Something has gone wrong…
Think about it. Things were going so well up until this very point. The disciples had been following Jesus for years, and had seen so many things. Jesus had been going about teaching and telling all about the Good News. He had gone out and reaffirmed so many teachings that they were used to. He taught the commands of the law. He went out and told them about God’s love for them. He challenged them to believe in a deeper way. He even put the scribes and the pharisees in their place so many different times- was this indeed the Messiah?
What’s more, He had been performing all of these wondrous miracles! He had been healing and doing marvelous miracles. They beheld it when he multiplied the loaves for thousands. They saw when He healed a blind man, those ill, those possessed by demons. They had seen Him conquer a storm out at sea. They had witnessed so many different signs and miraculous wonders that this truly seemed to be someone special- He must be the Messiah that they had thought was coming.
Then, things started to take a turn. He began to speak of a need to suffer and to die. He was going to go to Jerusalem and there be handed over to by the chief priests, the scribes, and the pharisees, and He would then be put to death. This doesn’t seem like something a Messiah would go through, does it?
Then, we fast forward to Palm Sunday. There is pomp, there is circumstance, there seems to be all sorts of recognition that Jesus Christ is in fact the one who is coming into the world. The people recognize that He is the Son of David- and they are shouting cries of “Hosanna in the highest!” They are laying palms and their cloaks before Him as if He is the most royal of all kings.
What then went wrong only a few days later? Why have we arrived at this crucial point, where we hear about Jesus being handed over, being scourged, being mocked, and ultimately being left to die on a Cross- the most humiliating of all deaths to be died at that time? What does all of this mean? Is this all a sign of defeat? Has everything gone wrong?
Or, is Jesus doing something more than what eye can see? Perhaps this is the case.
If we go back, in the first reading, we hear from the prophet Isaiah a prophecy concerning the servant of God- in particular, we hear about how there is a sort of paradox- how He is to be raised high and greatly exalted, and yet that there was going to be something unexpected that would take place also. He was going to look ordinary, to a certain extend, and yet, then things would shift. He was going to startle many nations- eventually we arrive at the point of the reading where we hear about he was spurned and avoided, a man of suffering. What’s worse is that he begins to be a man who carries our infirmities, our sufferings, and he was one who was stricken and thought of one as smitten. Yet, he was pierced for our offenses, crushed for our sins, and he took upon himself the chastisement that makes all of us whole… then the paradox ends on a positive note- because of his affliction he shall take away the sins of many, and win pardon for their offenses. Something very unusual is happening.
If we move on to the second reading from the letter to the Hebrews, we hear about a great high priest- who has passed through the heavens. He is noted as a high priest that is not aloof- not one that is above our weaknesses or unfamiliar with any of them. He rather is one that is altogether different. He is the one who has been tested in every way- and has been without sin. What’s more he was the one who underwent the task of death, and of suffering- and because of these things, he became the one who was not only made perfect- but he was the source of eternal salvation for all. This reading notes just how powerful out God is.
Finally, we hear in the Gospel about the Passion narrative as John has heard it. This powerful testimony again shows in very vivid color not just the fact that Christ died on behalf of His people, but that He underwent all sorts of punishment, of betrayal, of suffering, and of pain to pay the full price for each of us. This account not only shows what happened, but how Jesus Christ fulfilled every sort of prophecy and every scriptural precedent that told exactly who Jesus was, even in the generations well before His own time.
Perhaps the most potent line of the entire Gospel comes at the moment when Jesus says “It is finished.” And hands over His spirit. Truly something tremendous has happened- and it may have seemed at the time to have been a moment of defeat.
Yet was it?
My brothers and sisters, if we consider this day, we are given invitation to think about what our Lord has done. This in fact is not a moment of defeat but a moment when Christ does one of the greatest works conceivable- that He conquers sin and death in one action. He undergoes all sorts of pain and suffering to take away our sin. Yet, we should look at the Cross and not see a God who is angry with His people for what has happened- but a God who is filled with love and compassion for His people. When we look at the Cross we should not see someone afflicted, but someone filled- filled with love for each of us- for you and I, and every one of our brothers and sisters- even those who we may consider to be “the most lost.”
Second, though, through the letter to the Hebrews, there is a needed reminder- that our Lord became one of us so that we may not have a high priest unfamiliar with our situation. We are given one that has been similarly tested and has undergone all sorts of affliction, and not as a show of blind power or of might, but of a God who is sympathetic withour condition. He has been in our shoes before, and thus when we suffer or when we undergo affliction, whether just or unjust, we are doing so mindful of the fact that we have a high priest who has shown us that He is willing to enter into our human condition Himself as well.
Finally, though, it gives us a powerful reminder of this day of the wages of sin. Often times we may be tempted to excuse ourselves because of situation and circumstance, and perhaps we think that we don’t do anything all that bad, at least in a manner of speaking. Yet, today we see in a very powerful and vivid way the price that was paid for sin. This is not to strike some sort of inordinate fear in us, but to ultimately remind us of the great lengths that our Lord has gone through to free us from the bonds of sin and death- something that we couldn’t free ourselves from in the first place.
Thus, today, in every way, is something unexpected. Truly, things seem to have been turned on their head and are in chaos and confusion. Our Lord has suffered and died. Yet, this is not something that has happened by accident, but by God’s choice and God’s love for each and every one of us. Jesus has suffered and died on the Cross for love of you and of I.
Perhaps, something has gone right, after all.
