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 not assume 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 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 rejected
the temptation to become an earthly ruler taking 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 to destroy Him. “Crucify
Him! Crucify Him!” they said cynically to
Pilate, for “We have no king but Caesar!”
Every generation
includes some religious and political leaders so overcome with lust for power
that the truth becomes irrelevant to them.
As Pilate infamously said to the Savior, “What is truth?” (Jn. 18:38) It is not surprising when such
people have blood on their hands, 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 “I AM” Who 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 possibly 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 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 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 weakness, despair, and suffering that are 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 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 beyond all
human comprehension. Even as we entrust
ourselves to Him, we must have the humility to say, “I do not know,” for 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 most pious 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 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
much different from them. We too have
our preconceived notions about what kind of Savior we want and what earthly
goals we want Him to accomplish. We too deny
or at least ignore Christ when His Cross does not serve our desires and
preferences.
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 never assume that we have His Passion
all figured out. Instead, like Abba
Joseph, we must 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.
