This Sunday, called “Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion” has two halves to it, palms and passion. They stand in jarring contrast to each other.
1) The palms in the people’s hands, proclaiming Jesus’ kingship.
In the Mass, we are holding palms during the ritual procession, just as people did who lined the road long ago. This opening part of this Mass is more than just another historical reenactment, it is a proclamation of Jesus as king, the first half of the jarring contrast.
You may never have caught the kingly aspect of this but there are multiple clues in the First Gospel (the one that takes place before the palm procession). First, he rode on a colt, the animal that was used for royalty’s entrance into a city. The disciples spread their cloaks over the colt’s back as they would for a king.
Crowds along the way greeted Jesus as a royal hero. They spread out their coats upon the roadway, then covered these with palm branches cut from the fields. This was in order to soften the pathway for the kingly one and to keep the dirt off of him. They cried out, “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
2) The soldiers, mocking and doing their best to destroy Jesus’ kingship
The Mass itself and its Passion Reading show Jesus’ kingship ridiculed and made into a fool’s tale. Soldiers tie him up and yell at him, “King of the Jews,” to deride this poor, ridiculous captive. They jam a “royal” crown made of thorns on his head. They wrap a fake robe of purple around him (the color reserved for kings because of its rarity in those days). They spit on him. They strike him. They laugh. They make a tortured fool out of this great “king.”
The First Reading had already told us why such torture happened. Because the King chose it. The reading says,
I have not rebelled, have not turned back. I gave my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who plucked my beard; my face I did not shield from buffets and spitting.
You or I would have cried out, “My God, why have you abandoned me?” The Responsorial Psalm says exactly these words, and Jesus will say them from the cross.
Are these the words of a king? Does such a total surrender represent kingly action?
Yes.
Jesus, king of kings, “did not regard equality with God as something to cling to”—for safety or honor or for whatever other reason. As the greatest king he emptied himself out, became like a slave, obedient even to death on the cross (Second Reading). This, in allegiance to God and in service of the people.
The jarring contrast is put to rest because Jesus knew who he was, even under the worst duress and strife. He was the one who loves, no matter what.
This is the opposite of greatness as we imagine it. The real basis of rulership is service of God’s people, no matter what. The good ruler pulls a kingdom together and makes it safe, a place of abundance. If a ruler accomplishes such a goal, (and in the USA we are experiencing this) no kingly suffering could be too great. Palm/Passion Sunday is a large scale revelation of kingship’s real meaning.
Love.
