The Beginning of the ‘End’

Palm Sunday    March 24, 2024

8th in the Mark Series         

NOTE: this includes just the scripture texts, readings and reflections, 

none of the music or other service elements.

Prologue
Three years in the making, this moment, this beginning of the end. Years filled with days overflowing with need and pleading, touching lesioned skin and fevered brows, raising children from the dead, releasing grown men from demons, casting seeds of truth among the hills of Galilee
giving bread for body, food for famished souls.

Three years sailing through raging winds, silencing strident voices and ill will with wit and wisdom;
compelling all to heed undiluted Love striding by with smile and healing balm and searing truth.

That Voice that broke through the sky over the River Jordon is silent now; the dove of blessing invisible. But the Love they heralded throbs with single-minded determination to heal what ails the world.

So Jesus strokes the young donkey; smiles into its eyes, swings onto its back, nudges its flanks and
points it toward the Great Gate of Jerusalem to the fed and blessed and healed throngs who 
want to crown him King.

Generosity & Greed 
Alas not everyone was so jubilant. A shadow of crossed arms and minor notes of suspicion, anger and especially fear lurked at the edges of that palm-waving, song-raising crowd.

Mark 9:31-32; 14:1-9   
Jesus said, “The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again.” But they did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him.

It was two days before the Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread.  Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at the table, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment of nard, and she broke open the jar and poured the ointment on his head. 

But some were there who said to one another in anger, “Why was the ointment wasted in this way?  And they scolded her. But Jesus said, “Let her alone; why do you trouble her? She has performed a good service for me.  She has done what she could; she has anointed my body beforehand for its burial.  Truly I tell you, wherever the good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.”

Mary:   
He’d warned us but we couldn’t bear the thought of his dying.
I heard not fear as he spoke of what was to come but a deep ache,
           an immeasurable longing.
Was it an ache at the gap
           between what he wanted and what we wanted;
Was it a longing to close that gap---to fill it with the same
           balm of compassion, forgiveness and love
           that he’d shown these three years?
I had to show that I accepted these words,
           even though I did not understand.
So I broke that vial. I poured that oil.
I hoped that its perfume would seep through everyone
           and go with him through everything that was to come.
I poured that oil over his head.,
           The head of a King.

Mark 14:10-11
Then Judas went to the chief priests in order to betray him to them.  When they heard it, they were greatly pleased and promised to give him money. So he began to look for an opportunity to betray him.  

Judas: 
I held the purse.
I liked the weight of it. The heavier it hung on my belt the better I liked it.
There were expenses of course and I counted out the coins, 
     dividing them with regret.
It’s fine to see bread divided
But day in and day out it is money that matters.

I felt the shift before the others. 
They were not paying attention.
I calculate everything so I knew, something had shifted.
The days of our little group were numbered.
And when it unraveled it was going to be every man for himself.

I needed to add more weight to the purse….my purse.

Fear

Mark 14:43-46, 53,55,57,60-63
[After praying], Jesus said, “Get up, let us be going. Look, my betrayer is at hand.” Immediately, while he was still speaking, Judas, one of the twelve, arrived, and with him there was a crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders.  Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, “The one I will kiss is the man; arrest him and lead him away under guard.” 
So when he came, he went up to him at once and said, “Rabbi!” and kissed him.  Then they laid hands on him and arrested him. 

Jesus was led off to the high priest. Then the chief priests, the nation’s leaders, and the teachers of the Law of Moses all met together.  The chief priest and the whole council tried to find someone to accuse Jesus of a crime, so they could put him to death. But they could not find anyone to accuse him. Finally some men stood up and lied about Jesus. 

The high priest asked Jesus, “Why don’t you say something in your own defense? Don’t you hear the charges they are making against you?” But Jesus kept quiet and did not say a word. The high priest asked him another question, “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the almighty God?”  “Yes, I am.” Jesus answered.

High Priest:   
I measured the man standing before me.
He wasn’t much to look at for someone so disruptive.
I measured all of the charges 
And weighed them against the need for peace.

To do nothing and wait for this man’s fervor to burn out?
Or to act decisively and silence him now?

Things are as good as they are ever going to be.
A revolt would catapult us all to destruction if not death.
And the Temple, what would happen to the Temple!
Rome would show no mercy.
That’s where my obligation lies: protect the Temple.

As distasteful as it is, this man must go.
He’s gone too far, declaring himself Messiah.
His death will be the greater good.
Yes, his death will be the greater good.

Betrayal & Expediency

Mark 14:54, 66-70
Peter had followed Jesus and the crowd at a distance and when he reached the courtyard of the high priest’s house, he sat down with the guards to warm himself beside a fire. While Peter was in the courtyard, a servant girl came up and saw Peter. She stared at him and said, “You were with Jesus from Nazareth!”

Peter:  

I’m just going to sit quiet and watch.
No one will notice me.
I said I’d follow him. 
Follow Him, I will.
Say, aren’t you one of that man’s disciples?    
No, you are mistaken!
Why did I say that?
How could I have said that!
Yes you are. These others think so too.
No. No I am not.
Oh I’m sure you are. Yes, yes, you are.
No! I do not know that man.
At once a rooster crowed and Peter remembered.

Mark 15: 1-2a, 4,5,12-14a
Early the next morning the chief priests, the nation’s leaders, and the teachers of the Law of Moses met together with the whole Jewish council. They tied up Jesus and led him off to Pilate. Pilate asked Jesus, “Are you the king of the Jews?”  then Pilate asked him, “Don’t you have anything to say? Don’t you hear what crimes they say you have done?”  But Jesus did not answer, and Pilate was amazed. Pilate asked the crowd, “What do you want me to do with this man?”  “Nail him to a cross!” they yelled.  “But what crime has he done?”

Pilate:
These cursed people!
Have they no sense?
Or is it a very clever trap?

They loath me—Rome’s man.
Is this their venom I see? They hope to destroy me?
To bring before me a man who claims to be a god?
And god-men there are.
Is this one of them? One of the gods in disguise?
These priests, do they know this?
So they bring him here demanding that I kill him?!

Not to kill him---they revolt
To kill him—the heavens revolt.
I am doomed.

There’s more mercy with the gods than there is with Rome
I’ll throw my lot with the gods.

"Crucify him you may, but I wash my hands of it!"

Love answers it all

Mark 15: 16a,22,24a,25-26,33
The soldiers led Jesus inside the courtyard of the fortress and called together the rest of the troops.  Then the soldiers took Jesus to Golgotha. They nailed Jesus to a cross. It was about nine o’clock in the morning. About noon the sky turned dark and stayed that way until around three o’clock.  A Centurion, a roman officer, was standing in front of Jesus.

Centurion:   
They always howl.
They always beg. Always.
What man wouldn’t.
What man indeed?

His body wrenches with pain,
Spasms seize his breath
And he uses what little he has to bless?

Luke 23:34, Mark 15:37
Father, God, forgive them. For they know not what they do.
And Jesus breathed his last.

Mark 15:39
And when the centurion saw the way Jesus breathed His last, he said,

“This man really was the Son of God!”  

Benediction:
We leave today knowing that though it may sometimes feel like we face a grave of guilt and shame, we do not.  That grave has been defeated, and our worship on Easter will be an offering of praise for a victory that defeats the grave of guilt, conquers death, and seals a salvation that forgives, redeems, makes whole and infuses us with vibrant and holy life. Go in the peace and assurance of this Good News.   
Amen