Sunday of the Passion
Mt
26:1-27:66
3/24/13
It is appropriate that Samuel Ray
Toler received the Sacrament of Holy Baptism this morning because it continues
the baptismal theme that we have been emphasizing all during Lent. At our mid-week Lent services this year, the
readings for the Vigil of Easter on Holy Saturday have served as the text for
the homilies. Almost all of these have
been classic baptismal texts because they involve water: the Creation account,
the Flood, Israel passing through the Red Sea, and Jonah.
Baptism – both the baptism of Jesus
and the baptism of the Christian – are directly tied to the Passion of Our Lord
that we heard in our Gospel reading this morning and that we will be observing
in the coming days of Holy Week. Jesus’
baptism began his journey to the passion.
He was baptized by John and as he came up out of the water the Holy
Spirit descended upon him like a dove, and God the Father said, “This is my
beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”
These words were drawn from Isaiah
chapter 42 where God said, “Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in
whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him.” In this event Jesus was anointed with the
Holy Spirit – he was designated as the Christ, the Messiah. In Nazareth Jesus later applied the words of
Isaiah 61 to himself, “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD
has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the
brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives.”
Jesus was designated as the
Christ. But he was designated as
something else as well. He was
identified as the Servant of the Lord – the One who would be the suffering Servant. By this event, God indicated that he was the
one who would fulfill the words of Isaiah chapter 53: “But he was pierced for
our transgressions;
he was crushed
for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and
with his wounds we are healed.” From the time of his baptism, Jesus’ entire
ministry is on that is headed toward the passion.
Our Lord had told the disciples that
this is what was going to happen. Three
different times in Matthew’s Gospel he had predicted it. The third and final time had taken place just
before he entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.
He said, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem. And the Son of Man will be
delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to
death and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and
crucified, and he will be raised on the third day.”
Jesus has been anointed by the
Spirit as the suffering Servant. And in
the beginning of the passion account we find that Jesus is again anointed. This
time he is anointed with expensive perfumed ointment. When the disciples object about the waste in
this action, Jesus replies, “In pouring this ointment on my body, she has done
it to prepare me for burial.”
Jesus has been anointed with the
Spirit as the suffering Servant. Now he
is anointed in preparation for burial because that is where this week is headed
– it is headed toward a tomb.
On Maundy Thursday we will gather as
the season Lent officially draws to a close.
We will hear of how Jesus’ and his disciples gathered for a meal on the
night when he was betrayed into death.
As he prepares to give himself on the cross as the lamb of God who takes
away the sin of the world he will tell his disciples, “A new commandment I give
to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to
love one another.” He tells us that his self-giving act of love prompts us to
show this same love for one another.
And at that supper – the Last Supper
with his disciples – Jesus Christ will not simply talk about love. He will institute the Sacrament whereby in a
bodily form he gives us this love and forgiveness. He will use bread and wine in order to give
them his true body and blood. And he
will command them to continue to do this in the future – a command that we obey
every time we celebrate the Sacrament of the Altar.
From the Last Supper Jesus and the
disciples will go to the Garden of Gethsemane.
Knowing what is ahead of him that night and the next morning our Lord
will say, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch
with me.” Three times then he will pray, “My Father, if it be possible, let
this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” He will be obedient to the will of the Father
as he prepares to the drink the cup of wrath against our sin; as he is the
suffering Servant for us. As Jesus had
said during his ministry, “The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve
and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Taken prisoner in the garden Jesus
will be put on trial before Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin, and before the Roman
prefect Pontius Pilate. We will gather on Good Friday to hear of how Jesus is crucified
between two criminals. As he hangs dying on the cross, the Jewish leaders will
mock him as they say, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is the King
of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He
trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he said, ‘I am
the Son of God.’” These are words
drenched in irony for in their unbelief they do not realize that Jesus saves us
by staying on the cross; that he shows he is is God’s Son by
remaining there until death.
He will hang on the cross for six
hours – from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. At
the end of that time he will cry out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken
me?” He will drink the cup of God’s wrath against our sin down to its last
bitter dregs as he dies. And then Joseph of Arimathea will bury him in a tomb
cut into rock and close it by rolling a large stone over the entrance. At sundown on Friday night he and the women
like Mary Magdalene will leave and return home because it is the start of the
Sabbath – the day of rest.
On Saturday Jesus’ body will lie in
the tomb. The women will remain at home
that day. But we won’t. We will come to church on Holy Saturday for
the Vigil of Easter. We will gather to
hear those texts from the Old Testament which prefigure God’s salvation through
baptism. On the day when Jesus was
buried in the tomb will be remember St. Paul’s words: “Do you not know that
all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his
death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order
that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we
too might walk in newness of life.”
You were anointed with the Holy
Spirit in baptism, just as Samuel was this morning. You were born again of water and the Spirit.
And when you were baptized something else happened. Paul says that through
baptism you shared in Christ’s saving passion.
You died with him and were buried with him.
Yet there is more to it than
that. Jesus Christ was crucified and
buried. But he didn’t remain dead. On
the third day he rose from the dead.
That third day begins at sundown on Saturday. And so at the Vigil of
Easter we will begin the first celebration of Jesus Christ’s resurrection. We will celebrate the fact that because of
baptism we know we will also share in this resurrection. St. Paul went on to say about baptism, “For
if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be
united with him in a resurrection like his.”
And then on Easter Sunday we will
gather to hear the angel’s words at the empty tomb: “Do not be afraid, for I
know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen,
as he said.” We will rejoice in the victory over sin and death that is ours
because of Jesus Christ.
I probably say it every year: Four
services in four days – that’s a lot of church. I know because those sermons
don’t write themselves. But in the three
days of the Triduum and in Easter Sunday we walk through the passion with
Jesus. In those days we again hear about
how much he loved us; about the forgiveness that he has won for us; about the
future he has prepared for us. And those
are thing we can never hear too much.
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