Philippians
4:4-9; John 12:1-18
The Desert Father
Saint Antony the Great once tested a group of monks by asking them, beginning
with the youngest, the meaning of a certain passage of Scripture. In response to their answers, he said, “You
have not understood it.” Finally, he
asked Abba Joseph, who said, “I do not know.”
Then Abba Antony said, “Indeed Abba Joseph has found the way, for he has
said: ‘I do not know.’”[1] As we celebrate our Lord’s
triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, we must resist the temptation to
think that we understand the full meaning of this extraordinary day that begins
the week in which the God-Man will enter into the dark and disorienting despair
of death and then rise gloriously in triumph. Before the Passion of the Lord, we must all
have the humility to say, “I do not know.”
We can certainly
all understand the crowds on Palm Sunday welcoming their anticipated liberator
from the oppressive rule of foreigners as they cheered, “Hosanna! Blessed is He
Who comes in the Name of the Lord, the King of Israel!” Throughout His earthly ministry, the Savior
faced and rejected the temptation to become an earthly ruler out to take
vengeance on His enemies. When, by the end of the week, it had become clear
that He was not going to settle the score with the Romans, the crowds called so
boisterously for His death that even Pilate, the Roman governor, went along
with their desires. In tragic irony, it
was in the aftermath of the Lord’s raising of Lazarus from the dead after four
days, by which He showed that He is “the resurrection and the life,” that the
chief priests and Pharisees decided that they had to destroy Him. “Crucify Him!
Crucify Him!” they said cynically to Pilate, for “We have no king but
Caesar!”
Every generation
includes some so obsessed with dominating others that they recognize no truth
beyond whatever serves their lust for power.
Perhaps we are not shocked by villains who take the lives of those who
oppose them, but it is more difficult to accept how the Savior’s own disciples
betrayed, denied, and abandoned Him. As
their rabbi and friend, He withheld nothing from them, explaining the parables
and performing many miracles in their presence.
He served them in humility, stooping down to wash their feet and
patiently teaching them by word and deed.
But they too abandoned their Lord when they saw that, instead of conquering
the Romans, He would be killed by them.
Were Jesus Christ
merely a religious teacher of good character, His public torture and execution
after being betrayed, denied, and abandoned by those closest to Him would be terribly
tragic, but life is full of such tragedies.
Since He is the Eternal Word of God Who spoke the universe into
existence, however, His Passion is simply incomprehensible. The Lord Who said that His Name is “I AM”
when He spoke to Moses through the burning bush “emptied Himself, taking the
form of a servant…He humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death,
even death on a cross.” (Phil. 2:7-8) Who
can claim to understand such mystery? The
only begotten Son of the Father offered Himself in free obedience on the Cross,
the Tree of Life, to disappear into the pit, the opaque abyss of death, as
fully as any other human who has departed this life. His cry from the Cross, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” shows that
He experienced the depths of human helplessness and horror. He felt as alienated and abandoned as any
victim of sadistic abuse, as anyone rejected and abandoned by those He loved
most, as anyone struggling to breathe His last in the midst of unbearable
physical and psychological pain.
Our Savior experienced all of that as the
God-Man. In ways that we must not
imagine that we can even begin to comprehend, the fully divine Son of God
suffered, died, was buried, and descended into Hades, the shadowy place of the
dead. Only One Who is truly human could do
that. Since He is also fully divine, we dare
to confess the unfathomable mystery of a Person of the Holy Trinity freely
experiencing the negation, weakness, despair, abandonment, and suffering that
is our common lot in this world of corruption.
Our Savior, the God-Man Jesus Christ, is the Lamb of God Who takes away
the sin of the world. He is the Lord Who
reigns from the Cross. His death does
not change the eternal nature of God but manifests divine sacrificial love
beyond all human understanding. “For God
so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have
everlasting life." (John 3:16) The Son does not pay a ransom or debt to
appease the Father’s anger or sense of justice but freely offers up Himself to
the Holy Trinity (including Himself) out of love for the salvation of the
world. His sacrifice is not that of a
mere human satisfying a religious or legal obligation, but of the God-Man who
walks with us “through the valley of the shadow of death.” Because of His Cross, we know He is with us when
we cry, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” Because
His suffering love extends even into the darkest corners of the loss and
despair suffered by even the most wretched of His children, we may say with the
Psalmist, “If I should descend into Hades, You would be there.” (Ps.
138:8)
Today we commemorate the triumphal entry into
Jerusalem of the Savior Who emptied Himself in sacrificial love for our
salvation beyond all human comprehension.
Even as we entrust ourselves to Him, we must have the humility to say “I
do not know” in recognition that the deep mystery of His Passion is infinitely
beyond our understanding. He does not conquer the corrupting power of sin and
death with brute force, but by selfless love that knows no bounds and extends
even to those who betrayed, denied, abandoned, tortured, and crucified Him. And He does so as One Who is fully human and
fully divine. He reveals Who God is, for He is God. The divine nature is completely beyond our
comprehension, but the God-Man has graciously shared His life of infinite love
with us. We know Him not by even the
best words, thoughts, or feelings, but by opening the eyes of our souls to
behold His glory, the glory of One Who died on the Cross because He loves us
and refused to abandon us to the corruption and decay of the tomb.
Holy Week is a
time for entering personally into the deep mystery of the love of our Lord, of
the great “I AM” Who remains infinitely beyond our full comprehension. Today He rides into Jerusalem on a humble
donkey as the crowds welcome Him as a conquering hero. But they do not really know what they are
doing or what kind of Savior He is. As
we begin this Holy Week, let us have the humility to recognize that we are not that
different from them. We too tend to reject
or at least ignore Christ when His Cross does not serve our agendas and
preferences. We too have our
preconceived notions about what kind of Savior we want and what earthly goals
we want Him to accomplish. We too cannot
make sense of a Lord Whose Kingdom comes through what appears to be complete
and shameful failure according to any conventional standard.
That is precisely
why we need to pray and fast in stunned silence this week as we follow the Lamb
of God to His great Self-Offering for the salvation of the world. Let us resist the temptation to assume that
we have His Passion all figured out.
Instead, like Abba Joseph, we should say, “I do not know” before the
deep mystery of His unfathomable love. Let
us lay aside our earthly cares and refuse to be distracted this week from
anything that would keep us from following the advice of St. Paul: “The Lord is
at hand. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication
with thanksgiving let your petitions be made known to God. And the peace of
God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds
in Christ Jesus.”
[1] St. Antony the Great, as cited in The
Sayings of the Desert Fathers, Benedicta Ward, trans., (Cistercian Publications,
1975): pg. 4, para. 17.
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