Palm Sunday
Mark 15:1-47
As soon as it was morning, the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council. They bound Jesus, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate. Pilate asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” He answered him, “You say so.” Then, the chief priests accused him of many things. Pilate asked him again, “Have you no answer? See how many charges they bring against you.” But, Jesus made no further reply, so that Pilate was amazed.
Now at the festival, he used to release a prisoner for them, anyone for whom they asked. Now, a man called Barabbas was in prison with the rebels who had committed murder during the insurrection. So, the crowd came and began to ask Pilate to do for them according to his custom. Then, he answered them, “Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?” For he realized that it was out of jealousy that the chief priests had handed him over. But, the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have him release Barabbas for them instead. Pilate spoke to them again, “Then what do you wish me to do with the man you call the King of the Jews?” They shouted back, “Crucify him!” Pilate asked them, “Why, what evil has he done?” But, they shouted all the more, “Crucify him!” So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released Barabbas for them; and after flogging Jesus, he handed him over to be crucified.
Then the soldiers led him into the courtyard of the palace (that is, the governor’s headquarters); and they called together the whole cohort. And, they clothed him in a purple cloak; and after twisting some thorns into a crown, they put it on him. And, they began saluting him, “Hail, King of the Jews!” They struck his head with a reed, spat upon him, and knelt down in homage to him. After mocking him, they stripped him of the purple cloak and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him out to crucify him.
They compelled a passer-by, who was coming in from the country, to carry his cross; it was Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus. Then, they brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha (which means the place of a skull). And, they offered him wine mixed with myrrh; but he did not take it. And they crucified him, and divided his clothes among them, casting lots to decide what each should take.
It was nine o’clock in the morning when they crucified [Jesus]. The inscription of the charge against him read, “The King of the Jews.” And, with him they crucified two bandits, one on his right and one on his left. Those who passed by derided him, shaking their heads and saying, “Aha! You who would destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself, and come down from the cross!” In the same way, the chief priests, along with the scribes, were also mocking him among themselves and saying, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. Let the Messiah, the King of Israel, come down from the cross now, so that we may see and believe.” And, those who were crucified with him taunted him, as well.
When it was noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. At three o’clock, Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” When some of the bystanders heard it, they said, “Listen, he’s calling for Elijah.” And someone ran, filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a stick, and gave it to him to drink, saying, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down.” Then, Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last. And, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. Now when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was God’s Son!”
In the distance, the women watched. Among them were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome. They used to follow [Jesus] and provided for him when he was in Galilee; and there were many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem.
When evening had come, and since it was the day of Preparation, that is, the day before the sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the council, who was also himself waiting expectantly for the kingdom of God, went boldly to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then, Pilate wondered if he were already dead; and summoning the centurion, he asked him whether he had been dead for some time. When he learned from the centurion that [Jesus] was dead, he granted the body to Joseph. Then, Joseph bought a linen cloth, and taking down the body, wrapped it in the linen cloth, and laid it in a tomb that had been hewn out of the rock. He then rolled a stone against the door of the tomb. Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where the body was laid.
Last Days
Like last year’s Palm Sunday gospel reading, the Mark text doesn’t start with Jesus’ arrival to Jerusalem on the back of a colt, with people spreading their cloaks and leafy branches before him. In the Gospel of Mark, that happens four chapters earlier, in chapter 11. Instead, today’s reading starts shortly after Jesus has been arrested, and the priests are handing him over to Pilate, the governor of Judea.
Pilate asks him, “Are you the King of the Jews?”
And, Jesus says, “You say so.”
Jesus doesn’t say anything after that, and Pilate doesn’t know what to do with him. He doesn’t want to imprison or kill Jesus, because as far as he can tell, Jesus hasn’t done anything to deserve that. Whatever he’s being accused of seems to be a religious matter, something for the Jewish religious leaders to deal with; he doesn’t want to be involved. So, he comes up with a plan. It was almost time for Passover feast, and it was the custom at the festival preceding the feast to release one prisoner that the people asked for, as a gesture of goodwill towards the Jewish people under Roman rule.
At the festival, Pilate asks the crowd if they want him to release Jesus, the King of the Jews, but the priests who had Jesus arrested are stirring up the crowd. So, instead of asking for Jesus, the crowd asks for Barabbas, a known criminal and murderer. The same crowd that just a few days earlier were spreading their cloaks and branches on the ground in front of Jesus, shouting, “Hosana! Hosana!” welcoming Jesus into the city. The priests would release a murderer than allow Jesus to continue his teachings. So, Pilate releases a murderer, and Jesus is whipped, and handed over to be executed.
By the time we get to the end today’s gospel reading, Jesus will be dead. His body will be placed in a tomb cut out of the rock, and a large stone will be rolled in front of the door. What are his followers supposed to do, now? Their leader is dead. And, if the authorities thought that Jesus had to die, what was going to happen to the rest of them?
We’ve been looking at a lot of texts from the Gospel of Mark over the last few months, and one thing that has been pretty consistent is the brevity of Mark’s writing. He can’t tell the story fast enough, he needs us to know what happened and he needs us to know it now, because time is short. He writes about the opposition that Jesus faces, even from his own disciples. He writes about Jesus’ growing popularity, and the religious elite asking, “Who is this upstart who thinks he can just come in and undermine them?” The chapters and the stories rush by like a run-away train! We don’t know what tomorrow will bring, you need to know the stories, Jesus could come back at any time!
But, Mark slows down here, for the telling of the Jesus’ last days. The story is given room to breathe, and we start to get details about what happened. Jesus is taunted by the crowd, mocked by the priests, belittled by the soldiers. Even the criminals crucified to his left and his right feel the need to comment on Jesus’ inability to save himself. How quickly they all forget the healings and the casting out of demons. They forgot that Jesus gave sight to the blind and fed thousands of people with just two fish and five loaves of bread.
Right before he dies, Jesus says, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” His disciples are nowhere to be seen in this reading. He must have felt so alone. But, in the distance, the women watch, offering their support and their presence, as they always did throughout his ministry.
They had to watch as their leader, their teacher, their friend, was tortured and killed. He told them that he was going to come back. They had seen so many miracles; they even saw him bring people back from the dead! But, how was he supposed to bring himself back from the dead?
We know what happens next, because we grew up with the stories. Because, we tell this story every year, to remind ourselves what can happen when religion and politics are joined together. When power becomes the goal, rather than taking care of the people. We kill the Son of God in our self-righteousness.
As we move through Holy Week, through Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Sunday, we move through the story of the last days of Jesus’ life. We know the deep sorrow that his followers felt, we know their fear, we know their hopelessness. But, we also know their hope. It’s a paradox. Hope was the only thing they had left, so they held on to it with everything they had. Jesus said he was going to come back. He said it. And, he was the Son of God.
With everything that’s happening in the world right now, we know what it’s like to be holding onto hope with desperate hands, in what looks like a hopeless situation. We know the fear of wondering when it’s all going to slip from our fingers, when the rug is going to be pulled out from beneath us. But, we have to hold on. We have to! We know what’s going to happen; we know about the resurrection! There is hope! All things are possible with God. All things are good and made new with God. So, hold on to that hope. Hold on to that hope for the future. No matter how hopeless our situation may seem to be, there is always hope with God. Easter is coming. Amen.
~ Rev. Charles Wei
