Passion Sunday or Palm Sunday, Mass Year B 2024
Holy Week • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 1 viewThe contrasts in this chapter show divine sovereignty, the inability of humans to control outcomes, and the strengths and foibles of disciples in the midst of a situation they do not fully undersatnd.
Notes
Transcript
Title
Title
Blessed Be He Who Comes in the Name of the Lord
Outline
Outline
Look at the contrasts in the texts today
Look at the contrasts in the texts today
In the procession we read about Jesus’ entering into Jerusalem on a donkey and being acclaimed as Son of David. The point is not that a donkey is humble transport, but that Simeon, the first Maccabean king, used one to come into Jerusalem to be acclaimed king after he had liberated the city and defeated the enemy. Jesus does this accepting the acclamation but knowing that the final battle is ahead and it will not be fought with sword or spear or charging cavalry.
The chief priests and Pharisaic scribes are planning to put Jesus to death, but their plot and Judas’ betrayal for money bracket the woman who comes to the house of Simon the leper and pours spikenard on Jesus’ head, all of it, for the alabaster jar is broken. This may well have been her dowry, given to husband at marriage. She gives it all to Jesus and Jesus, accepting it, views it as an anointing for burial, a prophetic action the woman herself likely did not fully grasp, yet acts as if his death is at hand. She gives her dowry to a husband about to die, but the chief priests have plotted “not on the feast.”
The two disciples are sent to find by signs a prepared room. While this may have been pre-arranged, it clearly was planned by Jesus so that his presence would not be discovered. Perhaps the disciple who owns the large house prepared the room not knowing for whom he was doing it. But at a word from “The Teacher” he is ready to turn it over to Jesus’ motley crew.
Jesus reclines at Passover which celebrated liberation knowing (1) that a disciple would betray him, (2) that the betrayal and death would be “as it is written of him” and that (3) he was the new Passover whom they would eat, as we see in the words of institution. [Indeed, the Passover animal was eaten with unleavened bread, but its blood was not drunk, of course, yet it was used to mark the house of those protected.]
Peter is the one who protested “Even thought I should have to die with you, I will not deny you.” Yet he is the one Jesus rebukes for falling asleep and he is the one who denies Jesus. Notice there are three times they fall asleep parallel to the three denials. Still, the gospel of Mark is his gospel written through his interpreter Mark, so all know he ends up a leader.
Judas kisses Jesus as a friend in betraying him, and a young man present flees, leaving his linen clothing in the hands of those trying to arrest him. A linen garment was the garment of a priest, but more importantly, Jesus is wrapped in a linen cloth for burial.
While the Council condemns Jesus and mock him on the cross, Joseph of Arimathea “a distinguished member of the Council” buries him honorably. The man who confesses Jesus publicly is the centurion who led the execution squad - and what a confession that was. And while the disciples fled, it is women disciples who are present at the crucifixion and at the burial. (Their standing at a distance was probably for safety, for they were in a vulnerable position.)
Sisters, man proposed but God disposes
Sisters, man proposed but God disposes
It is he, not human beings, who sets up the timetable.
It is he who reveals what is in the heart of men and women, both good and bad.
It is he who has a woman in a grand gesture of faith anoint her bridegroom for burial.
It is he who as the Son of Man, the true Son of the one Father crucified, while Barabbas, whose name means “son of a/the father” and who was an insurrectionist, released.
It is he who has the chief priests and Pharisaic scribes fulfill the scriptures that they did not understand.
It is he who turns Pilate, the symbol of Roman sovereignty, into a pawn trying to pacify a roaring crowd.
It was he who arranged for a Roman soldier to make the great confession at faith in the end of the gospel.
In all things God is in control working out the plan of salvation and fulfilling the scriptures that he inspired and in each person involved working in love for their good.
And this is the God that is still in control, working out his plan in your lives, in our lives, and who is looking for us to lay our all in at the disposal of Jesus as so many characters in this story would or did.