Today in the Spirit: Palm Sunday A
In our walk with Jesus through the liturgical year, Palm Sunday is designed so that we might contemplate Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem and his death on the cross as a unit. Yes, the reading of the Passion or our Lord on Palm Sunday is no doubt an accommodation to the fact that many churchgoers would miss it altogether if they did not hear it on a Sunday. But combining Jesus’ triumphal entry with his crucifixion is also an effective instrument for discipleship, delivering a devotional shock to our system, stunning and confusing us as we go headlong into Holy Week.
The only differences in the assigned readings for Palm Sunday across the three-year cycle are in the selection of two Gospel readings: one for the Liturgy of the Palms and the other for the Passion. In Year A, following the Gospel of Matthew, the church has appointed Matthew 21:1-11 for the triumphal entry and Matthew (26:36-75), 27:1-54, (55-66) for the passion narrative. We identify with the crowds in these readings, in one instance shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” (21:9), and later, “Let him be crucified!” (27:22, 23).
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The OT reading out of Isaiah 52:13-53:12, assigned also on Good Friday, gives voice to the “servant” of YHWH burdened under the weight of enemies permitted to torture him according to God’s purpose. Though the voice of the prophecy alternates between those of God and Isaiah, the image of the Christian worshiper is that of Jesus Christ: “Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed” (53:4-5).
In support of the two Gospel readings, the two psalms assigned for the day support our spiritual transportation into two distinct spaces of participation in the Holy Week events. During the procession of palms, from Psalm 118:19-29, we shout for the Messiah, “Blessed is he who comes in the Name of the LORD! (26); and before the Passion reading, out of Psalm 22:1-21, we hear the lament of the Messiah through the Spirit of God, “Be not far from me, for trouble is near, and there is none to help.”
The NT reading assigned every year for Palm Sunday is Philippians 2:5-11, the beloved hymn of praise to Christ’s obedience unto death by crucifixion: “And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (8). Then follows in the song the report of the Father’s exaltation of the Son: “Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow…” (9-10).
The assigned Collect, adapted by Thomas Cranmer from medieval sources for use in the BCP 1549, accounts both our Lord’s incarnation and crucifixion as “the example of his great humility.” Just so, the petition is for us to walk, not merely by imitation in our own strength, but through him ”in the way of his suffering,” living as though dying, that we might “share in his resurrection.” The vision is one of new life, both in this mortal life and in eternity.
The Collect
Almighty and everlasting God, in your tender love for us you sent your Son our Savior Jesus Christ to take upon himself our nature, and to suffer death upon the Cross, giving us the example of his great humility: Mercifully grant that we may walk in the way of his suffering, and come to share in his resurrection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Liturgy of the Palms
Open to Me (Psalm 118:19-29)
19 Open unto me the gates of righteousness, *
Psalm 118:19-29, New Coverdale Psalter (BCP 2019)
that I may go into them, and give thanks unto the LORD.
20 This is the gate of the LORD; *
the righteous shall enter into it.
21 I will thank you, for you have heard me, *
and have become my salvation.
22 The same stone which the builders refused *
has become the chief cornerstone.
23 This is the LORD’s doing, *
and it is marvelous in our eyes.
24 This is the day that the Lord has made; *
we will rejoice and be glad in it.
25 Help me now, O LORD; *
O Lord, send us now prosperity.
26 Blessed is he who comes in the Name of the LORD;
* we bless you from the house of the LORD.
27 God is the LORD, who has shown us light; *
bind the sacrifice with cords, even to the horns of the altar.
28 You are my God, and I will thank you; *
you are my God, and I will exalt you.
29 O give thanks unto the LORD, for he is gracious; *
his mercy endures for ever.
In this royal psalm, we hear a defiant insistence in the voice of the Israelite king as he approaches the temple gates in Jerusalem, saying, “Open unto me the gates of righteousness” (1), perhaps after winning a great battle to defend the land. C.H. Spurgeon comments on this passage: He “speaks like a champion, throwing down the gauntlet to all comers, defying the universe in arms.” It is as if there is one more challenger (or two, like Bunyan’s “Shining Ones” in Pilgrim’s Progress) stationed at the doors to the Holy City to interview the petitioner, “Are you worthy?”
Reciting this psalm in our worship, we picture in our minds first the psalm’s king, then Jesus of Nazareth, and then ourselves as members of God’s royal household, all making the faith cry, Yes! “Blessed is he [or she] who comes in the name of the Lord” (26). Palm Sunday strikes a victorious chord which hints at the joy of Easter to come, but between the two, there is, like that guarded gate in Jerusalem, darkness and danger yet to be endured.
Today, with the help of the Spirit, we begin Holy Week by finding within ourselves the stubborn confidence of the faithful king in this song.
Who Is This? (Matthew 21:1-11)
1 Now when they drew near to Jerusalem and came to Bethphage, to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go into the village in front of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to me. 3 If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, ‘The Lord needs them,’ and he will send them at once.” 4 This took place to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet, saying,
5 “Say to the daughter of Zion,
‘Behold, your king is coming to you,
humble, and mounted on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.’”6 The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them. 7 They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. 8 Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. 9 And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” 10 And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?” 11 And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.”
Matthew’s account of the triumphal entry of Jesus is the only one to add this report of a rumor circulating among “the crowds” in Jerusalem (11). The Evangelist likely seeks to differentiate the perspective of the mainly Galilean mob accompanying Jesus into the city from that of the Judeans waiting to receive him inside the walls Of course, neither view–conquering king nor “prophet”—is sufficient. It is not until the utterance of the centurion at the cross, “Surely he was the Son of God!” (27:54), that the truth comes out.
Crowd contagion–whether originating from rumors in a crowd or widely published teaching in books or a popular Christian song broadcast over the internet–always brings a test of our own heartfelt understanding of who Jesus Christ is coming triumphantly into our lives. It is perfectly acceptable to God that the truth of who his Son really is comes to us over time, as it does in the Gospel narratives of this day and the blessed witness of his life and death. Jesus engages us in the depths of our being, sculpting our faith into stone through years of steady prayer, receiving the Word and Sacraments, and the day-to-day experience of learning to walk his way.
Today, in the Spirit, as you begin this Holy Week, ask the Father “that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened that you may know the hope to which he has called you” through Jesus Christ (Eph. 1:18).
The Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ
Stricken for the Transgression of My People? (Isaiah 52:13-53:12)
52:13 Behold, my servant shall act wisely;
Isaiah 52:13-53:12
he shall be high and lifted up,
and shall be exalted.
14 As many were astonished at you—
his appearance was so marred, beyond human semblance,
and his form beyond that of the children of mankind—
15 so shall he sprinkle many nations.
Kings shall shut their mouths because of him,
for that which has not been told them they see,
and that which they have not heard they understand.
53:1 Who has believed what he has heard from us?
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2 For he grew up before him like a young plant,
and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
and no beauty that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he has borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions;
he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
and with his wounds we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he opened not his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he opened not his mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away;
and as for his generation, who considered
that he was cut off out of the land of the living,
stricken for the transgression of my people?
9 And they made his grave with the wicked
and with a rich man in his death,
although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him;
he has put him to grief;
when his soul makes an offering for guilt,
he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;
the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied;
by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant,
make many to be accounted righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many,
and he shall divide the spoil with the strong,
because he poured out his soul to death
and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
and makes intercession for the transgressors.
Or, “Just as many were appalled at you, My people, So His appearance was marred beyond that of a man” (52:14, NASB). The “you” in this verse is somewhat problematic. Some commentators will say it really it must be “him” (see NIV), or even that the verse was transferred from a later point in the song, where it would fit better. But as it stands, in the text handed down to us, we must conclude that YHWH (or the prophet) is speaking to “My people,” and that he seeks to draw a parallel between the appalling and shameful punishment of the “servant” and the great sin of the people of Israel and Judah that caused them to be exiled from the land. Many passages prior to this in Isaiah describe the great depravity of Israel in the sight of God and other nations (see 3:8-9, 30:1-5). By the hand of YHWH, the servant is made even more astonishingly “marred” than the people in their sin.
The parallel made between the servant and the people should capture our attention in Holy Week. Devotionally, we are forced to ask, “Was Jesus on the cross likewise punished, beyond human semblance, to pay for our own wretchedness before God? Yes, beloved, we must look on the Lord on the cross, the blood from his piercings and the welts of his beatings, and find there a mirror image of our appearance before God without salvation. We must meditate on it and see what only the divine energy of a resurrection could ever heal and transform. Later, the prophecy declares the servant (Jesus to our ears) becomes a “guilt offering.” We do well to look at the descriptions of guilt offerings to see what a brutal business it was to make it (Lev. 7:1-10). Such is the misery of the servant’s sacrifice on our behalf, corresponding to the wretchedness of our sin.
Today, in the Spirit, this Sunday and throughout the week, we engrave into our minds and hearts the appalling payment of Jesus for us.
Yet You (Psalm 22:1-21)
1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me, *
Psalm 22:1-21, New Coverdale Psalter (BCP 2019)
and are so far from my cry, and from the words of my complaint?
2 O my God, I cry in the daytime, but you do not hear; *
in the night season also, but I find no rest.
3 But you remain holy, *
enthroned upon the praises of Israel.
4 Our fathers hoped in you; *
they trusted in you, and you delivered them.
5 They called upon you, and were delivered; *
they put their trust in you, and were not confounded.
6 But as for me, I am a worm, and no man, *
scorned by all, and the outcast of the people.
7 All those who see me laugh me to scorn; *
they curl their lips, and shake their heads, saying,
8 “He trusted in God, that he would deliver him; *
let him deliver him, if he will have him.”
9 But you are he that took me out of my mother’s womb; *
you were my hope, when I was yet upon my mother’s breasts.
10 I have been cast upon you ever since I was born; *
you are my God, even from my mother’s womb.
11 O go not far from me, for trouble is near at hand, *
and there is none to help me.
12 Many oxen have come around me; *
fat bulls of Bashan close me in on every side.
13 They gape at me with their mouths, *
like a ravening and a roaring lion.
14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; *
my heart also in the midst of my body is like melting wax.
15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue cleaves to my gums, *
and you bring me into the dust of death.
16 For many dogs have come about me, *
and the council of the wicked lays siege against me.
17 They pierced my hands and my feet; I can count all my bones; *
they stand staring and looking upon me.
18 They part my garments among them, *
and casts lots for my clothing.
19 But be not far from me, O LORD. *
You are my succor; hasten to help me.
20 Deliver my soul from the sword, *
my life from the power of the dog.
21 Save me from the lion’s mouth, *
and my soul in misery from among the horns of wild oxen.
Treat the first part of this psalm as a pair of but-yet statements: But you do not answer…Yet you are holy (2,3); But I am a worm and not a man…Yet you are he who took me from the womb (6,9). What we are overhearing here is “David’s” intense spiritual struggle between conflicting portraits of God and self, each jockeying for position in his mind. Note, it is the godly resolutions that get the last word in each case—yet he is holy, and yet I am chosen.
Where do these conflicting thoughts come from in the singer’s mind, and in ours? Are they not a product of the conflict we face every moment of every day between the “truth” we see with eyes of flesh and the truth revealed by God and seen with eyes of faith? They are, but the most important question for me and you is: who gets the last word?
Truthfully, there is only one person who can say that God has truly abandoned him, and that is Jesus. When he cried out after three hours on the cross at Calvary, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? he was correct in his assessment of the situation. The Father God had truly abandoned his Son for a short time for our sake. He took on the separation we deserved. So Paul writes: For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Cor. 5:21).
Today, Holy Spirit, as you did for David in the psalm, take charge of that internal jockeying for position going on inside of me. Let the word of Christ–yet you–be the last word for me.
At the Name of Jesus (Philippians 2:5-11)
5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Philippians 2:5-11
At the name of Jesus every knee should bow. It is highly significant that the name of the One to whom every knee everywhere will worship is a human name. The name Jesus we know is the Greek form of “Joshua” meaning “Yahweh saves.” It was (and in some parts still is) a common name for parents to give to their newborn sons. It was the will of the Father from the beginning that the One to sit enthroned with him carrying all authority, should be a human being–not (granted) a human like any other whose creation begins at birth, but rather One who passes through humanity. The Christ of God carries a human name and is human.
Devotionally, a firm grasp on this fact produces in us who affirm this hymn both a bowing down and a rising up. The bowing down is plain in the text. The rising up is articulated not here but in every NT passage that calls believers to be more human than ever, superhuman, human—like Christ. The very next section of Philippians gives us something of the idea: Paul follows on from the hymn to say, you humans who share the nature of the One exalted, rise up and work out your own salvation (2:12); rise up andbe blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation (15a); and rise up, shine like lights in the world (15b).
Today, in the Spirit, inspired by this hymn in Philippians, we bow down at the human name of Jesus, and rise in this name to the fullest potential of our own humanity.
The Tombs Also Were Opened (Matthew [26:36-75] 27:1-54 [55-66])
1 When morning came, all the chief priests and the elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death. 2 And they bound him and led him away and delivered him over to Pilate the governor. 3 Then when Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he changed his mind and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders, 4 saying, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood.” They said, “What is that to us? See to it yourself.” 5 And throwing down the pieces of silver into the temple, he departed, and he went and hanged himself. 6 But the chief priests, taking the pieces of silver, said, “It is not lawful to put them into the treasury, since it is blood money.” 7 So they took counsel and bought with them the potter’s field as a burial place for strangers. 8 Therefore that field has been called the Field of Blood to this day. 9 Then was fulfilled what had been spoken by the prophet Jeremiah, saying, “And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him on whom a price had been set by some of the sons of Israel, 10 and they gave them for the potter’s field, as the Lord directed me.” 11 Now Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus said, “You have said so.” 12 But when he was accused by the chief priests and elders, he gave no answer. 13 Then Pilate said to him, “Do you not hear how many things they testify against you?” 14 But he gave him no answer, not even to a single charge, so that the governor was greatly amazed. 15 Now at the feast the governor was accustomed to release for the crowd any one prisoner whom they wanted. 16 And they had then a notorious prisoner called Barabbas. 17 So when they had gathered, Pilate said to them, “Whom do you want me to release for you: Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?” 18 For he knew that it was out of envy that they had delivered him up. 19 Besides, while he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent word to him, “Have nothing to do with that righteous man, for I have suffered much because of him today in a dream.” 20 Now the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus. 21 The governor again said to them, “Which of the two do you want me to release for you?” And they said, “Barabbas.” 22 Pilate said to them, “Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?” They all said, “Let him be crucified!” 23 And he said, “Why? What evil has he done?” But they shouted all the more, “Let him be crucified!” 24 So when Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, “I am innocent of this man’s blood; see to it yourselves.” 25 And all the people answered, “His blood be on us and on our children!” 26 Then he released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, delivered him to be crucified. 27 Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor’s headquarters, and they gathered the whole battalion before him. 28 And they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, 29 and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” 30 And they spit on him and took the reed and struck him on the head. 31 And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes on him and led him away to crucify him. 32 As they went out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name. They compelled this man to carry his cross. 33 And when they came to a place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull), 34 they offered him wine to drink, mixed with gall, but when he tasted it, he would not drink it. 35 And when they had crucified him, they divided his garments among them by casting lots. 36 Then they sat down and kept watch over him there. 37 And over his head they put the charge against him, which read, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.” 38 Then two robbers were crucified with him, one on the right and one on the left. 39 And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads 40 and saying, “You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.” 41 So also the chief priests, with the scribes and elders, mocked him, saying, 42 “He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. 43 He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” 44 And the robbers who were crucified with him also reviled him in the same way. 45 Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. 46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” 47 And some of the bystanders, hearing it, said, “This man is calling Elijah.” 48 And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink. 49 But the others said, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.” 50 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. 51 And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. 52 The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, 53 and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many. 54 When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!”
Matthew 26:36–27:54
Matthew’s account of the triumphal entry of Jesus is the only one that adds this report of rumor circulating among “the crowds” in Jerusalem (11). The Evangelist likely seeks to differentiate the perspective of the mainly Galilean mob accompanying Jesus into the city from that of the Judeans waiting to receive him inside the walls Of course, neither view–conquering king nor “prophet”–is sufficient. It is not until the utterance of the centurion at the cross, “Surely he was the Son of God!” (27:54), that the truth comes out.
Crowd contagion–whether originating from rumors in a crowd or widely published teaching in books or a popular Christian song broadcast over the internet–always brings a test of our own heartfelt understanding of who Jesus Christ is coming triumphantly into our lives. It is perfectly acceptable to God that the truth of who his Son really is comes to us over time, as it does in the Gospel narratives of this day and the blessed witness of his life and death. Jesus engages us in the depths of our being, sculpting our faith into stone through years of steady prayer, receiving the Word and Sacraments, and the day-to-day experience of learning to walk his way.
Today, in the Spirit, as you begin this Holy Week, ask the Father “that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened that you may know the hope to which he has called you” through Jesus Christ (Eph. 1:18).
Today in the Spirit
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