Palm Sunday
Gospel – Matthew 27:11-54
Jesus stood before the governor, Pontius Pilate, who questioned him,
“Are you the king of the Jews?”
Jesus said, “You say so.”
And when he was accused by the chief priests and elders,
he made no answer.
Then Pilate said to him,
“Do you not hear how many things they are testifying against you?”
But he did not answer him one word,
so that the governor was greatly amazed.
Now on the occasion of the feast
the governor was accustomed to release to the crowd
one prisoner whom they wished.
And at that time they had a notorious prisoner called Barabbas.
So when they had assembled, Pilate said to them,
“Which one do you want me to release to you,
Barabbas, or Jesus called Christ?”
For he knew that it was out of envy
that they had handed him over.
While he was still seated on the bench,
his wife sent him a message,
“Have nothing to do with that righteous man.
I suffered much in a dream today because of him.”
The chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowds
to ask for Barabbas but to destroy Jesus.
The governor said to them in reply,
“Which of the two do you want me to release to you?”
They answered, “Barabbas!”
Pilate said to them,
“Then what shall I do with Jesus called Christ?”
They all said,
“Let him be crucified!”
But he said,
“Why? What evil has he done?”
They only shouted the louder,
“Let him be crucified!”
When Pilate saw that he was not succeeding at all,
but that a riot was breaking out instead,
he took water and washed his hands in the sight of the crowd,
saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood.
Look to it yourselves.”
And the whole people said in reply,
“His blood be upon us and upon our children.”
Then he released Barabbas to them,
but after he had Jesus scourged,
he handed him over to be crucified.
Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus inside the praetorium
and gathered the whole cohort around him.
They stripped off his clothes
and threw a scarlet military cloak about him.
Weaving a crown out of thorns, they placed it on his head,
and a reed in his right hand.
And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying,
“Hail, King of the Jews!”
They spat upon him and took the reed
and kept striking him on the head.
And when they had mocked him,
they stripped him of the cloak,
dressed him in his own clothes,
and led him off to crucify him.
As they were going out, they met a Cyrenian named Simon;
this man they pressed into service
to carry his cross.
And when they came to a place called Golgotha
— which means Place of the Skull —,
they gave Jesus wine to drink mixed with gall.
But when he had tasted it, he refused to drink.
After they had crucified him,
they divided his garments by casting lots;
then they sat down and kept watch over him there.
And they placed over his head the written charge against him:
This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.
Two revolutionaries were crucified with him,
one on his right and the other on his left.
Those passing by reviled him, shaking their heads and saying,
“You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days,
save yourself, if you are the Son of God,
and come down from the cross!”
Likewise the chief priests with the scribes and elders mocked him and said,
“He saved others; he cannot save himself.
So he is the king of Israel!
Let him come down from the cross now,
and we will believe in him.
He trusted in God;
let him deliver him now if he wants him.
For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’”
The revolutionaries who were crucified with him
also kept abusing him in the same way.
From noon onward, darkness came over the whole land
until three in the afternoon.
And about three o’clock Jesus cried out in a loud voice,
“Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?”
which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
Some of the bystanders who heard it said,
“This one is calling for Elijah.”
Immediately one of them ran to get a sponge;
he soaked it in wine, and putting it on a reed,
gave it to him to drink.
But the rest said,
‘Wait, let us see if Elijah comes to save him.”
But Jesus cried out again in a loud voice,
and gave up his spirit.
And behold, the veil of the sanctuary
was torn in two from top to bottom.
The earth quaked, rocks were split, tombs were opened,
and the bodies of many saints who had fallen asleep were raised.
And coming forth from their tombs after his resurrection,
they entered the holy city and appeared to many.
The centurion and the men with him who were keeping watch over Jesus
feared greatly when they saw the earthquake
and all that was happening, and they said,
“Truly, this was the Son of God!”
Reflection on Sunday Gospel
Let us remember we are in the holy presence of God…
Holy Week begins and we find Jesus processing into Jerusalem astride a young donkey surrounded by his disciples and a large crowd, willing on this one occasion to be honored as king. Jesus knew what he was doing when he orchestrated this not so subtle confrontation with the Jewish authorities. Jerusalem was always tense during Passover when crowds filled the streets – a situation strictly controlled by the Roman authorities who meted out harsh punishments to those who might disrupt the Pax Romana. Undeterred, however, Jesus went ahead with this moment of human glory. The people who had come to believe in him as well as the curious and passersby praised him in song and strew palm branches on the path before him. Undoubtedly, there were many hoping that the time had arrived for his earthly kingship to begin, and they wanted to be part of whatever good would come of that – hoping for much but expecting little as experience and history had always shown. Although exhilarating for both Jesus and the crowd, Jesus knew that his kingship would take a very different form. My kingdom is not of this world.
The road to Jesus’ true coronation was not the beautiful, ornate celebration of an earthly king but the road of suffering, desolation and abandonment and an excruciating death on a cross. Jesus had to struggle to say yes to the Father’s will; he agonized as we all do in the midst of great trials in order to live up to what his deepest values dictated. He had to steel himself for the ordeal that lay ahead: his body scourged, head wrapped in thorns, face slapped and spit on, humiliated. Then finally, naked, exposed to the gaze of all, nailed to a cross to die the slow death of suffocation, his spirit beaten and desolate, abandoned by nearly all of his followers and seemingly by God as well – My God, my God why have you abandoned me? Then in faith the final emptying of his life into the Father’s care…. and the ultimate vindication – he is raised from the dead.
As you enter into this most sacred week of the liturgical year, allow yourself time to ponder the great mystery that is the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. Let the words of Isaiah come to mind as you hold this mystery in your heart: For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so high are my ways about your ways and my thoughts above your thoughts.(55:8-9) And as Paul says in 1st Corinthians speaking of the folly of the cross: For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.(1:25) Let the profound reality that God became one of us and was willing to take the road of suffering and death, the road that we all have to take, seep into your heart. Allow yourself to be overwhelmed by the immense love God has for you and for each one of us.
St. John Baptist de La Salle … Pray for Us!
Live Jesus in our Hearts … Forever!
Brother Leo Smith, FSC