Palm Sunday of the Passion B

Passion (Palm) Sunday B

Readings: Commemoration of the Lord’s Entrance into Jerusalem: Mark 11:1-10

Isaiah 50:4-7  Philippians 2:6-11  Mark 14:1-15:47

Although the liturgy for Passion Sunday seems to move abruptly from Jesus’ triumphant entrance into Jerusalem to his agonizing passion, there is an inextricable connection between the two events.  In Mark’s theology, Jesus is the suffering Messiah whose full identity cannot be comprehended until the cross and resurrection.  His entrance into the city has messianic overtones and precipitates the final conflict with the chief priests and scribes which will lead to his death and resurrection.  Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a colt, as had been prophesied of the peaceful messianic king in Zechariah (see Zech 9:9), and is greeted by the crowds as the Davidic Messiah with words drawn from Psalm 118.

“Hosanna!  Blessed be he who comes in the name of the Lord!

Blessed be the reign of our father David to come!

God save him from on high!”

When Jesus follows this triumphant entry with the cleansing of the Temple, the chief priests and scribes seek a way to destroy him out of fear for the multitude who are astonished at his teaching (11:11-25).

The first reading in the Liturgy of the Word is the third so-called servant song from Second Isaiah.  It gives an autobiographical report of this 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 captors.  Because of his confidence that the Lord is his help, the prophet, like Jesus in Gethsemani, has the courage not to turn back from his wearisome task, even though it involves suffering and rejection.

Paul’s magnificent hymn to Christ in Philippians celebrates God’s victory over sin through Jesus’ self-emptying death.  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, set forth in Jesus, of death to self and resurrection through God’s power, is to mark the life of the community.  Christ, in contrast to Adam, did not grasp at being Godlike, but, like the suffering servant in Second Isaiah (Isaiah 53), took the form of a slave and emptied himself by becoming fully human, even to the point of obediently accepting the degradation of death on a cross.  God affirmed this act of self-emptying love by exalting Jesus 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.

Mark’s passion story skillfully presents Jesus as both the long-awaited Messiah, or “anointed one,” and also the one who must be crucified.  At the outset, Mark places the story of Jesus’ anointing “for burial” by a woman in the house of Simon the leper at Bethany in the midst of the plot to arrest and kill him (14:1-11).  In his account of Jesus’ Last Supper (14:12-31), Mark carefully links Jesus’ words and actions to his earlier passion predictions and presents him as in total control of his destiny.  Jesus informs his disciples that the room for the celebration of Passover had already been arranged ahead of time.  He begins the meal by announcing that one of the twelve will “betray” (“hand over”) him (14:17-21), the same verb used in earlier predictions (9:31; 10:33).  Jesus’ words in connection with the bread and wine allude to the suffering servant in Isaiah 53 and make reference to his sacrificial death that will seal a covenant for “the many”--something he had earlier prophesied in teaching his disciples (10:45).

In the Mount of Olives and Gethsemani scenes (14:26-50), Mark continues to present Jesus as painfully submissive to his destiny, while his disciples are neither able to comprehend nor follow their master in this moment of crisis.  As they go out to the Mount of Olives, Jesus predicts that his disciples “will all fall away,” but goes on to announce that this failure will be overcome when he is raised up and goes before them to Galilee.  After further proclaiming to a boastful Simon that he will deny him three times, Jesus, in a most human fashion, prays that “the hour might pass from him,” but then ends by accepting his Father’s will.  In contrast, the disciples, although they have been warned of the upcoming crisis, are unable to watch with him in his hour of agony, and when he is seized by the crowd brought by Judas from the Jewish leaders, they forsake him and flee. 

The trial before the Jewish leaders (14:53-65) culminates Mark’s dual themes of both the identity of Jesus as the Messiah and the necessity for him to be rejected.  After false witnesses are unable to agree on testimony brought against Jesus, the high priest asks him: “Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?” Jesus responds by saying, “I am; and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.”  In an ironic fulfillment of all Jesus has said concerning his death, this solemn proclamation leads to the council’s decision that he deserves death for blasphemy.  In this scene Mark finally reveals the whole scope of Jesus’ identity.  He is the Christ (Messiah), the beloved Son of God, who is about to die as the rejected and betrayed one, but he will return in power as the triumphant Son of Man to complete his kingdom.  Ironically, just as Jesus is announcing his full identity before the hostile high priest, Peter, the leader of the disciples, is in the courtyard vehemently denying that he knows Jesus (14:66-72).

The trial before Pilate stresses his cowardly complicity in condemning Jesus.  He is aware that the chief priests have delivered Jesus up out of jealousy and tries to release the murderer, Barabbas, but in the end “wishing to satisfy the crowd,” he releases Barabbas and, after scourging Jesus, gives him up to be crucified.

Mark’s crucifixion scene (15:16-41) is filled with bitter and painful irony.  Using frequent references to lament psalms of righteous sufferers (Pss 69 and 22), Mark has the Roman soldiers, the crowds, and the chief priests and scribes taunting and mocking Jesus, while pointing to his true identity and the salvific effects of his death. The Roman soldiers ridicule him as a would-be king, place on the cross an inscription which reads “The King of the Jews” and, like the mockers in Ps 22:18, cast lots for his garments.  Some in the crowd “wag their heads” like the taunters in Ps 22:7 and challenge Jesus to ‘save’ himself by coming down from the cross.  Finally, the chief priests and scribes, consistent with their character throughout Mark, mock Jesus by saying, “He saved others; he cannot save himself.  Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe.”

In contrast to these mockers, the Roman centurion, when he witnesses Jesus’ death accompanied by the signs of ominous darkness and the rending of the Temple curtain, affirms Jesus’ full identity: “Truly this man was the Son of God!”  This scene captures the spirit of the whole liturgy for Passion Sunday.  Only after Jesus has endured his destiny to suffer and put an end to the need for the temple and its sacrifices is it possible to confess him as the Son of God with understanding.   As the opening instruction for today’s liturgy reminds us: “Christ entered in triumph into his own city, to complete his work as our Messiah: to suffer, to die, and to rise again. Let us remember with devotion this entry which began his saving work and follow him with a lively faith.  United with him in his suffering on the cross, may we share his resurrection and new life.”