PALM (PASSION) SUNDAY
Mark 11: 1-10
Isaiah 50:4-7
Philippians 2:6-11
Mark 14:1-15:47
The show stopping anthem in the play, A Chorus Line, is “What I did for love.” The singer reflects on all of the sacrifices, all of the losses, all of the injuries, all of the life events she missed out on because of her love for dance. The song makes clear it was worth it – because it was done for love. We know what it is like to do something for love. What athletes do for love is practice incessantly to improve their game. What parents do for love is give up their own preferred enjoyments in order to help their children grow. What married couples do for love is surrender their individual lives in order to form a deeper life in common. This Palm Sunday, this Passion Sunday, tells the story of what Jesus did for love. St. Paul tells us that out of love for us Jesus did not grasp after divinity but instead emptied himself to share humanity with us. Out of love for us Jesus shared the limitations, the weakness, the inabilities which are part of the human condition. Out of love for us Jesus humbled himself and accepted death, even death on a cross. The story of the suffering and death of Jesus makes no sense until and unless we understand that what occurred happened because Jesus did it for love.
Jesus underwent his passion out of a love for God. Every word, every action, every sermon, every miracle which he had done during his life were a response to the love of God. He spent time in prayer in order to connect with the love of God. He prayed in Gethsemane “not my will but thine be done” because of his confidence in God’s love. What Jesus did for love models what it means for us to pick up our cross each day and follow him. Our lives must also reflect our love for God.
Every step on Jesus’ Good Friday journey was done out of love for those who were part of his life. He shielded the woman who anointed him from criticism, he warned Peter of his coming denial, he invited his disciples to pray with him in his agony, he protected them when the mob came to arrest him, surrendered to the unjust sentence for their forgiveness, he accepted his feeling of abandonment on the cross all out of love. What we do for love of those who are part of our lives is our way of participating in the suffering of Christ.
And even in the midst of his own passion Jesus did something for love of us, of you and of me. On the night of his arrest, he was thinking of us when he broke the bread and shared the cup. “This is my body. This is my blood. Do this in remembrance of me.” Jesus wanted us to know that we share in his love poured out on the cross even at the remove of two thousand years whenever we gather around the Eucharistic table of the Lord.
What Jesus did for love was give his all, all that he was, all that he hoped for, into the hands of the one he was sure loved him. That was his passion. That is our invitation.
