Sunday, March 16, 2008
From AscensionNYC
Palm Sunday
by Vinh Do
Psalm 31:9-16
Isaiah 50:4-9a
Philippians 2:5-11
Matthew 26:14 - 27:66
This is the time of the year when I realize that I worship a man who died by crucifixion. Jesus' death on a cross seem ignominious to me. It is surreal really. In Matthew's rendering of the events leading to Jesus' last breath on earth, I see depictions of all sorts of human strengths and weakness. From those around Jesus, I see examples of friendship and treachery, kindness and cruelty, courage and cowardice. Jesus himself must have experienced love and enmity, obedience and betrayal, power and gross injustice, perseverance and despair. I wonder if Jesus despaired. Did he despair for being alone, for his life? He prayed alone in the dark garden while his avowed friends lay sleeping — it must seem his darkest hour. I believe he had a choice to walk away from the bitter path laid out for him, but he to chose instead to obey. So he walked into his crucifixion.
Jesus is some kind of anti-hero. He is the antithesis of what we expect our answers to be for anything. He didn't avenge. He didn't vanquish. He eschewed justice — our human understanding of it — for mercy. He dined with sinners and communed with the misbegotten. Then he rose to a kind of popularity among the masses. Then people deserted him. Then he died. What a dramatic disappointment it must have been to his disciples to witness all this! He was one short-lived celebrity. But to call him a celebrity is to not understand him. To despair of his death — and his crucifixion — is to not understand his purpose. Those with faith living in his time knew that Jesus stood for the life after — the kind of life that begins after physical death.
In this age we have the benefit of hindsight and the scholarship Jesus inspired. We know that the kind of victory Jesus achieved cannot be fully measured in human terms. We are asked to believe in compassion in the face of cruelty. We are asked to practice mercy and forgiveness. We are asked to believe, in short, in the example of the man named Jesus. And we are asked to entrust our life in one who lived this life and lives in one beyond.
Psalm 31:9-16
Isaiah 50:4-9a
Philippians 2:5-11
Matthew 26:14 - 27:66
This is the time of the year when I realize that I worship a man who died by crucifixion. Jesus' death on a cross seem ignominious to me. It is surreal really. In Matthew's rendering of the events leading to Jesus' last breath on earth, I see depictions of all sorts of human strengths and weakness. From those around Jesus, I see examples of friendship and treachery, kindness and cruelty, courage and cowardice. Jesus himself must have experienced love and enmity, obedience and betrayal, power and gross injustice, perseverance and despair. I wonder if Jesus despaired. Did he despair for being alone, for his life? He prayed alone in the dark garden while his avowed friends lay sleeping — it must seem his darkest hour. I believe he had a choice to walk away from the bitter path laid out for him, but he to chose instead to obey. So he walked into his crucifixion.
Jesus is some kind of anti-hero. He is the antithesis of what we expect our answers to be for anything. He didn't avenge. He didn't vanquish. He eschewed justice — our human understanding of it — for mercy. He dined with sinners and communed with the misbegotten. Then he rose to a kind of popularity among the masses. Then people deserted him. Then he died. What a dramatic disappointment it must have been to his disciples to witness all this! He was one short-lived celebrity. But to call him a celebrity is to not understand him. To despair of his death — and his crucifixion — is to not understand his purpose. Those with faith living in his time knew that Jesus stood for the life after — the kind of life that begins after physical death.
In this age we have the benefit of hindsight and the scholarship Jesus inspired. We know that the kind of victory Jesus achieved cannot be fully measured in human terms. We are asked to believe in compassion in the face of cruelty. We are asked to practice mercy and forgiveness. We are asked to believe, in short, in the example of the man named Jesus. And we are asked to entrust our life in one who lived this life and lives in one beyond.
