Sunday, March 20, 2016

4th Passiontide, Palm Sunday 2016, Sunset, Son-Rise

4th Passiontide
Palm Sunday
Matthew 21: 1-11

And they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage by the Mount of Olives. Then Jesus sent two disciples ahead and said to them, “Go to the village which you see before you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there and her foal with her. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone says anything to you, tell him that the Lord needs them, and he will let you take them right away.”

This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:

‘Say to the daughter of Zion,
Behold, your king comes to you in majesty.
Gentle is He, and He rides on a donkey and on a foal of the beast of burden.’

The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them. They brought the donkey and the foal, placed their garments on them, and Jesus sat on them.
           
Many out of the large crowd spread their clothes on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of them and followed Him shouted:

Hosanna to the Son of David!
Blessed is he who comes in the Name and Power of the Lord!
Hosannah in the highest! [Sing to Him in the highest heights!]

When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is he?” The crowds answered, “This is Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”

4th Passiontide, Palm Sunday
Entry into Jerusalem, Ninetta SombartPalm Sunday
March 20, 2016
Matthew 21: 1-11

Just before sunrise, one can sense nature’s mood of anticipation. Light grows to a chorus of birdsong. Color emerges from gray. And as the sun peaks over the horizon, joy floods the earth with the light.

In today’s reading the people greet Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem like a sunrise. But for Christ Jesus himself, it is a time of sunset. He knows he is entering his demise. He knows that his time is short. And he knows that his task is great. For he must keep the light and color of his being unextinguished even as he travels into the darkness of death, into the depths of the earth.

Sunrise and sunset, light and dark, life and death – the great polarities will be reunited, made One, in His being. The great separation that began with the Fall of the human being, which ushered in sickness and death, will be bridged in Him. But first, his encounter with the kingdom of darkness, his wrestling with death. His victory was at that point by no means assured. But because of it, we will be able to be healed and strengthened, so that we too can walk through darkness and death, without the fear of being extinguished.

As Tagore said: Death is not the extinguishing of the light, but the putting out of the lamp, because Dawn has come.*


*Rabindranath Tagore

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