It's not a tragedy, it's a triumph

          You really should read the Passion Narrative according to Mark before hearing this brief homily.  More than normal weeks, it depends on hearing/reading it.  Go here to read the readings for the Mass.  In the column to the right, click on "Daily Readings - Audio" and find this Sunday's date to hear the readings read aloud.

Homily: Palm Sunday of the Passion of the Lord – Cycle B

          You know, it can be pretty hard for us to imagine what it was like to be a first century Jew.  Here was a people who, ever since the Babylonian exile, were awaiting a new Davidic king—a king who would sit on the throne of King David—and would restore completely the covenant with Yahweh.  The sign for that restoration would be the when the shekinah—that is, the glory of the Lord (meaning, God’s presence among them)—would once again appear in the Temple.  For hundreds of years they waited: many of them wondering if God had forgotten them, altogether.

          Imagine what it is like when your spouse, your child, your parents (if you are younger), or your best friend is away for an extended period of time.  Imagine also that you can’t call, text, or video chat with them.  Imagine what the waiting would feel like.  Take that longing that you would feel for their return and multiply it exponentially and you’ll begin to understand what those first century Jews felt waiting for the Messiah—God’s anointed one—who would sit on David’s throne and would restore the covenant with Yahweh so that his presence might dwell among them once again.

          The prophet Ezekiel documents for us in a vision that, when the Lord’s glory left the Temple at the time of the Babylonian Exile, it left towards the east and that from the east it would return.  Therefore, the ancient Jews looked towards the east, hoping to see the glory of the Lord returning to them.  It is no accident, then, that we read that Jesus, on his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, came by way of Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, which was directly east of Jerusalem.  God Incarnate was returning to restore the covenant with his people in Jerusalem and he enters the city from the east to fulfill Ezekiel’s prophecy.

          Many people recognized this and so hailed Jesus as the king who would sit on David’s throne and restore God’s kingdom.  They thought him to be a worldly king, however, and so forgot that God’s servant—as prophesied by Isaiah—would suffer for the restoration of his people.  Jesus, however, knew that this must be the case and so freely handed himself over to torture and to death.  In Isaiah’s words: “I gave my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who plucked my beard; my face I did not shield from buffets and spitting.”  This is why we read the account of Christ’s Passion on Palm Sunday: because the crucifixion is his triumphant victory and the restoration of the covenant between Yahweh and his people.

          Friends, as we enter into this Holy Week, let this be the “tone” that is set over the whole week: that the Passion and Death of Jesus was not a tragedy that could have been avoided, but luckily was overcome by the resurrection, but rather that the Passion and Death of Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s love for us: Him suffering death on our behalf so that our union with him could be restored in his rising to new life.  Let us, therefore, walk with Jesus as his disciples this week—both in our personal prayer and in our liturgies—so that we, too, might feel the ecstatic joy of Christ’s victory on Easter Sunday: the victory that we celebrate even now, here in this Eucharist.

Given at All Saints Parish: Logansport, IN – March 24^th & 25^th, 2018