Palm Sunday / Passion Sunday
Palm Gospel: Luke 19:28-40
Readings: Isaiah 50:4-7
Philippians 2:6-11
Luke 22:14-23:56
The readings for Passion Sunday begin the celebration of the Paschal Mystery with a moving presentation of the Lukan Jesus who comes to Jerusalem as a humble Messiah, offering the peace of God's reign. When he is rejected by the Jewish authorities, he heroically fulfills his destiny to die in Jerusalem in order to enter his heavenly glory as God's messiah. The liturgy for Passion Sunday both challenges us with the ultimate cost of a life of Christian discipleship and consoles us with the assurance of the ultimate triumph of the loving forgiveness of God's reign. In hope, let us sing in the words of the responsorial psalm: "I will proclaim your name,/ in the midst of the assembly I will praise you:/ You who fear the Lord, praise the Lord...." (Ps 22:23-24).
Luke's version of Jesus' entry into Jerusalem continues several themes that have dominated his Gospel. This is the completion of Jesus' long journey to Jerusalem (9:51-19:44), in which he has instructed his disciples on God's merciful forgiveness as a way of salvation open to all, and has repeatedly warned them of his impending rejection by the religious authorities in Jerusalem and their own forthcoming persecution for the Gospel's sake. Throughout Luke's Gospel the response to Jesus has been divided. Outcasts have received his healing miracles and teachings as the liberating arrival of the messianic age, "the mighty works" of God. The self-righteous, powerful and rich (often symbolized by the Pharisees) have rejected him as a threat to their narrowly defined and self-serving understanding of God's way (see, for example, 7:36-52). This divided response persists in Jesus' climactic entrance into Jerusalem. He comes as the peaceful, humble Messiah, spoken of in the book of Zechariah (9:9), by riding a donkey's colt, rather than the war-horse of a militaristic Messiah. As such, he is received joyfully by the whole multitude of disciples in the words of Ps 118:25, "Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord," to which Luke adds, in words that recall the angels' greeting to the humble shepherds on the hills of Bethlehem, "Peace in heaven and glory in the highest" (see 2:14). When the Pharisees ask Jesus to rebuke his disciples for acclaiming him as Messiah, Jesus rejoins: "If they were to keep silence, I tell you the very stones (of the Temple) would cry out."
The Old Testament reading is the third servant song from Second Isaiah which gives an autobiographical report of the prophet's tireless commitment to speaking a rousing word to the "weary" exiles who think that their Lord is powerless to save them from their Babylonian cap-tors. Because of his confidence that the Lord is his help, the prophet, like Jesus in the garden scene in Luke's passion story, has had the courage not to turn back from his wearisome task, even though it involves suffering and rejection.
Paul's magnificent hymn to the self-emptying Christ in Philippians continues the imagery of God's victory over sin through humble service. In the context of exhorting the Philippians to give up selfish and petty jealousy (2:1-5), Paul uses this early Christian hymn to establish the foundation for the Christian life of selfless love. The pattern, established in Jesus, of death to self and resurrection through God's power is to mark the life of the community.
Christ, in contrast to his anti-type Adam, did not grasp at being god-like, but, like the suffering servant in Second Isaiah, took the form of a servant and emptied himself by becoming fully human, even to the point of obediently accepting the degradation of death on a cross. God responded to this act of self-emptying love by exalting Jesus, like the glorious Son of Man in Daniel 7, and bestowing on him lordship over the cosmos, so that at his name all beings in the universe might acknowledge him as Lord and Messiah.
Luke's passion has several unique elements that continue the themes introduced by the other readings. His last supper features speeches by Jesus that anticipate his future messianic glory beyond the imminent suffering, and at the same time, warn the apostles that the model for their lives must be humble service after his example. Jesus begins the meal by announcing to the apostles his great desire to have this last Passover with them before he suffers because he will not eat and drink with them again until the kingdom of God comes (22:14-18). After he has given them bread as his body "which is given for you" and the cup of wine "which is poured out for you in a new covenant in my blood," the apostles ironically have an argument over who will betray Jesus and who is the greatest. Jesus has to teach them that their behavior should not be modeled on Gentile kings who exercise lordship, but on servants who waits on table, and ultimately on him who is among them as one who serves (22:19-27). Only after they have continued with him in his trials, will they eat and drink at his table in the kingdom and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel (22:28-30).
Luke's treatment of the garden scene (22:31-62) stresses both Jesus' submission to his Father's will and the way the disciples are to respond in similar times of trial. He warns the apostles that they are about to enter an hour of crisis when he, like the servant in Second Isaiah (53:12), will be "reckoned with transgressors." They are taught to pray that they may have the strength to do the Father's will and not enter into temptation (22:39-46), and, if they are illegally seized as criminals, they are not to respond with vengeance but instead are to follow the lead of Jesus, who healed the ear of the slave of the high priest (22:47-53).
The handling of Peter's denial reminds the disciples that a lapse of courage in such a trial need not be an occasion for despair. In foretelling Simon's threefold denial, Jesus assures him that he has already prayed for him that his faith not fail and that he will be able to turn again and strengthen his brethren (22:31-34). When the denial occurs, Jesus is still in the courtyard, and he turns and looks at Peter so that he remembers these words (22:54-62). In this context Peter's weeping is a sign of repentance that will lead to his courageous preaching about the Resurrection in Acts (see Acts 2).
In his accounts of the Jewish and Roman trials (22:66-23:25), Luke goes to great lengths to stress Jesus' innocence of false charges brought by the Jewish leaders before the Roman procurator, Pilate. The charge that Jesus forbade tribute to Caesar (23:2) is contradicted by an earlier incident in Jesus' Jerusalem ministry (22:19-26), and three times Pilate declares before the Jewish authorities that he finds Jesus guilty of no crime (23:4,14,22). Luke has a hearing before Herod (23:6-12), who also finds Jesus innocent of the charges brought against him (23:15). At the crucifixion, both the penitent criminal and the Roman centurion attest to Jesus' innocence or righteousness (23:40-41,47). Luke is warning his readers that though they may be innocent of crimes against the Roman state, they still face the prospect of martyrdom for following the way of Jesus (see Acts 22-26).
Luke's presentation of the events at the cross shows Jesus living out the ideals he taught during his ministry. Luke makes Jesus' death the model of a martyr's death which will then be followed by Stephen (see Acts 7). As he carries his cross, Jesus selflessly continues his prophetic ministry by warning the lamenting women of Jerusalem, "Do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children...." (23:26-31). At the crucifixion, he prays to his Father for the forgiveness of his persecutors, as he had taught ( 23:34; see 6:27-36; 11:4), and he offers to the penitent criminal the assuring promise of God's salvation (23:35-41; see 7:36-52). At his death Jesus rejects for the last time the temptation to be a miracle-working Messiah who saves himself from death on a cross (23:35-41; see 4:1-12) and prays the confident words of trust in Ps 31:5, "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." A mission is thus accomplished that first began with the descent of God's Spirit on him at his baptism (3:21-22).
In contrast to the religious leaders and soldiers who ironically taunt Jesus by challenging him to save himself, several characters respond appropriately to Jesus' saving death. The good criminal, aware of his sins and recognizing the Messiah, asks to be remembered by Jesus when he enters his kingdom. The Roman centurion, witnessing Jesus' death and hearing his trustful words, praises God and says, "Certainly this was a righteous man!" The crowds, who had gathered to witness the spectacle, when they see what had taken place, return to their home, "beating their breasts." The faithful women, who have been with Jesus since Galilee (8:1-3), witness the death and burial so that they return after the Sabbath with spices and ointments. Finally, Joseph of Arimathea, "a good and righteous man, who was a member of the Sanhedrin, has not agreed to their plan and action" to hand Jesus over to the Romans, is described by Luke as "waiting expectantly for the kingdom of God." He has the courage to go to Pilate and ask for the body of Jesus and bury him in a rock-hewn tomb where no one has ever been laid.
(This column originally appeared in The Providence Journal)
