Our readings take us on a rollercoaster ride beginning from the heights of Palm Sunday where Jesus is welcomed as a victorious but peaceful King by the crowds saying,
‘Blessed is the king
who comes in the name of the Lord!
Peace in heaven,
and glory in the highest heaven!’
But then these readings begin to tip downward where the crowds are no longer shouting praise but are shouting out for crucifixion.
We remember that these crowds, these pilgrims for Passover, as they praised and thanked God for Jesus riding into the heights of Jerusalem but then their praise falls silent and the next we hear of praise is when the centurion praises God and says, ‘Certainly this man was innocent [“Surely this was a righteous man’].
And if the crowds didn’t offer their shouts of praise then creation itself would be awoken to act in their stead, ‘I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out’, Jesus says.
But then there is a point at the end where the stones would have fallen silent, where the Sun hid its light behind the moon and the temple curtain rips itself apart. The curtain symbolically representing the reality of access to God through Jesus, which of course is the main mission of Jesus, providing access to the Father; to reveal the Father to people who had false perceptions (Luke 10:22).
All throughout this rollercoaster ride the Father is present and close to Jesus; never abandoning or forsaking as some suggest but we see that Jesus communed most with the Father as he is abandoned and forsaken by his disciples and the once alluring crowd. He prays to the Father in Gethsemane, as Jesus is crucified he says, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” And when he took his last breathe he shouted, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”
The Father was there, always there, suffering alongside his Son as Jesus shares our human nature and suffers our rejection to redeem it, to share with us his righteousness, his obedience so that humanity could be free to share in what Jesus held most dear, throughout this rollercoaster, his own relationship to the Father.
From Palm Sunday to Passion we are reminded...
Life too can be likened to a rollercoaster with its rapid pace and its many ups and downs and sometimes you aren’t sure whether you’ve been properly strapped in and so sometimes all you can do is hang-on for dear life and trust.
Life can be like Palm Sunday and then quickly turn to the Passion where people sing our praises but then soon turn and call for our crucifixion. But in it all, through the suffering and injustice we have a Heavenly Father. A heavenly Father who does not leave us but chooses to be with us despite what it would cost; despite what he would experience with us.
My own window into the Father heart of God though it is framed in my own humanity... is when my child suffers, is sick or in pain, I choose to be closer, to embrace tighter, and to assure her of my presence.
As our readings are forcing us to remember is that this rollercoaster ride doesn’t finish in the depths of a valley but at Easter we are reminded that it finishes at the peak. Through Christ’s resurrection and ascension we are taken up into the Father’s arms; into new life, new identity and new relationship.
May we live, believing it to be so... despite what the crowds say, despite the ups and downs, despite when we feel like getting off.
May we believe it to be true as we commune at the table where Jesus welcomes us to share in all that he has done and all that he is in relationship to the Father... in the power of the Spirit, AMEN.
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