Philippians 4:4-9
John 12:1-18
Sometimes
it is not enough to have ideas or speak words, no matter how true they are. There are circumstances that require us to
act in order to respond properly to them.
There are challenges in life that we must enter into personally if we
are really going to engage them. They require us to invest ourselves in them
fully; otherwise, we end up fooling only ourselves.
Palm
Sunday is like that. Jesus Christ had to
enter into Jerusalem, being hailed as a conquering hero after raising Lazarus
from the dead, in order to fulfill His ministry as the true Passover Lamb Who
takes away the sins of the world. That
was the only way to make clear the radical difference between the anticipated earthly
king of the Jews and the One Who reigns from the Cross and a tomb that ultimately
cannot contain Him. The Savior did not
simply think about going from being celebrated as a righteous military leader to
being killed as a blasphemous traitor within the short space of a few days. He actually experienced it in order to set us
free from the fear of death and make us participants in His eternal life. He did so purely out of love for us. When He wept at the tomb of His friend Lazarus,
He was mourning for us all who are enslaved to the misery of corruption and
decay in all its forms. Christ’s love is not limited to a feeling or an idea,
for He literally laid down His life in order to restore us to the holy joy for
which He created us in the first place.
That
kind of love requires commitment, action, and self-sacrifice. The Lord offered Himself completely, without
reservation of any kind, to set right all that had marred and distorted our
original beauty as those created in God’s image and likeness. He rejected the temptation
to play to the desire of the crowds for a conventional ruler, and instead won
His great victory in the most shocking way possible through His own rejection,
death, burial, and resurrection. He
entered into it all in order to heal, bless, and save fallen humanity, indeed
the entire creation.
The
Savior had raised Lazarus from the dead, thus showing that He is the
resurrection and the life. Lazarus’ sister
Mary prophetically anointed Christ for burial, even as those who saw Him as a
threat to their power plotted to kill both Him and Lazarus. In contrast, the One Who offered Himself as
the true Passover Lamb sought no earthly power at all. Even as the crowds welcomed Him with shouts
of “Hosanna! Blessed is He Who comes in the Name of the Lord, the King of
Israel!” in hopes of liberation from Rome by a ruler like King David, this
Messiah rode into town on a humble donkey.
He is not a fearsome warrior, but the Prince of Peace.
Jesus
Christ entered Jerusalem not merely as a great human being, but as the Son of
God. Being fully aware of the rejection,
torture, and death that would come in the next few days, the eternal Word Who
spoke the universe into existence went into Jerusalem as a lamb led to the
slaughter. He knew exactly what He was
doing and what others would do to Him. Out
of love for us, He intentionally offered Himself as a ransom in order to set us
free from slavery to the fear of the death and all its malign effects.
Our Lord is not some kind of distant
god who delights in making others suffer.
He is not a typical political or national leader who wants only to build
up his own power and glory. He is not a
self-righteous legalist keeping score of who deserves punishment or a reward. Instead, He freely takes upon Himself the
worst and most painful dimensions of life in our world of corruption in humility
beyond our understanding. The same Son
of God Who wept at the tomb of His friend Lazarus will Himself lie in a tomb
and descend even to Hades in order to look for His ancient friends Adam and
Eve, lifting them up from the pit and bringing them to the blessedness for
which He made them in His image and likeness.
In doing so, He sets us all free from slavery to sin and death.
That is how Jesus Christ has enacted
our salvation, how He has accomplished it through His own flesh and blood. It is an understatement to say that His death
and resurrection required His personal participation. He gave Himself fully, without reservation of
any kind, in order to save us. And if we
want to know His salvation, if we want to know Him, that will require our
personal participation also.
Holy
Week invites us to participate personally in the deep mystery of the Savior’s
great victory on our behalf. Through the services of the Church, we participate
mystically in the triumphant entry of the Prince of Peace into Jerusalem, even
though He triumphs in a way that still makes no sense according to the
standards by which we usually live our lives.
This week we will prepare to receive the Bridegroom when He comes to
invite us into the joy of the Kingdom. We will receive His Body and Blood as He
institutes the Holy Eucharist on the night in which He was betrayed. We will follow Him as He is rejected, abused,
and crucified—as He dies, is buried, and descends to Hades. We will sing dirges at His tomb and then
stand in awe when that same tomb is empty and He arises in glory.
Holy
Week enacts truths so profound that merely describing them with words or
thoughts does not do them justice. In
order to enter into them, we must participate personally as whole, embodied
persons who bow down and worship His Passion.
That means changing our schedules and routines as much as humanly
possible in order to invest ourselves in the services of the Church. It means not taking our Lord’s great
Self-offering and victory over death for granted as an idea or a course of
events that we already understand. It
means investing ourselves in Him by turning from our usual excuses, obsessions,
and distractions to focus on “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever
is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious.” As St. Paul put it, “The Lord is at
hand.” So we should “have no anxiety
about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving
let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which passes all
understanding, will keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Now
is the time to lay aside our earthly cares as we make faithfulness to our
Savior the highest priority of our lives this week. He did not shrink from going to the Cross for
us, and we must not abandon Him by saying that we already know what happened
two thousand years ago or simply have better things to do. No, we must enter into the deep mystery of
our salvation by investing ourselves as fully as possible in the journey of our
Savior from the welcoming crowds of Sunday to those that yelled “Crucify Him!”
on Friday. We must kneel in humility at
the foot of the Cross and sing lamentations at His grave if we are to have the
eyes to behold the brilliant glory of a Savior Who rises in victory. This week is one of those times not to rely
on mere thoughts, feelings, or good intentions.
It is a time to act, to be committed, and to refuse to ignore the One
who conquers death and Hades for our salvation. It is a time to offer ourselves
to the Lord Who offered Himself for us purely out of love.
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