Palm Sunday

 

March 24, 2024

 

Mark15.1-39

 

+  Thiscoming week is, of course, Holy Week.

 

As this Holy Week begins, I find myselfa bit emotional. 

 

Yes, I know.

 

To have toemotionally face all that Holy Week commemorates is not something I can say Ilook forward to.

 

I think it isemotionally difficult for all of us who call ourselves followers of Jesus.

 

How can it not, afterall?

 

We, as followers ofJesus, as people who balance our lives on his life and teachings and guidance,are emotionally tied to this man.

 

This Jesus is notjust mythical character to us.

 

He is a friend, amentor, a very vital and essential part of our lives as Christians. He is truly“the Messiah, the son of the BlessedOne,” that we heard in our Gospel reading for today.

 

So, to have to gothrough the emotional rollercoaster of this coming week in which he goesthrough his own death throes is hard on us.

 

 And today, we get the whole rollercoaster inour liturgy and in our two Gospel readings.

 

Here we find amicrocosm of the roller coaster ride of what is to come this week.

 

What begins thismorning as joyful ends with jeers.

 

This day begins withus, his followers, singing our praises to Jesus, waving palm branches invictory.

 

He is, at thebeginning of this week, popular and accepted.

 F

or this moment,everyone seems to love him.

 

But then…withinmoments, a darkness falls.

 

Something terribleand horrible goes wrong.

 

What begin with raysof sunshine, ends in gathering dark storm clouds.

 

Those joyful,exuberant shouts turn into cries of anger and accusation.

 

Those who welcomedJesus into Jerusalem have fled.

 

They have simplydisappeared from sight.

 

And in their place anangry crowd shouts and demands the death of Jesus.

 

Even his followers,those who almost arrogantly proclaimed themselves followers of Jesus, havedisappeared.

 

Their arrogance hasturned to embarrassment and shame.

 

Jesus, whom weencounter at the beginning of this liturgy this morning surrounded by crowds ofcheering, joyful people, is by the end of it, alone, abandoned,deserted—shunned.

 

Everyone heconsidered a friend—everyone he would have trusted—has left him.

 

And in his aloneness,he knows how they feel about him.

 

He knows that he isan embarrassment to them.

 

He knows that, intheir eyes, he is a failure.

 

See, now, why I amnot looking forward to this week?

 

But, we have toremind ourselves that what we encounter in the life of Jesus is not just aboutJesus.

 

It is about us too.

 

We, in our own lives,have been to these dark places—these places wherein we have felt betrayed andabandoned and deserted, where we too have reached out and touched thefeathertip of the angel of death, so to speak.

 

We have all known whatit is like to have our joy turned into sorrow.

 

We too have hadmoments when our successes turn to ashes and are forgotten.

 

We too know what itis like to have our failures come back to haunt us.

 

It is a hard place tobe.

 

And it is one that,if we had a choice, we would not willingly journey toward.

 

But this week is morethan dealing with darkness and despair.

 

It is a clearreminder to us that, yes, we like Jesus must journey roads we might not want tojourney, but the darkness, the despair, death itself is not the end of thestory.

 

Palm Sunday is notthe end of the story.

 

Maundy Thursday andGood Friday and Holy Saturday are not the end of the story.

 

What this week showsus is that God prevails over all the dark and terrible things of this life.

 

And that God turnsthose things around again and again.

 

God always raises usup from the ashes!

 

That is what we seein Jesus’ betrayal and death.

 

What seems likefailure, is the actually victory.

 

What seems like loss,is actually gain.

 

What seems likedeath, is actually life unending.

 

Now, in this moment,we might be downcast.

 

In this moment, wemight be mourning and sad.

 

But, next Sunday atthis time, we will be rejoicing.

 

Next Sunday, we willbe rejoicing with all the choirs of angels and archangels who sing theirunending hymns of praise.

 

We will be rejoicingin the fact that all the humiliation experienced this week has turned to joy,all desertion has turned to rewarding and wonderful friendship, all sadness togladness, and death—horrible, ugly death—will be turned to full, complete andunending joy and life.

 

That is how Godworks.

 

And that is what wewill be rejoicing in next week.

 

So, as we journeythrough the dark half of our liturgy today, as we trek alongside Jesus duringthis Holy Week of betrayal, torture and death, let us keep our eyes focused onthe Light that is about to dawn in the darkness of our lives.

 

Let us move forwardtoward that Light.

 

Even though theremight be sadness on our faces now, let the joy in our hearts prompt us forwardalong the path we dread to take.

 

And, next week atthis time, we will be basking in that incredible Easter Light—a Light that triumphs over the darkness of notonly Jesus’ death, but ours as well.

 

Amen.