Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion

 Lectionary: 37 and 38

Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God (as) something to be grasped.

Several weeks ago we overheard a conversation between Jesus and Satan. God's perennial antagonist offered Jesus all the kingdoms of the earth, and the Lord refused the offer. He insisted that he would serve God alone, and would worship neither Satan nor his power. In fact, he seemed to renounce every claim to power. 

But Satan and his people have always suffered a profound confusion about power. He thinks it has given him authority. Satan, it may be true, has control of material things and can manipulate them in any way he sees fit. However, whether his power is economic or military or government; mechanical, chemical, electrical, or atomic; whether it is fame, popularity, or influence: it is not authority. Authority and power should not be confused. 

All authority in heaven and on earth, as the Gospels tell us, belongs to God the Father, and to anyone on whom he bestows it. We know, as God's people -- and Satan is not among God's people --  that he gave all authority to Jesus, the Son of Mary. If the Lord didn't seem to have much authority or power as he stood before his accusers, His time would come. 

Satan has great power today but he does not have the authority. Many politicians suppose their power over armies, navies, and air forces gives them authority over the minds and hearts of men and women. Many wealthy people with their lackeys, propagandists, and influencers, with their money and luxuries, with the deference they’re given by the adoring public and other elites, suppose that they have authority; although they never have so much as they want. 

They do not; authority remains with the Lord who calls every nation and every citizen of every nation to live freely in mercy and in justice, in righteousness, truth, and beauty. Any member of any despised minority and any criminal condemned to death knows what the Lord knows,“They may control my body but they cannot control my mind.” 

As Christians gather for Palm Sunday, we remember the final contest for all authority in heaven and on earth. This is the epic struggle between Good and Evil, between God and Satan. But we already know how this war ends, as the Book of Revelation tells us, 

Then war broke out in heaven; Michael and his angels battled against the dragon. The dragon and its angels fought back, but they did not prevail and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. The huge dragon, the ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, who deceived the whole world, was thrown down to earth, and its angels were thrown down with it.

There is no contest! Within “an instant, within the blink of an eye,” Satan with all his naked, brute power is overthrown. 

But the victory does not come so easily to Earth, because Satan and his angels are thrown down to earth and they can still deceive the whole world. We, the Church, must remain until our hearts, and all the hearts of those who are being saved, are united in the Lord. 

During Holy Week we will watch as Jesus defeats the Enemy in the only way it can be done; by obedience to his Heavenly Father, by believing in God in the face of death, by dying to himself, and by waiting for the Redemption that has been promised. 

Death, with his customary impudence, will find him on the cross and will swallow him up, taking him from our sight and carrying him into hell. But neither death nor Satan can foresee what Jesus does upon his arrival in Hell. 

We call it the Harrowing of Hell, when Satan stripped of all his power, watches helplessly as the Lord takes everyone who faithfully observed God’s law, from Adam and Eve, to Abraham, Moses, and David, from Hosea to Jeremiah to Zechariah, from Sarah, Rebecca, Miriam, Deborah, Ruth, Judith and Esther; and all the unknown holy men and women who believed in God and Truth and Goodness despite their many disappointments and sorrows. The Lord finds them, sets them free, and brings them into paradise with the repentant thief, and all the saints and martyrs. 

Holy Week invites all of the faithful to go with us to the Upper Room, the Cenacle, where the Lord will celebrate his Last Supper, and give us his own flesh to eat and his blood to drink. We will go to pray with him in Gethsemane, and endure his trials before Annas and Caiaphas, Herod and Pontius Pilate. We will carry our crosses with him to Calvary, and stand with Mary his Mother. We will remain as the dying man gives us to Mary his mother and she becomes our mother. We will remain with Mary Magdalene as she stays by his tomb, though she cannot imagine what will happen on Sunday morning. 

And we will gather again on Easter to hear the voices of heaven, and earth, and under the earth declare, “Jesus Christ is Lord!” 

And we will hear the Victor over sin, Satan, and death announce;

All power (and all authority) in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, Teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.”