The Only Road

[Tomswife]

Today is Palm Sunday. In the past my Tom and I would have gone to Church and listened to the long reading of the Passion of Jesus Christ. The congregation is given the role of the mob. "Crucify him". We all say, in not very convincing voices.

Today it is windy and cold. We are stuck here captive of ALS. I am sick today I suppose from too much stress, so we cannot go to church. But our deacon came yesterday with a single palm frond and prayed with us.

No matter what road we take. We bring ALS along with us. I have wondered if we can ditch ALS on the side of the road. Just toss it away like filthy litter. But ALS is with us. And we pray each day, Jesus be with us. Abide with us.

a reflection....

"Conquering kings and Roman generals marched into vanquished cities astride white stallions, trumpets blaring and banners waving. This was real power. Matthew instead fulfills prophecies from Isaiah and Zechariah that depict God’s servant coming in lowly estate, welcomed by the poor waving branches and spreading their cloaks on the road before him. These prophecies mocked imperial pretensions to real authority, which comes from God alone.

In yet another twist of this parody, Matthew subverts the crowd’s show of support for Jesus by contrasting it with the howling mob that just days later will reject him as messiah and call for his crucifixion.

With our own Palm Sunday, we begin with a ride on a donkey and then a roller coaster of high expectation and sudden collapse as Jesus’ ministry comes to an appalling end on Golgotha. The man on the donkey pays the ultimate price for his insolence and presumption. Son of God, indeed.

Indeed. Believers who re-enact Palm Sunday know that the story was written backwards in the light of the Resurrection. If Jesus is not risen from the dead, there is no story to tell, no Good News. So, our procession with palms and our participation in the reading of Matthew’s long Passion account today is a walk in faith, step by step, deeper and deeper into our own commitment to share in the mystery of the cross in order to know the meaning of the resurrection.

The Passion we read today is rich in details, beginning with Jesus’ agony in the garden, his betrayal by Judas, the flight of the disciples and the triple denial of Peter. Condemned by the Sanhedrin, Jesus is sent to Pilate, who fears being reported in Rome for freeing a rival to the emperor and trades “king” Jesus for Barabbas, a revolutionary, and sends Jesus to be flogged, mocked and crucified.

During a nightmare of reversals and broken dreams, only the women remain faithful, and they alone keep watch during the silent interval after Jesus’ death and rushed burial. From their dark night will rise up the first glimpse of faith on Easter morning. Even then, the 11 remaining Apostles, in hiding, will be slow to understand what has happened.

Palm/Passion Sunday is unique in that all of us assembled to mark the start of Holy Week will be invited to share in the dramatic reading of the Passion. As participants, we are challenged to cross the threshold of faith to accept the pattern of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection in our lives. Only by uniting ourselves, mind, heart, soul and strength with Jesus, will we begin to be true disciples. The memory of Jesus’ Passion is a living call to follow him in our own time, whatever the cost.

We commemorate the Passion of Jesus in order to take up his redemptive mission in our own time and place. He revealed God’s way of drawing history toward the Beloved Community of justice and love. This is how we will enter into that difficult process, but it is the only road to Easter."
Pat Marrin. Ncr dot org

 

[Tomswife]

I believe that the suffering of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane was so severe, horrific and debilitating, because that is the moment when he accepted and internalized all of the sins of mankind through the ages. When we reflect on the suffering of Jesus this is why it is called - the agony. His agony was not because he saw the cross. His agony was because he understood and accepted the mantle of our sins from the first Garden to this Garden to the apocalypse. Jesus is always all about us, for us, with us.


"So much bad, manipulative, guilt-inducing theology has been based on it that it’s fair to wonder whether there is any hope of starting afresh. I believe wisdom does open up that possibility. The key lies in … reading Jesus’s life as a sacrament: a sacred mystery whose real purpose is not to arouse empathy but to create empowerment. In other words, Jesus is not particularly interested in increasing either your guilt or your devotion, but rather, in deepening your personal capacity to make the passage into unitive life….

[Jesus] certainly lived in a very intense way the ordeals of betrayal, abandonment, homelessness, and death. Did it have to be like that? If he were indeed here on a divine mission, it would seem that he could have been given an easier career path: chief priest, political leader, the Messiah that people expected him to be…. But none of these opportunities materialized. Why not? Because the path he did walk is precisely the one that would most fully unleash the transformative power of his teaching. It both modeled and consecrated the eye of the needle [DM team: or the belly of the whale] that each one of us must personally pass through in order to accomplish the “one thing necessary” here, according to his teaching: to die to self. I am not talking about literal crucifixion, of course, but I am talking about the literal laying down of our “life,” at least as we usually recognize it. Our only truly essential human task here, Jesus teaches, is to grow beyond the survival instincts of the animal brain and egoic operating system into the kenotic joy and generosity of full human personhood. His mission was to show us how to do this. "
Source: Center for action and contemplation.

 

[wmilo]

Thanks, Tomswife. The Atonement - Jesus taking on humanity's sin while sacrificing himself on our behalf, so that we can be reconciled to God by faith in Jesus - should rank as the most important event in human history.

What follows our submission of faith, your quotation describes as "Our only truly essential human task here...to grow beyond the survival instincts of the animal brain and egoic operating system into the kenotic joy and generosity of full human personhood."
Growth is a good metaphor for a condition which results from a daily struggle to resist our flesh and instead to live by the Spirit. I think Paul describes this very well in Romans 12:

1Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

3For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. 4For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your a faith; 7if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; 8if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, b do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully.

9Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. 11Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 12Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 13Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.

14Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 15Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. 16Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. c Do not be conceited.

17Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. 18If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 19Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” d says the Lord. 20On the contrary:

“If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” e

21Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

I would only add that we can't do this in our own power. We need the power of the Holy Spirit.

 

[Tomswife]

Amen.