Palm Sunday

5 April 2009

Middlesbrough Cathedral

A question that I have been asking myself and also posing to the young people of the diocese throughout the whole of Lent is the question that Jesus asked Peter and the other disciples in chapter eight of St Mark’s Gospel; “Who do you say I am?” The disciples had misunderstood Jesus’ message. They expected him to be the Promised One of God who would destroy the power of the Roman colonisers and restore the People of Israel to their former glory.

All the way through the Passion reading which we have just witnessed Jesus is given names and titles that people wanted to project onto him. The High Priest asked Jesus, “Are you the Christ, Son of the Blessed One?” The servant girl in the courtyard called Jesus the man from Nazareth. Pilate asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” While Jesus was dying on the Cross, the chief priests and the scribes mocked him and called him “The Christ, the King of Israel.” As Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last the Roman Centurion said, “In truth, this man was a Son of God.”

Although the others were not wrong, the only one who got it right was the Centurion. He had recognised that Jesus was the Promised One of God, the Christ, Son of the Blessed One, the Man from Nazareth, the King of the Jews, the King of Israel. Standing at the foot of the cross he had somehow witnessed that Jesus’ power consisted in giving his life as a ransom for many. His Kingship drew its authority from the humiliation of the Cross. His rule came as a result of his innocent acceptance of death to save the guilty. His honour and esteem throughout the generations comes about because by his dying he has destroyed our sins and in his rising we are raised to the holiness of life. This foreigner, this outsider, the Roman centurion took it on board while the clever ones, the ones who supposedly knew it all, the scribes, the Pharisees, the high priests and even the disciples just could not grasp the reality staring them in the face.

What about me, what about you? Have we grasped the reality of who Jesus is and what it means to be one of his followers? Have we understood just how much Jesus loves us and is willing to give for us? Are we too willing to serve as he served and to join him in giving our all for the ransom of many?

Peter, James, John and the rest, when asked the same questions were full of bluster and the quick response, but when push came to shove, when the crunch came, Peter couldn’t even stand up to a young girl’s questioning and the rest ran away at the first sign of trouble. What had become of “If I have to die with you, I will never disown you”?

This is Holy Week, the Great Week. Take time; take space to reflect on these most important questions. Let’s journey on into this week together. Alone we might be too afraid even to put one foot in front of another. Let’s take courage from the Lord himself whom we have just witnessed stumbling along the road that led him to Calvary. May his death give us hope and strength and may his resurrection give us perseverance and bring us to the fullness of salvation. Amen.