Palm Sunday of the Lord’s Passion

Lectionary: 37 and 38

...he will show you a large upper room furnished and ready. Make the preparations for us there.”
The disciples then went off, entered the city, and found it just as he had told them; and they prepared the Passover.

The Cenacle where the Lord celebrated his last Passover was apparently a banquet room, available to Jewish pilgrims who came three times a year to attend the major festivals. 

The room was "furnished and ready" for the Lord's coming. Saint Mark's inclusion of this detail signals the preparation every Christian should make in anticipation of the Lord's arrival. The same room will witness his appearance to the unprepared disciples on the following Sunday evening. But these preparations were not the only ones made in God's Holy City for the events of that week. 

The irony of a city with dual purposes goes far beyond the prepared Cenacle. Jerusalem had been the holy city of God for more than a thousand years. It had witnessed the building of Solomon's temple, its reconstruction after the exile, and King Herod's remodeling. The city had suffered the approach, siege, occupation, and withdrawal of several empires as they breached and then rebuilt its walls. It was the once-and-future capital of David's once-and-future kingdom. It was always God's holy city, even when governed in Abraham's time by the priest-king Melchizedek. 

We often remember the betrayal of Jesus's disciples: Judas, Peter's denials, and the disappearance of his followers. Their treachery is sharpened by the memory of their sworn vows of personal fidelity to him. 

But we should contemplate also the irony of Jerusalem's failure to greet its long awaited Messiah, Lord, and Savior. This disappointing history gives context to the failure of his few apostles and disciples; it places the city's critical moment in human history between the Garden of Eden and the Last Judgement. 

Jerusalem had enjoyed the Lord God's governance for over a thousand years, since the day David and his army took the fortress of Salem and renamed it Jerusalem. God's rule was both merciful and just; it was never arbitrary or erratic. It was always patiently demanding, "I am the Lord your God, you shall have no other god before you!" The Lord would not abide evil. Rather, he continually demanded that Jerusalem return his love and reflect his merciful holiness to the greatest and the least.

It had all the resources to do so. They had only to trust in God's providence. Each year they should celebrate three festivals; they were like three Thanksgivings a year. Throughout the year they proved their religious faith in the Lord's dependability by the practice of tithing. And then, their banquets were shared with the poorest, neediest, and strangest aliens. For "God provides;" there is always more where that came from. Nor should there be any judgments of who is worthy or unworthy; their faith told them no one is worthy of such love. If the stockpiles were exhausted, they should feel no anxiety for God's abundance is inexhaustible. 

It is supremely ironic that the Holy City built on a hill called Zion, was most gracious to its Lord and Savior when he arrived, and expelled him to Golgotha Hill a few days later. 

And yet, what should we expect? We know the story; and we knew its outcome for we know ourselves. Can anyone blame Jerusalem or its adopted heir, the Church, for its failure to welcome the Lord? 

When I was young I was astonished by the evil I found within my own thoughts, impulses, and desires. I thought I was better than that. Today I am more surprised by the kindness I've shown to others in past years; I am not surprised by my history of sin, nor especially surprised by anyone else's. 

As Genesis tells the story, when the LORD came upon Adam and Eve and found them shamefaced in their nakedness, he spat out his disappointment with evident disgust, "You are dirt and to dirt you shall return."  He might have added, "What was I expecting? What did I expect?" he might have said. "Was I such a fool as to expect gratitude from dirt?" 

But the LORD relented and provided clothing to them. And then he gave an assurance that evil would one day be defeated. 

I will put enmity between you and the woman,

and between your offspring and hers;

They will strike at your head,

while you strike at their heel. (Genesis 3:15 see the footnotes)

In the sad stories of sinful Jerusalem, faithless disciples, peccant Church, and wicked humanity we hear the story of God's inexhaustible, patient love. The story would not be a history -- it would be a tale told by an idiot -- if God's mercy does not prevail in the end. He will provide guidance through suffering and healing through reassurance. We will find within our hearts compassion for one another through the horrors we share and the burdens we carry together. 

We will learn kindness and know that it is the kindness of God. As we own the enormity of our sins; and then confess and atone for them, we will measure the superabundant, boundless dimensions of God’s patient love.