Palm Sunday 2010.
Since the gospel reading of the Passion is so long this weekend, I will only say a few words about the gospel today….
During this coming week, it would be wonderful to take the long version of Luke’s Gospel and read through it prayerfully and reflectively. There is a lot of richness in this most important text.
Two things that stike me about the version of Luke’s Passion account that we listened to this weekend….
1. The enemies of Jesus are liars. They hated his message of love, forgiveness and inclusion and spent all their time trying to trap Jesus and find something against him. In the end they could find nothing wrong… so… did they give up? No, they just made up accusations… the thigns they accuse Jesus of in Luke’s Gospel are lies…. Jesus was inciting revolt? No he wasn’t. he was seeking to avoid it. Opposing payment to Caesar, no he didn’t, and okay, yes he was claiming to be the Christ… but to say he was setting himself up as a King to overthrow the earthly leader.. was a distortion to make Jesus look insidious… They were lying through their teeth to convict Jesus,.. but even Pilate says… he is not guilty….
2. When people bring Jesus to Herod, he is completely self-absorbed… he doesn’t even listen to what they are saying… he just wants to meet Jesus and get him to do a miracle… it’s a horrific sign of out of touch, self-serving leadership that doesn’t even know what the issues are….
Jesus came to forgive, include and welcome… and he is repaid in rejection, dishonesty and hatred…. He showed the absolute depth of his love by sacrificing everything for us… and this has saved us…. We thank God, for Jesus’ life and saving death.. and we keep vigil this week as we enter the holiest week of the Church’s year… a journey through suffering love… leadership of complete service… that goes through death to new and everlasting life…
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