Sunday of the Passion: Palm Sunday - March 28, 2021

Palm/Passion Sunday
March 28, 2021
The Rev’d Charles W. Everson
St. Mary’s Episcopal Church

Today, we began with the story of Jesus’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem with shouts of acclamation and an adoring crowd.  But then just a moments later, we heard the long, agonizing story of his betrayal and torture and death.  How jolting it is to go from crying “Hosanna” to “Crucify him!”   Some might describe what we’re experiencing as “liturgical whiplash.”[1]  How do we make sense of today’s liturgical drama? In the Liturgy of the Palms, we hear that many people had come to love Jesus.  They spread their cloaks both on the donkey and on the streets to make way for him.  They shout “Hosanna in the highest…Blessed is he who cometh in the name of the Lord”…or, in more modern language, “God save the King.”  Jesus then rides in royal fashion through the midst of the adoring crowds.  Fast forward a few short minutes in the liturgy, and we’re hearing about Judas Iscariot’s awful betrayal of his Lord, and the first Eucharist that ties the Jewish Passover sacrifice to the imminent sacrifice of Jesus, and the crowds crying “Crucify him!  Crucify him!”, and then the death of Jesus on the cross at Calvary.

The liturgical whiplash we experience today points to a deep truth that all human beings can relate to: joyous professions of loyalty can turn in the blink of an eye to betrayal.[2]  We see this not only in the adoration and subsequent rejection of Christ, but also in he who Gregory the Great once called the “prince of the apostles”, St. Peter.  When Jesus asked Peter, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”, he answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”  But as we heard today, moments later, Peter denied Jesus three times.

Let’s face it: we human beings are fickle.  We swear allegiance to something, and then within a matter of moments, we’ve moved on to something else, having forgotten our vows.  If I were to ask you, “Who do you say the Son of Man is?”, especially in public, I’m fairly confident you’d say “He’s the Son of God,” or “he is second person of the Trinity”…or, perhaps, “he’s fully human and fully divine.”  But then tomorrow, it’s quite possible that you’ll not recognize Christ in the poor person you encounter.  Or you’ll be faced with another human being at work who drives you crazy, and in the midst of your emotional response to his or her dysfunction, you’ll forget that he or she is made in God’s image and is worthy of love and respect.
It is human nature to say that we’re followers of Christ one minute, and then make choices as if we hadn’t ever professed faith in him.  Put another way, we often say that we’re Christians but then decide to do something that completely contradicts that profession of faith.  Like Peter, we are prone to deny the Lord we love.

And like us, the original audience of this text knew that Peter and the other disciples were ultimately restored into close relationship with Jesus.  St. Mark doesn’t provide closure by finishing the story about their restoration.  He implicitly leaves this question with his readers: will they ultimately be faithful to Jesus?[3]

I leave you with that same question as we begin the holiest of weeks: will you be faithful to Jesus?

[1] This concept was coined by The Reverend Kara Slade on a Facebook post in 2018 which I cannot now find.

[2] Ibid.

[3] David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, eds., Feasting on the Word: Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary (Louisville (Ky.): Westminster John Knox Press, 2011), 183.