red carpet is rolled out for a king and the waving of palm branches symbolizing triumph and victory.
We hear how the disciples were yelling out “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord”. Everyone was feeding off the excitement and joy of others creating a sense of awe for being in a Kings presence. The peoples Hosannas rang out, they called upon Jesus as a savior, a mighty King.
They hoped that he would cast the oppressors out of their land and bring them glory and honor as did King David before Him. But Jesus walked a different path to glory and worked in a different way to bring God’s salvation to them. They did not understand this way-and when Jesus was betrayed in to the hands of the authorities and did not fight, they turned on him, seeing him as a failure, calling out “Crucify Him, Crucify Him”.
Even as he lay down his life for them, those closest to him fled in fear. It is ironic that as Jesus’ disciples thought he was receiving his rightful kingship, it is only on the throne of a cross that Jesus assumes it.
The Passion narrative we have just heard is the painful litany of Jesus’ returning all to the Father. He willingly emptied himself of everything. He allows himself to be stripped of all that is not God, so that he might show us in the moment of total surrender, where our true treasure lies.
Betrayed by one of his apostles, arrested as a criminal, deserted by his disciples, denied not only once but three times by Peter, condemned by the religious authorities, brutally punished unjustly, stripped of his clothes, crucified between thieves-the innocent Jesus is left to die as a lonely criminal, exposed on a cross, jeered at by the crowds.
How quick they changed. How quickly in 5 days they lost their belief, their faith in Jesus.
The ups and downs that Jesus lived and witnessed are our ups and downs. As we heard in the last few weeks of Lent, Jesus knew what would happen to him-he even knew, as we heard in the story of Peter’s denial, that his closest disciple and friend would claim to not know him when put to the test.
Jesus was walking a path, step by step, which would lead him to the only source of truth and lasting meaning for him and ultimately for us, that he was moving towards the fulfillment of God’s will for him and through him for the world. Jesus knew that in the worst of times in life, even his own, the Father would be there; that he would be surrounded and encompassed by the presence, the mercy, and the love of God.
This is a lesson for all of us to remember. If we depend upon the events of life to give us reward and satisfaction, then we may never achieve them or we may have them taken away in the very moment of tasting victory. We may be at the peak of our lives with money, health, position, material possessions, friends, but in those terms there is nowhere to go but downhill in the weeks, months, and years ahead.
On the other hand, we have the opportunity to walk our own unique path of obedience toward God like Jesus Christ. It is a path which may see us surrounded by possessions, money, popularity, or it may lead us into poverty and loneliness but we will never feel abandoned.
No matter the path, it is the direction, the destination we seek that matters. One’s life is well spent seeking to find and do God’s will. Many have known the taste of Palm Sunday, the sweetness of success, of popularity, and probably all of us have tasted the bitterness of Good Friday, rejection, loneliness, abandonment.
There is no disgrace, no shame in any situation we find ourselves in, as long as we turn to God. Isaiah from our first reading says “The Lord God is my help, therefore I am not disgraced, I have set my face like flint, knowing that I shall not be put to shame”.
What saves us from an endless round of ups and downs, what frees us from the events in our lives which we have no control, is our commitment to go forward in obedience to God’s will. It is trust in God’s love to bring about our Easter morning, knowing that the meaning of life is to be found in the love of God through his Son, Jesus Christ, sharing that love with all we meet on our life’s journey.
My Sisters and brothers, never forget what Jesus did for us, yes, you and me. If we remember, then we live in the will of God. We live in communion with Jesus Christ. And when our time comes to leave this earthly life, we can hope that we will hear these words spoken to us: “Amen I say to you, today, you will be with me in Paradise”.