Palm/Passion Sunday; 10 April 2022; Sunday of the Passion C (RCL); Luke 19:28-40; Isaiah 50:4-9a; Psalm 31:9-6; Philippians 2:5-11; Luke 22:14 – 23:56.
The readings for Palm/Passion Sunday always present the preacher with a challenge. Each of the Gospel writers’ Passion narrative has its own theological emphases, and there is too much reading to preach on it all. In fact, one is often tempted just to let the passion preach itself, and to add nothing. However, these readings always need some unpacking, and the unique circumstances of each year require interpretation.
This year, we are watching the horrific unfolding of a new war in Europe, and specifically, a war between two peoples who share a deep Christian bond, the patriarchate of Kiyv having evangelized the Russian people and established the patriarchate of Moscow. In light of this circumstance, I am struck by the last line of Luke’s passion reading for this Sunday. After the women prepare spices, “On the Sabbath, they rested according to the commandment.”
I think Luke has presented us with a profound irony here. This line clearly refers to the creation story, in which, after the work of creation, God surveyed all that God had created, including the human being (male and female) and saw that it was good, and rested on the Sabbath day. The women rest on the Sabbath day, knowing clearly that all that has come before is anything but good, in fact the pinnacle of human evil. After the fall, this is the human condition. Luke has presented us with exactly the inverse of the creation story.
Of course, we know what happens on the first day of the new week — creation is restored by the resurrection of Jesus. If what has passed before the Sabbath is evil, the first day of the week is the vindication of God’s goodness.
I think there is a connection here also to the reading from Philippians. Paul quotes a hymn in which Jesus does not count equality with God as a prize to be won, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave. God created the human being (male and female) in the image and likeness of God — as a gift. Humanity grasped at that equality, taking the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in order to be like God. The crucifixion is the result of that hubris on the part of humanity, and of the humility on the part of God.
Ukraine is the result of the hubris on humanity’s part, and shares in the human evil that crucified the Incarnate Word. Like the women in Luke’s story, our part is to rest on the Sabbath and do the work of grief and repentance, preparing the spices for embalming the Body of Christ, so that when the first day of the new week arrives, we can rejoice in the resurrection of that Body.