INDEED, HE IS THE SON OF GOD

PALM SUNDAY - Mark 14:1-15:47

With Palm Sunday, we enter the Holy Week, a week set aside for us to celebrate the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In this week, we go through joy and sorrow. We join the crowds who acclaimed Jesus as the Messiah and then, in a twist of behaviour, we join them again in shouting: Crucify him!

Jesus entered Jerusalem in triumph, acclaimed as king and saviour: 

‘Hosanna!

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!

Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is coming!

Hosanna in the highest!’

However, he does not behave like any other king. He comes seated on a colt and, instead of an army, has his disciples and a crowd of common people. His kingship is of truth and love. In a few days, we would be arrested, tried, condemned and executed.

Jesus knew what was in wait for him and, in the Last Supper, he gave the meaning of his incoming death: “This is my blood, the blood of the covenant, which is to be poured out for many.” He accepted his death as a sacrifice, the sacrifice of the new covenant, shed for the remission of sins.

In the passion drama, all of us are intervenient. Are we like Judas who, being disappointed, turned against Jesus, being ready to profit from his betrayal? Are we like the disciples who ran away or like Peter who lied, denying Jesus to save his own life? Are we like the High Priest and all the other religious leaders of the people, who were blinded by their power and wealth? Are we like the Roman governor, Pilate, who did not care about truth and justice? In our world, how many innocent people suffer Jesus’ fate? Insulted, despised and abandoned even by friends! And then tortured beyond imagination! On the cross, his cry is the cry of the suffering servant, the cry of all those who suffer injustice and seem to be ignored even by God.

We begin the Palm Sunday acclaiming Jesus as the Messiah and then, we end it with the proclamation of faith of the Roman centurion: “In truth this man was a son of God.”

Jesus is the Son of God, who put aside his divine dignity to become one like us so that we may be raised high into glory with him.