Robert Barron - Put Yourself in the Passion Narrative
Peace be with you. Friends, it is Palm Sunday and we have the great privilege on Palm Sunday to read every year one of the Passion narratives. And this year we're reading from the Gospel of Mark. So we read Mark's and the extraordinary thing is Mark's is the very first one written. And there's a famous statement by a 20th century theologian that the Gospels are basically Passion narratives with long introductions. So in a way, the Passion narrative is the whole of the Gospel. So there's so much we can say about them.
What I want to do today, something a little bit different. Instead of putting the focus on Jesus, I want to focus on a series of people around Him as they react in different ways to the events of The Passion. Putting ourselves in the scene, do we identify with any of these people as they react to Jesus as He comes toward His death? Here's really how The Passion narrative opens up. It's the woman with the alabaster jar of perfume. Remember the scene where she breaks open this jar of very expensive perfume and then she pours it on Jesus' head and it scandalizes people around and say, "Well, wait a minute. That's very expensive. Couldn't that have been sold and the money given to the poor? I mean, what a waste and what an over-the-top gesture".
Well, of course, Jesus dismisses that critique and Ge praises her and says in a way that's fulfilled every time we read this, what she has done will be remembered for all time. Well, here's what I love about that scene, and she's one of the first now to react to Jesus as He's coming toward His death. His death represents God's extravagant gift to us, that God went all the way down, He went all the way into our dysfunction. And so she responds with an extravagant gesture. Yes, we could question it, as they did long ago. We could sort of weigh it in the balance ethically and so on, but that's not the point.
The point is, she breaks open that jar of perfume as though she's breaking open her whole heart and pouring out her whole life and soul in gratitude to Christ. That's the right reaction, everybody. That's why Jesus praises her. What's our reaction to Him? Is it a constrained, careful, moderate response? Or do we break open our hearts and pour ourselves out for Him? Go now to the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus praying, sweating blood at this climactic moment of His life, this time of enormous struggle. And Peter, James, and John, His most intimate disciples, He takes them with Him. And what do they do? They fall asleep. I've told you before, throughout the Bible, falling asleep is a very bad thing.
It's a symbol of the lack of spiritual attention. It's something of great spiritual moment is happening and we don't care. We fall asleep. It makes no difference to us. In a way, everybody, it's a symbol of contemporary secularism, seems to me. The things of God are happening all the time. God's activity in the world, God's love poured out, the sacraments, the church, the preaching of the church, the word of God. And what's our response, more often than not? We fall asleep in indifference. Move into their space, Peter, James and John, these intimate friends of Jesus, by the way. So especially those of us who, we're in the church and we're with the program, okay, but what are we doing as the Lord is acting in our lives and in the world? Are we snoozing away?
Think of the Old Testament symbol here of Eli in the temple. Remember the scene where the Lord calls to Samuel and the two of them are asleep in the temple? And the Bible says that visions and locutions of God were very rare in those days. Why? Because God decided to withdraw? No, I would say, because especially religious people began to fall asleep even in the temple. Peter, James and John, in the very presence of Christ at the climax of His life, fall asleep. Here's a scene. Of course, it's unique to Mark and I've preached on it before. I love it. There's a mysterious young man, he's not named, but when they come to arrest Jesus now in the garden of Gethsemane and there's the little struggle, and then the disciples run away and there's this young man we hear who runs away.
And as he runs, they grab at his tunic and it is taken away in the hand of the man and the young man just runs naked into the night. And you say, what a peculiar detail to include. Well, it's peculiar until we remember the word that's being used there for the garment is the same word that's used for the baptismal garment. When someone was baptized, they put on this white garment that symbolized their devotion to Christ. They had put on Christ. How often at the moment of truth, when our Christian faith, listen now, it's going to cost us something. Maybe when they're coming after us, when things are getting dangerous and dicey because of our faith, what do we do? Do we stand our ground or do we run off into the night leaving behind our baptismal identity?
That's a great scene. It's difficult to take in. I'll grant you that, but that's a very important scene for us to identify with. How often, if I ask myself in the course of my life, am I like that young man, that when things got a little difficult, I abandoned my baptismal identity, ran away from the struggle? What's your attitude at those moments of truth? Another wonderful scene now. The high priest, they brought Jesus to the Sanhedrin for trial. High priest, after hearing various witnesses said, well, okay, let's cut to the chase here. "Are you the blessed one? Are you the son of the blessed one, the son of God"?
And Jesus answers in such a shocking way that the high priest tears his robes and declares blasphemy. What did Jesus say? He quoted Daniel chapter seven. Daniel speaks of seeing the ancient of days. And then, coming on the clouds, one like the son of man and the ancient of days gives him his authority and so on. It's a messianic prediction, yes, but even more than that, this one coming on the clouds, this son of man is someone who shares in the very authority of God. In citing this, Jesus saying, "Yes, I am. And you'll see coming on the clouds, the son of man".
What's He affirming? Not that He's just a great teacher, not that He's just a great political leader, not that He's just the Messiah in the conventional sense of that term, but is saying that God from God, light from light, true God from true God. And the high priest can't handle that. That's too much for the high priest. Listen, everybody, there are a lot of people today that are okay with Jesus as a distant historical figure. They're okay with Him as a literary device. They're okay with Him as an inspiring teacher of the spiritual life, but they can't handle the claim coming mind you, from His own mouth, the claim that He is God from God, light from light, true God from true God.
But that's what's at stake when it comes to Jesus. Are you with Him or are you against Him? To be with Him is to say, you're the Son of God. You're the Son of God. To fall short of that is effectively to be against Him. How often are we in that stance of the high priest where we tear our garments because we can't handle that central claim of the church? Next, Peter, the head of the apostles, the first pope, Peter, Jesus' intimate friend. Oh Lord, I don't know what the others are going to do, but I will never betray you.
I wonder how often in our spiritual lives we say something like that? Lord, of course not. No, I'm your faithful follower. You're my everything. I'll always, Lord, be with you and follow you. And then the minute that scapegoating mob breaks out, remember in the courtyard of the high priest's house, they're warming themselves by the charcoal fire. It's a cold night and someone notices Peter. "Well, he was with that Jesus". "No, no, no, no, no. I don't even know Him". "Yes, you were. I saw you". "No, I'm not". "Your accent gives you away. You're a Galilean". "I tell you, I don't know Him". Three times he denies Him.
Again, everybody we're fellow sinners here. How many times in the course of our lives do we who have pledged our complete loyalty to Him, but again, when things get a little dicey and difficult, when affirming Jesus means we might get ourselves in some serious trouble, do we stand firm or do we deny as even Peter did, even the first pope did? Next, we hear about the Roman soldiers. They come and they put that crown of thorns on His head. If the Shroud of Turin is right, it wasn't so much a ringlet, but a cap placed upon the whole top of His head. They put the reed in His hand like a mock scepter. They cover Him in purple and then they beat Him and spit upon Him and they laugh at Him.
Is there a lot of that going on today? You bet. It's got an old vintage is the mockery of religion. I can give you, I won't bore you with it. You can go on the internet, find them. There are thousands of examples of people today who love to mock Jesus. Not just ignoring Him. That's the kind of secularism, that's the falling asleep. This is worse. It's knowing about Him, but mocking Him. Have we done it? That's a tough question on this Palm Sunday. Have we ever been like these Roman soldiers who said, yeah, we're with our buddies or people are saying disrespectful things and we don't say anything, or we, even worse, join in? How often have we mocked the Lord, mocked Him with our words, mocked Him with our lives, mocked Him with the kind of people we associate with? Tough.
I know it's tough, and I think it's good on Palm Sunday, everybody, as we walk through this still terrible story of Jesus' passion, identifying with these various figures. I'll end, though, on a positive note. Throughout the Gospel of Mark, there is what the scholars call the messianic secret. That means that when people are tempted to say, oh, Jesus is the Messiah, He usually quiets them. Don't tell anybody. And it's puzzled people for a long time. Why would Jesus be so reticent? Well, at the very end of the Gospel, when Jesus' head has bowed in death, when He can no longer silence anyone, the Roman Centurion says, "Truly, this man was the son of God". And now there's no messianic secret. Jesus doesn't quiet him. He can't.
And so the words of the centurion, with which the story basically end, go out across the centuries coming from a very unlikely source, the Roman centurion who's putting Him to death, but he's the one who says, as a kind of proto evangelist, "Truly, this man is the son of God". And mind you, as I've said to you before, who was called Son of God in that place in time, but the Roman Emperor, Caesar was the "Huios tou Theou", He was the son of the God. The very fact that a Roman centurion, the one putting Him to death says, "Truly, this man is the son of God". That's the evangelical message. And in terms of this sermon, as we identify with these various people, can we say those same words? That's the question. Can we say those same words with that same confidence? "Truly, this man is the son of God". And God bless you.