The Unauthorized Homily

By Bill Dunn

A commentary on the Scripture readings from the Sunday Lectionary

(Scripture readings for Palm Sunday, March 16th: Isaiah 50:4-7; Philippians 2:6-11; Matthew 26:14 – 27:66)

THE FINAL ACT TURNS TRAGEDY INTO TRIUMPH

This week is Palm Sunday, or Passion Sunday, and the gospel reading covers the important events of Holy Week: Judas’ betrayal, the Last Supper, the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus’ arrest, Peter’s denial, the mock trial, carrying the cross through the city streets, the crucifixion, and the burial of Jesus.

Some people, attempting to do the bare minimum of church obligation, are torn between which week to attend church: Palm Sunday or Easter. Hmm, Palm Sunday has the half-hour gospel reading, but Easter has the crowded pews and clogged parking lot. My my, what’s a lukewarm Christian to do?

My advice: stun your family; go to church BOTH weeks. But if it has to be one or the other, choose Easter. Not that there’s anything wrong with listening to the account of the Passion. It’s a tremendous reminder of what Jesus went through for our sake.

However, after listening to almost a half hour of Holy Week events, this is how the gospel reading ends on Palm Sunday: The apostles have scattered in self-centered cowardice and fear. The women who had followed Jesus (including his poor mother) are in mourning, inconsolable over the death of their master. Jesus Himself is dead, deader than a door nail. His battered and broken body is wrapped in linen and laid to rest in a borrowed tomb.

It is a tragedy. It’s an abject failure. It’s a defeat, a flop, the total destruction of so many hopeful plans.

This charismatic young teacher, this man some called the long-awaited Messiah, is dead. Up until that moment, they were so certain He was the one who would change everything. He would gather a powerful army around Him (as His forefather David had done centuries earlier), and drive out the hated Romans. He would usher in a new era of peace and prosperity for all of Israel. He would rule with justice and might, commanding armies and expanding His empire, and then die at a ripe old age after many decades of rule.

And then, in less than a day, between the evening Passover meal and the following afternoon, He was gone. He was dead.

Not only was He dead, but He died in such an ignoble manner. Mocked, beaten, spit upon, humiliated. Nailed to crossbeams and perched for hours above the town garbage dump. In agony as the life forces slowly ebbed from His body.

That is where we stand at the end of Palm Sunday’s gospel. Failure. Defeat. Evil triumphs over good. The man who taught about love and truth is dead.

This is the point at which far too many accounts of Jesus’ life also end. I saw a movie years ago titled, “The Day Christ Died.” It was a very interesting and realistic portrayal of Holy Week, but the film ends as Jesus is being nailed to the cross. It ends in failure. It ends in defeat.

An even more blatant example of this is the famous rock opera, and subsequent movie, “Jesus Christ Superstar.” (I remember when the album first came out in the early 70s. To our shock and amazement, the nuns who ran our catechism classes actually said it was OK, and even played some of the songs in Sunday School class. Some of the adults in our parish just shook their heads in despair and muttered, “Saints preserve us. That Vatican II is ruining EVERYTHING.”)

But once again, the story ends with Jesus dead. And to make matters worse, despite some catchy Andrew Lloyd Webber tunes, Jesus is portrayed throughout the production as a self-doubting, deluded wimp. While Judas is the determined, level-headed star of the show.

If that’s where the story ends, there is no way we can possibly call it the Good News. Palm Sunday/Passion Sunday is a failure without Easter. As the apostle Paul wrote: “If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile…If only for this life have we hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.”

Without the Resurrection, Christian faith is futile and pitiful. Without the Resurrection, the good guys lose; the bad guys win. The whole story turns out to be a gruesome tragedy.

This is why it’s so important to take the Palm Sunday gospel and the Easter Sunday gospel as a matched set. Only through the lens of Easter can we see that the Passion was necessary. Only when we understand that Jesus’ resurrection conquered death once and for all, can we see that He had to die to pay the price for our sins.

If you can only attend church once in the next couple weeks, pick Easter. On Easter we see that Jesus snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. On Easter we get the most important chapter of the story. (But really, it’s much better to attend both weeks.)

©2008