Palm Sunday

On Palm Sunday, we have the privilege of hearing two gospels, one that recounts the events when Jesus entered Jerusalem, and then a second that recounts the events that lead to his crucifixion. All too often the homily on this day focuses on the former, to the exclusion of the latter. I mean to remedy this situation today by focusing exclusively on the latter. It is true that we also have Good Friday to focus on the events of the Passion, but the Good Friday liturgy always takes the Passion according to the Johannine tradition, while Palm Sunday cycles through the three synoptic traditions. This year, we have heard the Passion according to the tradition of Luke. The synoptic gospels share similar material, with three quarters of the material in Mark being found in Luke and Matthew. If we want to pay attention to the particular theological focus of each of the synoptic gospels, we do so by observing what is unique in each gospel. The Passion narrative in Luke contains a number of unique features that are worth reflecting on.

The Passion narratives in Matthew and Mark focus on Jesus’ isolation during his suffering, as he is abandoned by his disciples. In sharp contrast, the disciples in Luke are congratulated for being faithful to Jesus and the Lord even confers a Kingdom on them. Their abandonment of their Master is passed over in silence. Even when Peter’s denial is predicted by Jesus, it is done so in the most merciful and encouraging perspective: “Simon, Simon! Look, Satan has got his wish to sift you all like wheat; but I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail, and once you have recovered, you in your turn must strengthen your brothers.” Jesus knows that Peter will mess up and fall, but Jesus encourages Peter not to lose heart and to use his own personal experience of weakness to strengthen and encourage his brothers. It is an incredibly rich and profound reflection on the experience of personal sin and how that experience can be turned towards good. As Antony De Mello says, we are to be grateful for our sins, for they are carriers of grace.

Living in a community that had far more fraught relations with the Jewish community, Matthew cannot resist the temptation to play the blame game. He has the Jews fully assume responsibility for Jesus’ death: “His blood be on us and our children” (Mt 27: 25). In contrast, Luke chooses to go down a totally different track and has Jesus forgive those who are crucifying him. One of the central thrusts of Luke’s gospel is an emphasis on the unreserved mercy and forgiveness of God. Jesus is seen to put into concrete practice what he spent his whole life preaching about, namely the need for us to forgive one another as we are forgiven by our Father in heaven.

In Mark’s gospel, the trauma of the Passion reaches its crux where Jesus feels so alone that he dies with the question of why God has abandoned him on his lips. Luke’s Jesus on the other hand dies far more calmly, knowing that he has accomplished the Father’s will and can now yield his spirit into his Father’s hands “Father into your hands, I commend my spirit.” Luke’s presentation of the passion is far less negative than that of Matthew and Mark. Mark and Matthew present the passion as the collusion of the powers of evil that result in the victimization of Jesus and the failure of the disciples to accompany him to the end. Writing at least 10 years after Mark, Luke decides to soften the rawness of Jesus’ death and instead emphasize the saving power of Jesus’ death. There is a sense in which the Lukan community has had time to process the trauma of Jesus’ death and are now prepared to approach it much more reflectively, with their eyes open to the ways in which God might be present in this situation of evil, already redeeming it and opening the path to forgiveness. In both Matthew and Mark, the chief priests, the rulers of the people and the crowds all show themselves hostile to Jesus. Luke is the only gospel that presents a good number of the crowd as sympathetic to the plight of Jesus. They take no part in the mockery of Jesus and go home striking their breasts.

If the Passion is regarded by Matthew and Mark as a huge tragedy which is only reversed by the resurrection, in Luke the healing and forgiving power of God are already active in Passion. Often we can be tempted to read the tragedies and sufferings of our lives in a similar manner to Mark and Matthew. We tend to take a completely negative attitude towards them and only see the saving presence of God in the events that reverse the tragedy or bring an end to our suffering. The gospel of Luke invites us to take a deeper look into the suffering and trials we encounter in life and in them see already the saving and healing power of God. As we enter Holy Week, may our eyes be opened to the ways in which God is already at work in the painful experiences of our lives by bringing us healing and inviting us down a path of forgiveness and largeness of spirit.

Questions for reflection

1. Have I ever been able to use my experience of having fallen and been forgiven to encourage others in their own struggle with sin and weakness?
2. Do I experience suffering and trials as places of God’s absence or God’s presence?