Palm Sunday

“Pilate put to him this question: ‘Are you the king of the Jews?’ Jesus replied: ‘It is you who say it’”. One of the accusations thrown at Jesus was that he was setting himself up as a rival centre of authority in an already complicated political situation. Pilate questions Jesus, and, in what ensues, the nature of Christ’s kingship is defined. From, the long days and nights of his temptation in the wilderness, Jesus has come to realise that his is not, and could never have been, the way of popularity and success. As he had entered Jerusalem, and been acclaimed by the Palm Sunday crowds, there must have been stirrings of those earlier temptations. “I could be a giant among men. I could rebuild the nation around my own personality. I could make people respect and follow me”. But Gethsemane had finally seen off these fantasies. Jesus has made his act of trust – he has accepted the chalice which has been held out to him - the way ahead is now all too painfully clear: the die is cast: there can be no going back.


As Jesus is questioned, his refusal to enter into dialogue with his accusers, articulates the heart of his vocation. Perhaps this is the first time he has been brought to express it in such clear terms to himself. He is a king, yes, but the symbols of his kingship are a parody of normal expectations – a crown of thorns, a broken reed, a rough cloak – but this is kingship – a kingship which will find its echo in the hearts of those, down through the centuries who identity with the truth. What is about to happen – the scourging, the carrying of the cross, the crucifixion itself – will be recognised by those with the eyes to see, the ears to hear, as the moment of truth, the fulcrum of history, when everything changes, and the new creation is born. Jesus stands before us today as he did before Pilate, inviting us to recognise and accept his kingship for what it is.

Speaking this past Friday, the Chief Rabbi used a phrase of Nelson Mandela's as he emerged from his years of imprisonment: “The long walk to freedom”. Dr Sachs’s context was the exodus of the Old Testament People of God from slavery in Egypt, but we can as well use the phrase to sum up the meaning of the journey which we are about to take with Jesus through Holy Week into Easter. “The long walk to freedom”. Holy Week is the heart of the year for us as Christians. It is a time when much is asked of us, and our prayer for ourselves, and for one another, must be that we remain intimately close to our Saviour through these coming seven days. If we will accompany Jesus in his stations to the cross, then we will be brought to a fresh understanding of what it means to be free - to know that the love of God can transcend every obstacle – that even death does not have to be feared.

The choice is ours. For most of those roof us, Holy Week is just another week, nothing special. Easter is no more than a welcome break from work or school. But for Christians, we are asked to stand apart from the crowd, to use the opportunities of these days to grow in holiness, to deepen faith. The inhabitants of Jerusalem welcomed Jesus with open arms on Palm Sunday but by Good Friday their shouts were for his execution. Pray God that we are single-minded, faithful, throughout this Week. May a genuinely Holy Week lead us to a new understanding of the Christian Passover from death to life, from mortality to eternity.

The First Letter of St Peter tells us that it is: “by his wounds you have been healed”. Are you, am I, prepared so to focus on the wounds in Christ’s body in these next few days that we enter into the reality of his Passion, as never before? “Jesus came in and stood among them. ‘Peace be with you’, he said. Then he spoke to Thomas: ‘Put your finger here: look, here are my hands. Give me your hand: put it into my side. Doubt no longer but believe’. Thomas replied: ‘My Lord and my God’”.

Let us in this Holy Week take up the inviation, and touch the wounds of Christ. In so doing - by our personal prayer, by a thorough confession, by our sharing in the Church’s liturgy in the Scared Triduum – we will be joining our Redeemer on “the long walk to freedom”. “Christ the power and the wisdom of God”. “By his wounds you have been healed”.