4th Passiontide 2022, Build the Body

  

4^th Passiontide (Palm Sunday)

Matthew 21:1-11 

Hippolyte Flandrin

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 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 from 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!

Hosanna in the highest! [or, 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."

4^th Passiontide Sunday

Palm Sunday

April 10, 2020

Matthew 21:1-11  

This mysterious picture – Christ Jesus asks for a donkey and its foal to be brought to Him. Upon them, He will ride into Jerusalem, the city of peace. Why donkeys? Why two? 

Francis of Assisi famously called his body Brother Donkey. The donkeys of our bodies are the earthly means of conveyance for our souls and spirits. Our donkey is strong, stubborn, and willful. For most of us, if the body decides to go somewhere, say, into illness, it is about all we can do to hang on for the ride. 

Christ chooses donkeys as His means of conveyance as a living symbol of the final phase of His earthly life. He is choosing the human body as His final battleground. His triumphal entry into Jerusalem foretells the fully accomplished entry of His spirit into the body of Jesus. Today He rides the donkey of the physical nature, both the old body and the new immortal one he will inhabit at His resurrection. 

The people sense this, but their jubilation is premature. These two ‘donkeys’ are carrying Him where He wants to go – deeper into the body, into suffering, even into the death that the body offers. Rejoicing will be more appropriate days later when the body has been transformed at the Last Supper into the new form of bread and wine; when His suffering has borne fruit; when death has been overthrown because He has wrested the human spirit from the death of matter.

 At the Last Supper and its iterations, He wields the power to make bread and wine into His immortal body and blood so that He can feed us His own immortality. With His help, we, too, can make our sufferings fruitful. Through our connection with Him, we can, bit by bit, build the new body that is not subject to death, the Christ-body that comes to life in us, through us, in our offering. 

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4th Passiontide, Palm Sunday 2019, Bright Wedge of Freedom

4^th Passiontide

Palm Sunday

Matthew 21: 1-11 (adapted from Madsen)

And they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage by

Hippolyte Flandrin

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.”

4^th Passiontide,

Palm Sunday

April 14, 2019

Matthew 21: 1-11

Vessels such as bowls are made, obviously, to carry content. The content is on the inside, and the vessel surrounds it. At the same time, there is a further aspect; the person carrying the bowl carries both the bowl and its

contents.

Christ Jesus enters Jerusalem carried by a beast of burden and its foal. This animal is a symbol of our physical body. The body bears the weight of our destiny and of our deeds. In the picture language of this reading, Jesus’ body is the vessel for Christ’s spirit of love. Christ is the content of the vessel of the body of Jesus. And at the same time, Christ is both inside and outside. Christ Jesus rides above the bodily beast of burden. And he guides it regally toward its own suffering and death, and toward its resurrection.

We too are spiritual beings carried within a bodily vessel. Our body as a beast of destiny’s burden carries us, too, ultimately toward the end of earthly life that we all must approach.

But our hearts can connect with Christ. He can be the content of our souls, the ‘small, bright wedge of freedom in your own heart’, as the poet* says. And at the same time, He can be both content and the One carrying the vessel. Our heart’s connection with Christ gives us One who rides with us, guides us. He is riding both the old beast of destiny’s burden and the young foal which will carry us into the future. He accompanies us on our journey with His strength and love and power of resurrection.

* David Whyte, “The Journey”.

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