Palm Sunday Homily - April 14th, 2019 - The Rejection of Our Lord Jesus Christ
The Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem Icon
I.
How in the world does God still put up with us?
Days like today are a good reminder to all of us here,
that we could not have become followers of Jesus
had God not put the Divine Love within us first.
Because we, friends, are so often like the crowd in the Gospel this morning.
We go from the triumphal entry of Our Lord,
carrying our palms, saying "Hosanna in the Highest,
blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!"
And in just 10 short minutes,
we cry out "Crucify him! Crucify him!"
Saint Peter, in the span of 24 hours
goes from swearing to the Lord Jesus Christ that he would NEVER forsake him,
to swearing to EVERYONE ELSE that he never knew Jesus.
The disciples, after observing the Passover of the Lord
and the holy institution of the Communion,
then follow Jesus to the Garden of Gethsemane,
fall asleep multiple times even when Jesus chides them to continue in prayer,
run for their lives when the forces of evil come to arrest Jesus
and we don't hear from any of them
except for the faithful women who follow Jesus through the crucifixion
and return saddened to the tomb to care for Jesus's lifeless body.
The story of the Passion of Christ
is not one of acceptance by us, the ones who he came to save.
It's the story of our utter rejection of God's own Son.
Our rejection of Christ,
because we, the crowd, are so often fickle and double-hearted,
two-faced,
we who follow God when its convenient,
rather than following God when it is necessary.
Our rejection of Christ,
because we, like Saint Peter,
can swear up and down that we would never forsake Jesus,
and yet as soon as we approach the cross where we will be crucified with him,
we swear up and down that we never knew him
because we are so afraid of losing our lives, our reputation, our comfort
while Christ Himself walks as a lamb to the slaughter.
Our rejection of Christ,
because we, like the disciples, are fine following Jesus when Jesus works for us,
when Jesus washes our feet, feeds us with his very own Body and Blood,
but we flee for our lives when following Christ requires of us our own bodies and our blood
for his sake.
The crucifixion of Jesus is a stark reminder to us, brothers and sisters,
not just that we often don't follow Jesus Christ like we want to some days,
but we don't even have the will,
the want,
the faithfulness to even try.
Rather, as it is throughout the Holy Scriptures,
throughout the life of Jesus,
that we so often have this ALL backwards.
It is not that we freely chose God
because in our own frail faculties, we cannot choose God.
Rather, it is because God chose us first.
God moved toward us FIRST.
Jesus dies for us FIRST
before we ever could receive the power of God
to choose God.
"God so loved the world,
that he gave his only begotten Son,
that whoever believed in him should not perish,
but have everlasting life.
God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world
but that the whole world may have life through him."
[John 3:16-17]
"God showed his own love toward us,
in that WHILE WE WERE YET sinners..."
while we were still ENEMIES of God,
crucifiers of Christ,
"Christ died FOR us."
[Romans 5:8]
Even while we stare up at the cross,
with the nails and the hammer in our hands,
Christ looks up to the heavens and sorrowfully,
painfully cries,
"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."
[Luke 23:34]
We, friends, are the crucifiers of Christ,
the crowd that turns,
the disciples who run.
AND YET.
AND YET.
It wasn't about us anyway, was it?
It is all about the mystery of our faith:
Christ died for us first.
Even while we still hated him.
Because Jesus loved us first.
Jesus still loves you first.
Jesus will never stop loving you first.
Even when the nails and the hammers are still in our hands.
In the name of the +Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
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