Reading
for Palm Sunday:
Mt. 12:36-27:66
March 20, 2005
The Rev. Karen Siegfriedt
St. Jude the Apostle Episcopal Church, Cupertino,
CA
The story of Jesus' suffering and death has traditionally been called "the passion story," although this term does not occur in the Bible. In a few moments, we will be participating in this well-known story that forms the foundation of our faith. This year, we will be reading the passion story from the perspective of Matthew, whose emphasis is slightly different from the other gospels. From the birth stories onward, Matthew presented Jesus as King, emphasized the Kingdom of Heaven, included the importance of dreams as a means of God's revelation, and took great pains to show how "the Scriptures were fulfilled" through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. All of these themes will come into play in his rendition of the passion narrative.
You may have noticed that the different evangelists (i.e. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) have a different perspective, a different angle, in their composition of the passion narrative. While the gospels agree on the main points, the chronologies, places, and details, differ here and there. Does this mean that the passion story is fiction? By no means! The narratives were not written as eye witnessing reporting. They are theological interpretations of the final days of Jesus for the benefit of the early Christian communities. The evangelists valued theological meaning over historical chronology. Because of these many different theological interpretations of an historical event, we are provided with a richer, more complex, and broader perspective of Jesus' death than would have been provided by having only one gospel account. Let me give you an example.
The hymns in our hymnal each contain four lines of music: the soprano line, the alto line, the tenor line, the bass line. Each of the lines of music is different, but when played together, they give us a more complex rendition of the hymn. Imagine each of the gospels representing one of the lines of a hymn. Imagine for a moment, the earliest and most foundational gospel, (i.e. the gospel of Mark), represented by the soprano line. {Organist plays soprano line.} Now imagine the alto line representing the gospel of Matthew. {Organist plays alto line.} Imagine the tenor line representing the gospel of Luke. {Organist plays tenor line.} Finally, imagine the bass line representing the gospel of John. {Organist plays bass line.} Each of these lines of music has distinct notes, yet they all harmonize together to support the main melody. Let's hear what the hymn sounds like when all four lines are played at once. {Organist plays all four lines at once.} Notice the richness, the complexity, the depth, and the beauty when all four lines are played together to represent the actual hymn. We are truly blessed to have four "voices" in our gospel narratives.
The passion gospel, according to Matthew, is similar to the gospel of Mark with a few exceptions.
In addition to these unique features of the gospel of Matthew, there are a few more things I want to mention. Notice that the thief in Matthew's gospel is not repentant. As Jesus is dying on the cross, he is scorned by three groups of people including: the two bandits who are crucified beside him, the religious authorities, and the people who pass by. Also notice that it was not his followers, but the Roman soldiers, who made the first confession of faith at the cross: "Truly, this man was God's Son!" Finally, be aware that it was not the 12 apostles or his family members, who eventually took Jesus down from the cross and buried him. Rather it was a benevolent member of the opposition party, Joseph of Arimathea, who arranged for a proper burial.
In my opinion, Christians of every generation need to interpret the passion narrative in light of the context in which they find themselves. What can we learn from this narrative to strengthen our life in Christ? This passion story clearly describes how different people and groups of people responded to Jesus in the face of fear, hurt, stress, mob violence, and scapegoating. How would you have reacted? How do you react today when your security or dream is threatened? Do you react with peace, forgiveness, and self-sacrifice, or do you react with anger, violence, and retribution?
On that day when Jesus entered Jerusalem, people spread their garments on the road, shouted hosannas, and waved not only palm branches, but other leafy branches including olive branches, which have become a symbol of peace. Perhaps if we were to recover the use of olive branches on Palm Sunday, they would help us define the true character of our pilgrimage and the nature of the triumph we seek: That peace which passes all understanding. The Peace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
May the peace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with us all, evermore
| Updated 3/25/05 |
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