Sunday Readings: Matthew 21.1-11; Isaiah 50.4-7; Philippians 2.6-11; Matthew 26.14—27.66; or 27.11-54
Jesus cried out again in a loud voice and gave up his spirit. Suddenly the curtain of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth quaked, boulders split, tombs opened. Many bodies of saints who had fallen asleep were raised. After Jesus’ resurrection they came forth from their tombs and entered the holy city and appeared to many. The centurion and his men who were keeping watch over Jesus were terror-stricken at seeing the earthquake and all that was happening. The centurion said, “Clearly this was the Son of God” (Matthew 27.50-54).
Holy Week begins on Palm Sunday. We process into church with blessed palms, imitating the people who welcomed Jesus to Jerusalem. On Holy Thursday we remember the meal that institutes the most daily and most significant of Christian rituals— Eucharist. On Good Friday we listen to the passion narrative, accompanying Jesus step by step through his suffering and death on the cross. Our liturgical life today grows out of early Christians breaking bread together and visiting the sites along the way Jesus walked to the cross in Jerusalem.
The events of the passion test and manifest Jesus’ love for God, for the world, for his friends, and for the community that still gathers in his name. Jesus endures not only the pain and shame of crucifixion but one friend’s betrayal, another’s denial, and God’s seeming abandonment.
The full passion narrative begins around a table of festivity and friendship that Jesus shares with his disciples. Jesus pledges the cup of wine he blesses at the meal as a sign of his life blood poured out and the blood of the new covenant.
Communion in Jesus’ blood becomes the bond that unites him with those who follow him in faith. To drink this cup is to pledge one’s life, to commit to friendship with Jesus and fidelity to God, even unto death. Those who witness the full outpouring of Jesus’ love in his life and in his death come to share his commitment to self-giving. Jesus’ death and resurrection reveal self-giving love as the creative life-giving power at the heart of all that is.
- What in your life has demanded more than you thought you had to give?
- What has Jesus’ passion meant to you? When have you found Jesus with you in times of betrayal or suffering?