Eucahristic Gospel Reading for Palm Sunday: Year A
“Jesus replied, “The one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with me will betray me.” (Matthew 26:23)
What a shift from four days ago. As Jesus entered Jerusalem four days ago people were hailing him King of kings and Lord of lords. And now, at one of Christianity’s most important sacraments, Holy Communion, at the table, our Lord Jesus says, “The one who has dipped his hand into the bowl with me will betray me.” And Judas will do this dirty deed with a kiss later after supper and after our Lord Jesus attends prayer three times.
We truly are a fickle people. Too many of us tend to go the way of the loudest rhetoric. There is not enough personal thinking and praying happening in our individual lives. Again, I go back to Blaise Pascal’s quote, “All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” Judas’s hand went to a place that his heart should not have led him.
All of us have the personal responsibility for how we go forward. Most of the time in the Bible, when a crowd makes a decision, it’s the wrong decision. I have a poster of an old monk walking alone down a road and the caption at the bottom, by Diane Grant, reads, “It is better to walk alone, than with a crowd going in the wrong direction”. We each should carefully think about each next step we take. Be hesitant about loud rhetoric. Listen for the Spirit of God, and celebrate the coming of the King of Kings and Lord of lords, continuously.
Today is Palm Sunday (Celebratory); and Passion Sunday (Grief). Should we be both? Perhaps, but let us not move from celebration to betrayal. Rather, let us celebrate the love of Christ but also remember the sadness of our sins.
The philosopher John Mills said “people seek pleasure in the absence of pain.” We naturally want to be celebratory. But situations for grief happens. Death, particularly unexpected death will cause us grief. None of us should live in such a way as to intentionally cause grief for others, especially the death of another except in cases of self-defense. Let us seek pleasure but understand that unpleasantness happens from time to time.
What happened to our Lord Jesus was the result of us going down the road in the wrong direction. Even if His arrest and crucifixion was a divine plan, as many theologians believe, as a thinking and compassionate and loving people, we should make it very clear to God that the death of His Son is not what we want. We want love, and we want it for all people
As we listen to what the Spirit of God is saying to us, let us live to love and to serve, and to teach others to love and to serve, while pondering anew what the Almighty can do. John
Let us pray: Sunday of the Passion: Palm Sunday (BCP p. 219)
Almighty and everliving God, in your tender love for the human race you sent your Son our Savior Jesus Christ to take upon him our nature, and to suffer death upon the cross, giving us the example of his great humility: Mercifully grant that we may walk in the way of his suffering, and also share in his resurrection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
onewhoponders 