We have reached that point in our Lenten journey where the mood is changing. We’re now in ‘passion-tide’ and we begin Holy Week today and whilst we start this Eucharist with the joyous cries of “Hosanna, Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord” as we wave our palm crosses in the air, perhaps in true carnival fashion, we move on … to hear the ‘passion’ read with great solemnity which provides that shift in emphasis and moves us from triumphalism to … something else.
Throughout the gospel narrative we are reminded that Jesus was becoming aware of the clock ticking away as his fate which awaited him in Jerusalem begins to draw near. He and the disciples then make their last journey to Jerusalem for the Passover festival and whilst the inevitability of death had always been in his mind, and we know that from the subtle hints he gave to his friends on several occasions throughout his ministry, the reality of that, the sense of horror and fear which was slowing creeping over him was beginning to intensify. All that was familiar would be taken from him, he would be separated from his friends; his life, their lives, would change and never be the same … the days to follow were to crush him. And so within Anglican circles we identify today as ‘Palm’ or maybe ‘Passion Sunday’ when our journey through Lent shifts gear a bit and the emphasis starts to move away from us and our attempts to be faithful to Christ, and the focus moves to Jesus our Lord and his faithfulness towards us, to his total commitment to us, a commitment that ultimately could only be expressed in his death at Calvary, a death that despite its horror was something he gave himself to freely.
‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
24
Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.
Observing ‘Palm’ or ‘Passion Sunday’ is a good discipline, failing to give ourselves an opportunity to identify with Jesus as the ‘end of the road’ comes into sight would rob us of the wonder and the glory of what was to follow, because the uniqueness of this Christian way that we have chosen to take, lies in the fact that what seemed to be the end of the road wasn’t that at all, the resurrection was to follow, the life of Christ could not be snuffed out and the glory of Easter was on the horizon, waiting to dawn upon the world. We live and practice our faith in that context, in the light of resurrection, but we must never lose sight of how we arrived at this point and the passion is something we must engage with and take seriously if resurrection is to have any significance and our liturgies over coming days will help us to do that.
So we are invited to share in all this again and to become involved as passion tide begins, to in a sense join Jesus and his friends as those final events take place. Jesus expects this of us and all who follow him. Jesus said “
2526
Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also.”
We’re are called to follow, we are called to share,
and this should be our delight, for there is in fact a healing and a wholeness to be found in this experience … as spectre of the cross draws near, the shadow it creates falls upon us, indeed the shadow of the cross is never far away in reality and as we consider the passion of Christ, maybe our own ‘passion-tides’ will come into focus and perhaps find a sense of purpose, the times when we have been betrayed, faced failure, the times we have faced intense fear and anxiety, the times we have experienced loss, perhaps they will find meaning and significance as we journey with the Christ to the cross during the coming week. Indeed our own ‘passion-tide’ experiences will help us to enter into Christ’s sufferings and as they do so the light of the resurrection will dawn upon them and the darkness of those moments may potentially be dispelled as that light brings God’s healing, peace and wholeness into our lives.
Our Lord’s passion though was not a one off experience only to fuel our devotions once each year, passion-tide continues with each new generation throughout history as the world we live in still chooses a way other than the way of life, that way which God wills for us. Still the world we are part of values self sufficiency to dependence upon God, the material rather than the spiritual … and still our gracious God continues in that struggle with us, with our waywardness, to show us a more excellent way that would bring us to the abundant life he promises us.
So let us join with the Church as she walks with Christ once again, making that journey to the cross; let us share his burden which he born for us, let us find our own burdens lightened and let us lighten his continuing burden as he tries to draw a world ambivalent to his message of hope and love to himself.