St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Wesley Chapel, FL
Preacher: The Rev. Adrienne R. Hymes
April 2, 2023● Palm Sunday (Year A)
Gospel: Matthew 27:11-54
In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Matthew’s gospel narrative sets the scene with a captive Jesus in the custody of the Roman prefect Pontius Pilate, Judas’ revelation of this “bad thing” that he had done in his betrayal of Jesus, and a blood-thirsty Jewish crowd that demanded Jesus to be crucified. It was the governor’s custom to release a prisoner for the crowd at the annual festival. In the midst of Pilate’s interrogation of Jesus, and his refereeing of the boiling crowd, Pilate’s wife warned, “Have nothing to do with that innocent man, for today I have suffered a great deal because of a dream about him.”
Have you ever experienced a sense of intuition; or as I like to call it, a divine whisper— that leaves an uneasy feeling within that if you move ahead with your intended desire, something bad is going to happen? For those of us who have experienced this feeling, and ignored that warning, and something bad actually happened, often the exclamation is, “I knew I shouldn’t have done that!”
Dreams were considered to be divine communication, so I’m drawn to Pilate’s wife’s words that she was in distress because of a dream she had about Jesus. Pilate’s wife was used as an instrument to convey a warning to her husband—that if he involved himself in the judgement and condemnation, or anything related to that innocent man, Jesus, something bad was going to happen—something really bad.
Now, when Pilate grew frustrated with the crowds’ blood thirst for Jesus, asking, “…What evil has he done?” He washed his hands of the whole thing, relinquishing his legal Roman power to the Jewish crowd so that they could deal with the decision to release an innocent Jesus or a guilty Barabbas. Now, we are not told what prompted Pilate to give up his power in this moment, other than his frustration and his fear of fueling a riot. Might Pilate’s wife’s admonition have played a role in his decision making? Was he even listening? We don’t know. However, washing his hands of the condemnation of Jesus made him no less innocent in participating in the “bad thing” that was unfolding under his rule.
As Jesus struggled through the way of the cross, a man from Cyrene, Simon, was forced by the Roman soldiers to carry Jesus’ cross; an unsuspecting Simon was forced to participate in this “bad thing” that was unfolding. But, for Jesus, Simon helped him to carry his burden when his beaten and broken body could not. Some “good” came out of that forced bad act.
As Jesus hanged on the cross, people passed by and mocked him saying, “If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross…He saved others; he cannot save himself…let him come down from the cross now, and we will believe in him.” The irony, which you and I know on the resurrection side of the cross, is that Jesus endured the inhumane treatment, and remained on the cross to die, so that the very people who persecuted him would have everlasting life. Had Jesus “saved” himself from his scandalous death on a cross, none of their souls would have been given the opportunity to receive the gift of God’s salvation through Jesus’ sacrifice.
The people said that Jesus could not save himself, and that was true because he lived in full obedience to God’s will—that God’s only Son would die on a cross for the sins of humanity. All who witnessed Jesus on the cross, witnessed a man who was not saving himself. Nailed to the cross, Jesus was in a helpless physical state. Yet, we know that by his public, self-sacrifice, Jesus was working in the Heavenly realm, on behalf of “others” to do exactly what he had been doing since his public ministry began—saving the souls of those who could never save themselves.
Jesus’ crucifixion was the culmination of many “bad things” that happened. And, God used the cross—the instrument of torture and death—meant to inflict all kinds of “bad” upon an innocent Jesus, to do good—the highest good—in order to save those who didn’t even know that they needed saving. Jesus’ passion and death had a purpose, and it was not about him—His suffering was always about God and it was always for the sake of God’s people.
When we reflect upon the Passion gospel narrative, which focuses on Jesus’ suffering on the way to the cross and on the cross, let us remember that it is one part of the unfolding story of God’s self-giving love poured out for humankind and all of creation.
The passion gospel is an unlikely love story, which sounds a lot like a one-sided story of unrequited love, but it is a love story nonetheless.
It reminds us that Jesus’ passion and crucifixion are inextricably bound to God’s love story with humankind—a love story that is at once communal and deeply personal. The gruesome cross event, invited, and still invites, humankind into an intimate relationship with God through Christ.
Nurturing a deeply personal relationship with Jesus makes it possible for faithful people to optimally witness holy moments, and indeed hear, and heed, divinely-whispered warnings to have nothing to do with whatever “bad thing” that presents itself, and it will, which only serves humankind’s sinful desires.
As you move through this Holy Week, be reminded, on Maundy Thursday, of Jesus’ mandate given to his disciples at the last Supper to love one another as Jesus loved them. And on Good Friday, as you gaze upon the rugged cross, rest in the silence, the grief and death, with the hopeful expectation of new life in the risen Christ on Resurrection Sunday. Most of all, let us be reminded of God’s divine embrace—an embrace that hugs each of us so tightly that it hugs our very souls—because we—you are his beloved.
Amen.
