Truly this man was God's Son

Passion (Palm) Sunday 

Mark's account of the passion, closest in time to the crucifixion, deserves prayerful study. Neither this article nor the best of homilies can fully explore this passage. Make your Holy Week extra holy by meditating on these two extraordinary chapters of the Gospel (Mk 14 and 15).

First, a liturgical note. Like squabbling over the pronunciation of "tomato", the liturgy calls this Passion Sunday, but we all keep calling it Palm Sunday. We used to have two Passion Sundays, on the last two weeks of Lent. The second Passion Sunday was also known as Palm Sunday, when we read Matthew's Passion. We read Mark's on Tuesday of Holy Week, Luke's on Wednesday, and John's on Good Friday. We still hear John every year on Good Friday, but other Gospels have replaced the midweek Passions, and Palm Sunday carries the Passion of the dominant Gospel of the year.

Why do we hear a Passion on Palm Sunday? Frankly, because the liturgy suspects you won't come to church on Good Friday and this is your only chance to hear the big story of our faith.

Turning to Mark, several women's issues jump up. Mark opens with a tender story of a woman anointing Jesus' head. By pouring an outrageously expensive oil on Jesus head (worth a year's salary!), she proclaims he is the Messiah, a word that means "anointed". Jesus promises that what she has done will be always remembered (14:9). All the more reason to be embarrassed that her name has been hopelessly lost.

Women make a strong finish in the passion. They faithfully remain standing by the crucifixion and burial (15:40-47), while all the men flee.

Women may have attended the Last Supper. Jesus intends to eat the Passover meal with his disciples (14:14); that term designates a broader group than just the twelve who become prominent in the story (14:17,20) .

Throughout, Mark proclaims the role of God. At times he quotes other passages of Scripture (14:27,62; 15:34). Jesus predicts he will go ''as it is written" (14:21). At his arrest, Jesus says, "Let the Scriptures be fulfilled" (14:49). Even when the crowd "leads him away" (14:44), when the soldiers "handed him over" to Pilate, and Pilate "handed him over" to the crowd, it seems that they are only fulfilling God's plan.

In spite of God's work, Jesus becomes a terrified, lonely man. At Gethsemane he is "distressed and agitated" (14:33), calling God a title Mark's Jesus has never used before: "Abba", or "Father" (14:36)--a desperately intimate plea for help.

He has reason to be afraid. The chief priests have already found him guilty (14:55); they're just looking for evidence, even if it's false (14:58-59). Jesus is guilty until proven guilty!

After his arrest, "all (the disciples) deserted him and fled" (14:50); Peter, who followed "at a distance" (14:54) as personal as it was physical, denies him three times (14:66-72); and on the cross Jesus believes even God has forsaken him (15:34). Abandoned and alone, he utters a "loud cry" (15:34 and 37) , an expression Mark used twice earlier to describe the voice of demons (1:26 and 5:7). So alone, only evil remains. Now the final exorcism is at hand.

As horrible as the crucifixion is, Mark has already planted the seeds of hope in this story. Pilate calls Jesus the King of the Jews (15:2,9,12), and the soldiers mock him with a cloak and crown (15:17), kneeling (19), and calling him king (18). Ironically, Jesus is a king, and the cross to which they lead him will be his throne. This truth will be revealed by a most surprising character, a Roman centurion, a Gentile, who, seeing Jesus die under the superscription "The King of the Jews" (15:26), proclaims, "Truly this man was God's Son" (15:39).

This truth, of course, rings out of the Passion like a clarion at the high priest's interrogation (14:62) After dramatic silences, the high priest asks Jesus, "Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?" (14:61), and Jesus says, "I am." WOW! In the question, we remember the first line of Mark's Gospel, and in Jesus' brief response, we remember the God Moses met at the burning bush ("I am who I am") (Ex 3:14).

The Passion ends with the burial, complete with a reference to the "body" (15:46), so we know Jesus is really dead. It sets the stage for the greatest news of all.

That news, the resurrection, is foreshadowed in the curious story of the young man who runs away naked after the arrest of Jesus (14:51-52). The crowd seizes him as they just seized Jesus, a linen cloth like the one he wears will wrap Jesus' body at burial (15:46), and the one who proclaims the resurrection will also be "a young man" (16:5). But that's another story.

What does the passion teach us about Jesus' mission? Where do you find today's church in this story?