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April 9, 2006, Palm Sunday, All Souls' Episcopal Church    

Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. 

    In traditional Catholic and Prayer Book Anglican parishes like All Souls’, last Sunday was known as Passion Sunday. It marked the beginning of the two week period known as Passiontide. The liturgical color changes from Lenten purple to blood red as we begin to focus upon our Lord’s suffering – his passion – for us and for our salvation. Passion Sunday gave us a week to prepare for Palm Sunday and the beginning of Holy Week. A time of preparation such as Passiontide is a Biblical concept. In the Old Testament, ten days before the Day of Atonement was the Feast of Trumpets in which by the blowing of the ram’s horn trumpet the people were summoned to a time of accountability and judgment and called to prepare for Atonement. In a similar way, Passion Sunday calls us to reflect upon our Lord’s fulfillment of the role of suffering servant. The readings for Passion Sunday require us to recall the true glory of humility. As Father Laddie explained in his Passion Sunday sermon of last week, those who follow our Savior Christ must have a different sense of glory and greatness. At the Last Supper, Jesus reminded his disciples that the Kings of the nations lord it over those under them. He then says, “It shall not be so with you. Whoever is senior among you shall act as if he was junior and whoever is greatest of all shall become the servant of all.” Passion Sunday teaches us this. It calls us to take all worldly attitudes and perspectives of power and glory and reverse them, standing them as it were on their heads. You see, if we don’t get that, we can’t understand what Holy Week is all about. We have to know how our Messiah is the servant who suffers, how our Lord is the one who kneels down beside us to wash our feet, and how our King is exalted and lifted up on high upon his cross of death. This is a glory which worldly power cannot understand. You can hear the confusion in Pilate’s voice when he asks Jesus, “Are you a King, then?” Yes, he is a King. He is more than a King. He is one, as St. Paul wrote, “Who, being in the very nature of God, did not consider being equal with God something to be used for his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant … he humbled himself by becoming obedient unto death, even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2)

     Today, on Palm Sunday, we begin the journey to Calvary. We begin to follow our Lord’s steps on his via Delarosa, his way of suffering. As we make our journey this holy week, let us read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest these events. Let us also be aware of the great ironies and deep symbols of these passion narratives. Once a year on the Day of Atonement, the high priest would enter the holy of holies carrying a bowl with the blood of a sacrificial victim. He would intercede on behalf of the people making atonement for the sins of the nation. To enter the holy of holies, the priest would pass through a curtain or veil which separated this holy place from the rest of the Temple. The Book of Hebrews proclaims that our Lord Jesus is our high priest who entered once into the holy of holies in Heaven to make eternal intercession for us. Jesus is both priest and victim. The blood he offers – the life he offers – is his own. He makes atonement for us once and for all. And so, we are told that at the moment of his death, the veil separating the rest of the Temple from God’s presence was torn in two. Moreover, it was torn in two from top to bottom, as if torn by the mighty hand of God Himself.

     As well as being our eternal high priest and our atonement sacrifice, our Lord Jesus is the Passover Lamb. As he eats the Passover meal with his disciples, he takes bread and says “this is my body broken for you.” He takes the cup of wine and announces, “This is my blood shed for you.” His blood shed for us spares us from the death of sin. When Pilate washed his hands of the death of Christ, the people boldly proclaimed “His blood be on us and on our children.” They were taking on responsibility for his death in saying this. However, Christians believe that our redemption and hope of eternal life is based entirely upon his blood, the blood of our Passover Lamb, being upon us and our children. The laws regarding Passover required that no bones be broken in preparing the sacrificial Passover lamb. We are told that when our Passover Lamb, our Lord Jesus, died, the soldiers did not break his legs, and so this law was kept. We are also told that the religious officials who took Jesus to Pilate refused to enter into the palace so as to avoid contamination which would disqualify them from keeping the Feast. They wanted to be ritually pure and able to offer the Passover lamb even as they handed over to Pilate the very Passover Lamb of God. They wanted to be pure so as to receive mercy and forgiveness from the Lord, the very Lord they rejected and whose death they demanded. No wonder St. Paul came to conclude that the more we attempt to justify ourselves the more we in fact condemn ourselves. No wonder Jesus on the cross said “they know not what they do.”

     As we observe this Holy Week, may we recognize in all our Lord does for us a love which will not let us go. May we know the redeeming love of the Lamb of God. “Here might I stay and sing, no story so divine: never was love, dear King, never was grief like thine. This is my friend, in whose sweet praise I all my days could gladly spend.

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