Most of us know that when we come to church today and Good Friday, we will hear a passion narrative. It’s going to be a long reading, probably divided into three speaking parts. On other Sundays we hear shorter episodes (“pericopes”) from the Gospels, but not these two days. From the earliest times passion accounts were a continuous narrative, not broken into smaller segments. The Lectionary offers a shorter option of the Luke passion today, but why chop up what traditionally has been an integral reading? If Luke thought a short passion would serve his purposes he would have written one. With well-prepared readers the story will be quite compelling, especially since we don’t hear the passion at other times and, I dare say, we Bible readers probably don’t usually choose it for devotional reading.
Churches will be crowded today: palms will be distributed and blessed and then there will be the procession down the main aisle to the altar. But we are not merely replaying an event from Jesus’ past, are we? We can’t pretend we don’t know what lies ahead for him, how he will die and then rise from the dead. Rather, we have already heard the good news and have been celebrating its effects on our lives again during this liturgical year. Through this week we will continue to do so. So, today we join with other believers throughout the world and across the centuries in a celebration of joy.
In Luke’s Gospel, Christ has been leading the way to Jerusalem where he will conquer, not through the use of force and weaponry, as many in the crowd who saw him enter Jerusalem hoped, but through the cross that he will willingly take up.
While the gospel reading is long today, a brief homily is still in order. We might focus on the Lucan passage which introduces today’s procession with palms (19:28-40). The narrative of Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem is rich with biblical allusions reminiscent of the old Testament’s messianic expectations and the royal enthronement narratives. Thus, for example, the people spread their cloaks at Jesus’ feet as did Jehu’s supporters in the ninth century (2 Kgs 9:13). King David ordered that his son Solomon, his heir to the throne, be mounted on David’s mule (I Kings 1:33). The little donkey, not a warhorse, is an animal of peace and would signal the coming of the gentle Messiah among his people (Gen 49:11). Jesus is the first to sit on this animal, he is “enthroned” as he enters the holy city to complete the message he has been preaching of a new kingdom under the reign of God.
The long-awaited king is approaching the city to enter into his reign. The exuberance of the “whole multitude of his disciples” will be quelled by forthcoming events. The king will be nailed to a cross. Tension has followed Jesus to this point and it will only intensify. The crowds come out to meet him, as we will do when he returns at the end time (“parousia”). The narrative of this week will have its tragic events, but will end in Christ’s peaceful surrender, “Father, into your hands, I commend my spirit” (23:46). On the cross over Jesus’ head is the inscription, “This is the King of the Jews” — meant to be ironic, but it is a deeper truth perceived by those who have the eyes of faith.
As Jesus comes within the sight of Jerusalem he pauses on the Mount of Olives and laments over the city (19:41 ff). From that vantage point he would have seen the city and the Temple doors to the holy of holies facing him. There is a sense of urgency as he approaches the city. Luke’s “journey narrative” (it began at 9:51) reveals Jesus’ determination to go to Jerusalem. But the emphasis isn’t just about his getting to the city; instead he goes straight to his intended destination, the Temple. One of Luke’s themes throughout the gospel has been prayer. A manifestation of this theme is that his gospel began in the Temple and ends there. After his resurrection Jesus appears to his disciples and tells them to remain in the city until he sends them the Spirit. He ascends to heaven and, Luke tells us, the disciples were “to be found in the Temple constantly speaking praises of God” — and there in the Temple, where it began, the gospel ends (24:53).
It is easy to focus on the fickle nature of the people who rush out to greet Jesus and the fever pitch and false expectations of his disciples. One minute they are cheering him, the next they are calling for his death or, in the case of his disciples, abandoning him. For the preacher, I think, that’s too facile an approach. It has also been preached more than once!
These were desperate people whose history was one of enslavement and whose land was once again overrun by a cruel world power. Of course they want God to send them someone to drive the enemy out and restore them to freedom in the land God had given them. Wasn’t that also what God wanted for them? Jesus’ descent from the Mount of Olives and his high-spirited disciples shouting, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord. Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” certainly must have struck at least a tiny spark of hope in the gathered crowds. Could this Galilean with his ragtag followers finally be God’s answers to their generations of prayers? Could this, the “king who comes in the Lord’s name” be the one to re-establish the kingdom of David? They may have thought that for a moment, but with Jesus’ death these hopes were quelled.
The people were soon to be disappointed. God had not sent a military savior to conquer by force. Instead, Paul tells us today, “though he was in the form of God,… he emptied himself taking the form of a slave.” What kind of show of power is that anyway! Instead of a triumphant manifestation of kingly might we have one sent from God who offers himself for us.
When — the poor hear the good news; those held captive are set free; the blind finally see God’s presence in the world — in other words, when we experience the “year of favor” Christ promised in the synagogue (4:16-21), then we too will be able to offer ourselves for the sake of others, just as Christ. What he did for us this week will complete the work he promised to do for those hearers in the synagogue.
As previously stated: we are doing more than looking back to Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross. Again this week we hear proclaimed the good news of Jesus’ saving work and, renewed by the gospel, we are able to make again our commitment to follow Jesus’ way of the cross in service to others.