Palm and Passion Sunday – Pastor Ellen Mills

Good morning!  I am offering you two ways to receive this.  In print, you will need to read the scriptures for yourself, and then the prayer and reflection that follow in this post.  If you click on the audio link below (below), you can hear all of it, including the scriptures.

Palm and Passion Sunday

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.

Hosanna to the Son of David

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

Let us pray.

Mercifully assist us, O Lord God of our salvation, that we may enter with joy upon the contemplation of those mighty acts whereby you have given us life everlasting through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.  AMEN

Matthew 21:1-11

All Glory, Laud and Honor

All glory, laud, and honor to you, redeemer, king,

to whom the lips of children made sweet hosannas ring.

You are the king of Israel and David’s royal Son,

now in the Lord’s name coming, our King and Blessed One.

The company of angels are praising you on high;

creation and all mortals in chorus make reply.

The multitude of pilgrims with palms before you went;

our praise and prayer and anthems before you we present.

To you, before your passion, they sang their hymns of praise.

To you, now high exalted, our melody we raise.

Their praises you accepted; accept the prayers we bring,

Great author of all goodness, O good and gracious King.

Let us pray:

O God of mercy and might, in the mystery of the passion of your Son you offer your infinite life to the world.  Gather us around the cross of Christ, and preserve us until the resurrection, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.  AMEN

Isaiah 50:4-9a

Psalm 31:9-16

Philippians 2:5-11

Matthew 27:11-54

     Palm and Passion Sunday.  I’m afraid you will have to provide your own palms, either in memory or by yourself.  This is one of the many things that the internet will not be able to do for us while we are apart.  What I want to bring attention to this Sunday is the contrast and paradox we see in these readings, and in Jesus himself.  Jesus is both the humiliated servant from Isaiah and the glorified King they have been awaiting.  In the procession with palms, I’m sure that many of the people believed that finally Jesus would be the king they wanted.  He would come and save them from the harsh rule of the Roman Empire.  They would have a king on the throne again, and a leader of their army.  And indeed there is a procession that seemed to declare this victory and kingship, although Jesus is on a donkey and not a war horse.  And the moment is fleeting.  The crowds were either from Galilee, or knew about what Jesus had been doing in Galilee.  This finally is the culmination of what Jesus had come here to do.  Would he be crowned in Jerusalem?

     The next reading from Matthew takes us abruptly to Jesus appearing before Pilate.  Jesus has been betrayed, and brought to Pilate, the governor.  Jesus is barely questioned, and Pilate is clearly aware of the political undercurrents, since the chief priests and elders have brought charges against him.  King of the Jews?  The usual meaning of this title was for leaders of resistance movements against Roman rule.  Pilate’s wife sends word about her dream.  Jesus says nothing to defend himself.  The priests whip up the crowd to choose Barabbas to be released instead of Jesus.  Pilate wants to avoid a riot, and so he pleases the priests and elders and has Jesus flogged and taken to be crucified.  We have a succession of mockery, derision and taunts by the groups of people around Jesus as he is crucified.  Jesus cries out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” and dies. 

     Jesus’ words come from Psalm 22, a well known lament.  And a lament ends with hope based simply on the faithfulness of God.  Psalm 22 ends with, “Posterity will serve him; future generations will be told about the Lord, and proclaim his deliverance to a people yet unborn, saying that he has done it.”  And the curtain separating the people of God from the inner sanctuary is ripped from top to bottom.  The earth shakes and rocks split.  And a Roman centurion proclaims, “Truly this man was God’s Son” and becomes a convert, since for Romans, the emperor is God’s son.  Paradox. Both/and.  What do we make of this?

    In Philippians, what is probably a hymn of the early church describes Jesus as intentionally giving up his privilege as the Son of God to live and be among us:  “…he humbled himself, and became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”.

     And so, on this Sunday with its contrast of Hosanna and crucifixion, how you make sense of this may well depend on how you see God.  And even how you see God in the midst of the pandemic today.  Who is God for you? Is God watching from above, untouched by human misery?  Or is Jesus showing us the full extent of Emmanuel, God with us?  Is Jesus showing God’s solidarity with those who suffer, reassuring all that God is here among us, always loving us, never leaving us?  AMEN

O sacred head now wounded, with grief and shame weighed down,

Now scornfully surrounded with thorns, thine only crown;

O sacred head, what glory, what bliss till now was thine!

Yet, though despised and gory, I joy to call thee mine.

How pale thou art with anguish, with sore abuse and scorn;

How does thy face now languish, which once was bright as morn!

Thy grief and bitter passion were all for sinners’ gain;

Mine, mine was the transgression, but thine the deadly pain.

What language shall I borrow to thank thee, dearest friend,

For this thy dying sorrow, thy pity without end?

Oh, make me thine forever, and should I fainting be,

Lord, let me never, never outlive my love to thee.

The Lord bless you and keep you,

The Lord’s face shine upon you with grace and mercy,

The Lord look on you with favor, and give you peace.

AMEN