Palm Sunday 2016
I am mixing the readings this morning to pick up elements of both Palm and Passion sunday.Passion in this usage is a Latin derivative that means suffering.this year we draw from Luke.We move from the passionate response of a symbolic parade to the passionate cries, maybe of the same people, to crucify by Friday. What an epic shift in public opinion.
Israel’s story starts with Abram and Sarai in close-up. Now the story of God and humanity has its focus on Jesus and a small group who will peel away at the end. Individuals matter in our faith,how big was the Palm sunday celebration? John Dominic Crossan imagines it to be a sort of counter demonstration to the march of roman troops. It doesn't seem to have attracted the attention of Rome.Events hurtle by in the gospels over the period of the mission of Jesus but they slow to an agonizing crawl here. we move from a sweep of days to a the slow peal of bells almost minute by minute. Truly reading this is a Via dolorosa, way of sorrows
Simon of cyrene-Libya may have children mentioned as Christians, alexander and rufus cyrene had a synagogue hotbed of discontent-He is there to worship in a pilgrimage of 900 miles, maybe a journey of a month. he gets pulled out to help with the cross. One cannot help but wonder what he made of this in future years. He may have carried it in front of Jesus so he did not see much of the suffering one.Paul says we are here to bear one another’s burdens. Here he carries the heavy physical burden of the cross beam. At the same time he is helping the death penalty along.Some think the beam along weighed 180-00 pounds and could have been say 650 yards.He does not volunteer; he is pressed into service.He literally helps carry the cross. Jesus said if we cannot carry the cross we are not worthy as a metaphor.
I have never been convinced that Jesus would come to the attention of political power with such speed and a felt need to kill him by crucifixion. Pilate ruled for about 10 years.may have been called back after a brutal suppression of a Samaritan revolt and may have committed suicide-and Herod antipas became friends due to what? killer of John the baptist-builder- struggle over power-exiled to France and died within a few year in Spain or there and the wife stayed with him-both were conniving seekers of power, especially Antipas-Barth suggests that they were unwitting agents of a divine project. God was actively turning their schemes into a different vein.-Father forgive them appears only in some of the manuscripts of Luke. It becomes a template for Stephen’s forgiving in the book of Acts.
The women stood at a distance and watched it all. they did not yet return home as did others in the crowd who beat their breasts in mourning and lament.joseph of arimathea not sure of all of this location, so indeed a shadowy figure to us.He does the right thing. usually victims of crucifixion were left to the dogs and vultures. he has Jesus wrapped in a burial shroud and buried in a tomb.He does the right and proper thing. it could have well been dangerous for him to go to Pilate with this e request for some respect and courtesy for the slain Jesus. Jesus came from Mary as the first born and now he is the first on laid in the tomb. Tradition has him going off to England to evangelize.
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