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APRIL 13, 2003- Passion (Palm) Sunday
THE BLESSING AND PROCESSION OF PALMS:
† Jesus sent two of his disciples: "Go into the village
opposite you, and immediately on entering it, you will find a colt tethered on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring here."
Mark 11: 1-10
THE GOSPEL
† At Golgotha, they crucified Jesus and divided his
garments…It was nine o'clock in the morning when they crucified him.
Mark 14:1-15: 47
THE BLESSED COLT
In his story of Jesus' Palm Sunday entry into Jerusalem, the evangelist Mark almost makes the colt--a young donkey--the center of the story. Mark relates with surprising detail how the disciples found the donkey colt as Jesus told them. Clearly, Jesus' riding on the donkey is no accident--Jesus intends for the colt to play an important role in the Palm Sunday Gospel.
It was the custom for pilgrims to enter Jerusalem on foot. Only great kings and rulers would "ride" into the city--and usually on great steeds and horses. Jesus, the King of the new Israel, chooses to ride into the city--but not on a majestic stallion but on the back of a young beast of burden. By being led through the city on the back of a lowly, servile donkey, Jesus comes as a King whose rule is not about being served but about serving; his kingdom is not built on power and might but on compassion and forgiveness.
The little donkey Jesus mounts mirrors how the prophet Zechariah foretold this scene five centuries before:
" Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey…"
CONNECTION: Let the little colt of Palm Sunday guide us through the Holy Week ahead. Let him be for us the symbol of Christ's humility--humility that is not self-loathing nor self-diminishing but humility that honors all men and women as children of God, that loves all humankind as brothers and sisters in Christ, that rejoices in gratitude to God for the gift of our lives. In remembering the events of Holy Week - from the upper room to Gethsemani, from Pilate's bench to Golgotha, from the cross to the empty tomb--Jesus will turn our world and its value system upside down: true authority is found in dedicated service and generosity to others; greatness is centered in humility; the just and loving will be exalted by God in God's time. This week, may we walk with Jesus and witness his passion and death with Palm Sunday's donkey colt as our companion, that we may be worthy to bear on our backs the servant Jesus and bear on our shoulders the cross of justice and love.
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