Year C Palm/Passion Sunday Luke 23: 1-49

Then the disciples brought the young colt to Jesus; and after throwing their cloaks on the colt, they set Jesus on it. As he rode along, people kept spreading their cloaks on the road.

We have arrived! We stand at the beginning of the journey. This is the Sunday that we as children anticipated because we were given palms to take home. Such fun to be given a gift at church, and our happy hearts echoed the cheerful hymns we had sung that morning.

As he was now approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power that they had seen, saying, "Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!"

And this is Palm Sunday as some of us remember it. For many centuries, and in many denominations up until 1959, the Church differentiated between Passion Sunday and Palm Sunday - sorrowing on Passion Sunday (Lent V) while rejoicing on Palm Sunday (Lent VI). But now on one Sunday, Lent VI, we start with celebration, only to end at the foot of the cross. The week that lies ahead is the time on which we travel the sorrowful route Jesus’ life takes from His triumphal entry into Jerusalem to His crucifixion. We call this Holy Week.

Holy Week is always God’s Time and God’s Holy Drama which we, if we are to live as we are called to live as Jesus’ followers, must form the core of our very being. That which we do this year, and every year is indeed the most important walk we will ever take. It is the walk that we must undertake first for ourselves and then for the world that is Christ’s - still longing to be held more lovingly and creatively in human hands.

Holy Week is about us deciding where we must stand along the road. This is also the week where we must recognize that we are as disappointing as Peter and as truly guilty as Barabbas. We are believers crying out for only half an answer. We are disciples fearful of living out so high a cost. We are the religious ones who will not hear. We are the armies that march for no “God” reason. We are Pilate all too willing to leave people condemned to die.

From the moment of our Baptism it has been God in Christ Jesus Who lives within us. And God is always now: the Eternal Word – the Moment unfolding - Time known not as hourglass or earth rotation – not as rise of rivers or collapse of buildings – but Time in relationship with the One Who IS. And God is always Now.

God, in Christ Jesus, is the One who covered death with shame and cast the devil into mourning; the One who smote sin and robbed iniquity of offspring; and the One who brought us out of slavery into freedom, out of darkness into light, out of death into life, out of tyranny into a …new priesthood, a people chosen to be God’s own forever.

Christ Jesus is the Passover that is our salvation. In Abel he was slain, in Isaac bound, in Jacob exiled, in Joseph sold, in Moses exposed to die. He was sacrificed in the Passover lamb, persecuted in David, dishonored in the prophets. It is He who was made man in the Virgin, He who was hung on a tree. On the tree no bone of his was broken; in the earth his body knew no decay. He is the One who rose from the dead, who raised humankind from the depths of the tomb. (with apologies to Melito of Sardis).

And the One who emptied himself is Lord – Jesus Christ is Lord. In every time and every place – Jesus Christ IS. JESUS IS - in the Baptized - in Communion - in the Forgiveness that restores us – in the Anointing that heals and brings us home. As Christ IS and so we must Be. If Jesus’ life is not our Life in whom do we live? If not of Christ – whose are we? Must we always deny that we know Him or build the system that will kill Him? Must we always leave Jesus hungry or homeless? Must we always let Jesus die alone? Can we at least keep the evening watch? Can we learn to pray? Can we be forgiveness? Can we walk the Way and mode LIFE? We are the Baptized. We must – it is our calling.

Today is Palm Sunday – a day that is about so much more than waving palm branches and singing happy hosannas. It is a day about so much more than looking back and remembering the horror of Jesus’ arrest, trial, conviction, and execution. Today is the Now which is Eternal – and we must choose.

Be not afraid, I go before you always, come, follow Me, and I will give you rest.

It is a day on which we might pause to think about how Jesus washed His disciples feet and how He told Peter, “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.” We have been washed in the water of Baptism – saved by the Blood of the Lamb.

Today it begins. He who was and is and is to come – calls us to the Passion that is Life. Christ is with us. And so we come. We bless the palms. The Passion and the Life continue…until Christ shall come. Come Lord Jesus and dwell in our hearts. Come Lord Jesus, come.

Let us pray:

Lord we are not worthy that You should enter under our roof, but only speak the word and our souls will be healed. Amen.