New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright © 1989, 1995 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
(Year B: Sixth Sunday in Lent / Palm
Sunday, 28th March 2021)
The agenda for this coming week is as
follows:
- Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem which we mark this ‘Palm Sunday’
- The anointing of Jesus by Mary in Bethany
- The betrayal of Jesus by Judas
- The last supper and its preparation
- The agonising in the garden
- The arrest of Jesus
- The questioning and torture of Jesus
- The betrayal of Jesus by Peter
- The crucifixion
- The death of Jesus
- The removal of Jesus’ body and placing in the tomb.
- The resurrection of Jesus on Easter Sunday.
It is a busy week. We ought to stop and consider what we are
doing and why. No wonder the readings are long and the services even longer for
those who find it possible and fruitful to take part in the liturgy throughout
this most special of weeks in the Christian calendar. Those of us living in Southern
Ireland will not be able to gather with other Christians in person as will be possible
in almost every other country in the world. Let’s hope that we will be able to
fully celebrate the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ in April
2022 (the 10-17th April to be exact if you are following the Western
calendar for assigning Easter).
This is an unfolding drama not to be
missed. And even if we have heard it all so many times over the years we can
listen again and look again and find something new and challenging, something
puzzling and revealing. We are reminded that our own lives are fragile and
human beings are liable to failure and betrayal. We also hear about the
iniquity of political and religious authorities trying to play god even when
the Son of God – poor, broken, abandoned and to be glorified – was in their
midst. As the saying goes – ‘you couldn’t make this up!’
We need to pay attention to what is going
on inside us and around us. This is not easy. As the drama of Holy Week unfolds
spreading over two weekends we can find quiet times to read the last three
chapters of the gospel of Mark without hindrance and without preconceived ideas
and assumptions. This is a story about someone who committed his life to God
and paid the price. The price of his soul is our freedom. Judas was prepared to take 30 shekels of
silver only to find that he had lost the one opportunity of freedom that Jesus’
death and resurrection effected.
In the cut and thrust of the Holy Week
story, there is an event recounted at the start of the 14th chapter
of the Gospel of Mark which is very special and very tender. It is about a
woman – we don’t know her name – who arrives with a large amount of very
precious and costly oil. If it was worth 300 denarii and if one denarius was
worth a day’s wage, then, in early 21st century this would have been
the equivalent of around €35,000 – just enough to put a deposit on a
one-bedroom apartment outside Dublin!
In a rash, reckless and ruinous gesture the
lady (who clearly knew and followed Jesus) splashed out. The extraordinary part
of this is the way Jesus reacted. He did not call in the Chief Accountant (who
was, in any case, busy dealing with the religious authorities about a certain
matter). Neither did he send the woman away or chide her for her expensive
gesture. There is a theological point to be made here and the evangelist Mark
along with Mathew, Luke and John are preparing us for that hour of Glory which
is our hour of freedom.
The bathing in precious oil by this woman was
an anointing in anticipation of Jesus death. It was as if this woman were among
the first believers and disciples of Jesus while Peter and the others would
have to pass through betrayal and flight before, eventually, meeting the Risen
Christ. Once arrive at Holy/Maundy
Thursday the men, with the exception of the ‘beloved disciple’ John, have
‘taken to the hills’ around Jerusalem. It was left to a small band of women to
directly witness what would happen that Good Friday while the women were among
the very first witnesses to the Resurrection on the Sunday, the first day of
the week after the Passover.
What is the moment in today’s short passage,
that opens up Holy Week for us? For me, it is the reference in verse 8: ‘She has done what she could’. Jesus said
four essential things to his disciples by way of response to her act of
kindness:
‘Let her alone’ (v.6);
‘She has performed a good service for me’. (Some translations have it as ‘She has done a beautiful thing to me’) (v.6);
‘She has done what she could’ (v.8);
'wherever the good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her’ (v.9);
And, so, here this morning of Sunday 28th
March 2021 we are doing exactly as Jesus said we would and should. We are
remembering an act of huge kindness, affection and courage. Courage because for any female disciple to
step forward like this and behave like this to a Jewish Rabbi was not in
keeping with cultural and social norms of the time. Jesus only encouraged this
sort of behaviour!
We remember people long gone or still alive
for many things. We will remember with various emotions – usually positive –
things said, things joked about, things cried about and, of course, things
done. Perhaps, what we most remember is how people said what they said and how people acted. A picture, an expression, a tone of voice and
a practical and kind action – especially what we call nowadays a ‘Random Act of
Kindness’ will never, ever be forgotten.
Life is precious. Let’s not waste it. Every
moment of every day and every year is what remains to us on this earth. Let’s
dispense lots of precious oil on each other and light up this community and
church! You know what? People will catch
the smell of the perfume and hopefully will be drawn to its source.
As we walk together into this coming week
let us remember that it starts in triumphant entry and culminates in
resurrection. In between is much suffering. But Easter is a step on the
journey. Fear lurks in the hearts of the disciples. Beyond it lies the coming
of the Holy Spirit. Then, as we exodus from a dark place we cross a desert that
may take many years. Our hope is that we will arrive, altogether, in a promised
land. It is the journey that matters. Hope never fails.
Hope in him, hold firm and take heart. Hope
in the Lord! (Psalm 26:14)
(words above = 1,137)
WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
Notes on the gospel passage
Preliminaries
Today’s main gospel reading is a long one –
as is customary on ‘Palm Sunday’. The
gospel of Mark is concise and relatively short. At just under 2,500 words (in the
English language at any rate) it might take someone 12 minutes to read chapters
14 and 15 straight through while it might take 17 minutes of reading out loud
and listening on this special Sunday that marks the start of what Christians
refer to as Holy Week. These two chapters of Mark cover the last days of Jesus
before and during his crucifixion. Chapter 16 covers the resurrection and will
conclude this short gospel.
Following the first 13 chapters of the
gospel of Mark, which focussed on the ministry, teaching and actions of Jesus,
we are now on a roller coaster in the immediate lead-up to the Passover of
Christ’s death and rising. This is end-game time and we can read our own
thoughts, life experiences and situations into the story.
The historical context for Mark’s account is
in the actual situation of the early Christian movement of the 70’s in Rome,
Jerusalem and many other places in the Roman Empire. In those days – as is
presently the case in many parts of the world – to choose to follow Christ brings
persecution, torture and death. Many
struggled, some gave up while others stepped forward and stayed the course. The
telling of Jesus’ passion was an important part of the legacy left to these
first Christians.
1-2:
The gathering storm
It was two days before the Passover and the festival of Unleavened Bread. The chief priests and the scribes were looking for a way to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him; for they said, ‘Not during the festival, or there may be a riot among the people.
The scene is set. Ever since the outburst in the Temple recounted
in Mark
11:18, Jesus was a ‘dead man walking’.
The authorities were out to seek, capture, kill and destroy him. At all
costs the institutions and laws of the existing order must prevail. However,
the project of capture, trial and crucifixion must be carried out in a careful
way to avoid stirring up the people at the excitable time of the Passover
feast. After all, the ever-vigilant and ruthless Roman occupiers would only
find an excuse to crack down on the whole people of Jerusalem. Politics, Religion and Power were playing out
in Jerusalem just as it does this Pasch in the same city in 2021.
3-9: The
Anointing at Bethany
While he 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? For this ointment could
have been sold for more than three hundred denarii, and the money given to the
poor.’ And they scolded her. But Jesus said, ‘Let her alone; why do you
trouble her? She has performed a good service for me. For you always have the
poor with you, and you can show kindness to them whenever you wish; but you
will not always have 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.
The expression that ‘you always have the
poor with me’ has been misrepresented to mean that poverty is inevitable and
that the most we can do is alleviate the worst human consequences of it by
deeds of ‘charity’.
10-11 Judas
Agrees to Betray Jesus
Then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve, 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 gets a very bad press in the Gospels
– and understandably so. However, as Judas fades out of the story and takes his
life we are reminded of the mystery of evil. Judas did regret what he did but
he could not forgive himself and, so, took his own life.
12-15: Preparing for the Passover with the Disciples
On the first day of Unleavened Bread, when the Passover lamb is sacrificed, his disciples said to him, ‘Where do you want us to go and make the preparations for you to eat the Passover?’ So he sent two of his disciples, saying to them, ‘Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you; follow him, and wherever he enters, say to the owner of the house, “The Teacher asks, Where is my guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?” He will show you a large room upstairs, furnished and ready. Make preparations for us there.’
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