Matthew 21:1 - 11
Isaiah
50:4 – 9a
Psalm
22:1 - 11
Philippians
2:5 - 11
Matthew
26:14 – 27:66
This
is the homily given at St. John’s, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania on Sunday, April 2,
2023 by Fr. Gene Tucker.
“WHAT DIFFERENCE TO THESE EVENTS MAKE?”
(Homily text: Matthew 26:14 – 27:66)
The events that took place during the
week which is ahead of us, that is, Holy Week, figure prominently in our faith.
Surely, Christians everywhere know the basics of what happened on Palm Sunday,
Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter.
But, in reality, some of the things
that happened nearly 2,000 years ago where common occurrences, most likely.
For example, people entering Jerusalem
for one of the great festivals may have entered to the acclaim of crowds who’d
gathered along the road. For another, a farewell meal, at which a leader of a
movement bade goodbye to his followers, probably wasn’t all that unusual an
occurrence. Nor was crucifixion, the method the Romans used to keep a lid on
the restive population they had conquered and which they ruled with an iron
fist. (Crucifixion – let’s remind ourselves – was a form of “state-sponsored
terrorism”, a stark warning to potential troublemakers of the fate that would
await them if they stepped out-of-line.)
We might be on fairly good ground to
imagine that there were various sorts of triumphal entries into Jerusalem at
the time of the great festivals. There were, according to the witness of
Scripture, various movements among the population to challenge the authority
and the presence of the Romans. For example, the great rabbi, Gamaliel, in Acts
5:36 – 37, mentions two such movements: One led by a man named Theudas, and the
other led by Judas, the Galilean. At the festivals, the Romans would have kept
a close watch on the large groups of people who were gathering to attend the
festivals. Perhaps the leaders of these various revolutionary movements entered
the city to the acclaim of some, just as Jesus did on Palm Sunday.
Now, let’s fast-forward to the events
of Good Friday. As was mentioned above, the Romans used crucifixion as a means
of controlling the people they’d conquered. Death on a cross was reserved for
slaves and for conquered peoples…a Roman citizen could not be crucified.[1] It’s
likely that crucifixions were commonplace happenings, perhaps even ones in
which people came to watch the proceedings as some form of macabre
entertainment. There may even have been regularly-appointed days for such
events. In any event, the well-known trajectory for those who would challenge
the authority of the Romans, or, for that matter, the rulers of the Jewish
people (known as the Sanhedrin) was a predictable one: The clear pathway for
challengers was for them to be done away with (as Rabbi Gamaliel testifies). If
need be, the members of the Sanhedrin could manage to cooperate with the Romans
to do away with those who would challenge their place and their authority.
(Normally, these two groups would be opposed to one another’s presence and
purposes.)
If the fate that awaited challengers to
the status quo was understood by many, then it’s also possible that Jesus’
farewell to His disciples on Maundy Thursday was also an event that wasn’t
unique. We have other records of various kinds of farewells of leaders to their
followers.
Given the events of Palm Sunday, Maundy
Thursday and Good Friday, if our estimation is that these happenings weren’t
all that unusual, then what makes those events stand out in the Christian
estimation of their importance? Why do we observe (celebrate?) these events?
What makes them important to us?
One answer would be that the events
which lead up to Easter constitute Jesus’ faithfulness in fulfilling God’s plan
for the redemption of the world. Matthew’s Gospel account makes clear that
Jesus had a choice to follow God’s will, or to invoke God’s power to destroy
all those who would plot to do away with Him.[2]
Another answer is that the powers of
evil were conquered when Jesus rose from the tomb on Easter Sunday morning. In
so doing, He confirms God’s power over evil and over death. All the events of Holy
Week, therefore, point to and lead us to, Easter Sunday morning. Can there be
any greater cause for celebration than that?
A question we might ask ourselves,
then, is this: Why are the events of Holy Week important to me? In what way are
they important (or not)?
The answer we supply to these questions
might tell us a lot about the condition of our hearts, and the character and
depth of our faith.
AMEN.
[1] Later on, however, Christians suffered this
fate, perhaps because of their refusal to sacrifice to the emperor.
[2] See Matthew 26:53. Jesus tells His disciples that, if He asked, God would send twelve legions of angels to defend him. That would amount to 72,000 angels (a Roman legion had 6,000 soldiers).
