Palm Sunday (Fr. Robinson)

​     In about a half hour's time we have shouted "Hosanna!  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord," hailing Jesus as our King as he enters the Holy City of Jerusalem.   We have recalled Jesus' arrest and his mockery of a trial.  And within that same half hour we have joined the crowd in shouting, "Crucify him!"  We have recalled his condemnation by Pilate, his sentence of death, his scourging, his crucifixion, and his death.  In other words, we have recalled the doing in of the best man who ever walked the face of the earth or whoever will walk the face of the earth, by the most religious people of the time, by a government that prided itself on its system of laws and justice.  We have recalled human beings, even the most exemplary of human beings, at their very worst. 
 
     Our part in the liturgy serves to remind us that we are part of the same broken humanity that crucified our Lord.  And we have done it all in this magnificent church; we have done it with great ceremony and dignity, with some of the most strikingly beautiful vestments that the parish possesses. 
 
     To the uninitiated, all of this might seem strange, certainly puzzling, and something that people would do well simply to forget.  These things are recalled in a spirit of sober recollection, yet undergirded with a quiet joy and thankfulness.  For the story that has been recalled, a story of human treachery, greed, and betrayal, against a completely innocent man, is the story of our redemption.  Our joy is a muted joy, for the story is not yet fully told, the resurrection not having yet occurred. 
 
     The Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is good news, the Good News of the reconciling of God and humanity, but it is first of all bad news.  God, the Father, the Creator of this vast universe, desires to have a relationship with us, who are made in his image.  He created us to live in communion with him and with one another, yet we choose again and again to be our own god, to put ourselves in the center of our own little universes, expecting all those around us and even God to worship at our altar.
    
     This is the history of humanity.  This was the situation in the days when Jesus walked the earth.   And it still is the situation in our own day, whether we're talking about senseless wars or terrorist attacks in various places around the world, or mass shootings in our own country, or problems in the office and at home.  The Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is that all of these things stem from the same root—we human beings wanting to be in control—of others and of God.
 
     This is our disobedience, and our disobedience has caused a rupture in our relationship with our Creator.  God still wants to be in relationship with us, and through our Lord Jesus Christ he has mended that relationship.  The good news is that, through Jesus' death on the cross, Jesus has paid the price for our sin and also has given us an example of godly life. 
 
     The story of the life, suffering, and death of Jesus Christ is the story of the pure, unbounded love of God for us.  May we live this day and all our days in the knowledge of that love, seeking, by God's grace, to live that sacrificial love in our lives.