Crowd, Crisis and the Cross
The Palm Sunday - April 10, 2022
Luke 19: 28-40; Isaiah 50: 4-7; Philippians 2: 6-11; Luke 22:14 - 23:56
The theme of 'Journey' is a prominent one in Christian Spirituality - enough to think of the Old Testament journeys...of Abraham, of Jacob, of Moses, of Joseph, of the hebrews across the desert, of the exiled people, or think of the New Testament too... of Mary and Joseph, of Jesus walking from village to village, the disciples sent two by two...and various others! Our Christian spirituality is one long journey in itself... which contains within so many intermediate journeys... journeys that are to be made daily, journeys that are to be made according to seasons, journeys that pertain to each individual, journeys that involve the entire people of God and so on! We have today a very peculiar journey that Jesus makes, within the long journey of his life as an ever loving Son of the Father Almighty, as a faithful apostle of the Loving God, as a Lamb that goes to the slaughter house with joy to offer itself for the sake of love.
As Jesus enters Jerusalem today, he is aware of all the dynamics that surrounds him, the destiny that awaits him, the things that he will have to encounter in the following days! How many times he would have made this journey to Jerusalem in his life - with his mother and father, with his relatives and friends, with his disciples, with lazarus and family... but this time it is not the same! He is conscious of it. In many ways it is not the same. There are three things that make this journey so peculiar for him, and not only for him, also for us to reflect on; three things that stand out in the whole event of Jesus' entry into Jerusalem that we commemorate today: the crowd, the crisis and the cross.
The Crowd was totally hysterical... Jesus knew that crowd, he was in no way lost in the crowd, nor was he lost with the crowd. He knew that this cheer and excitement of the crowd, will soon turn into a call for his killing - after all they were just a mob. But in no way did Jesus disrespect or despise them. He genuinely accepted their celebration and enjoyed their warm reception. He loved them all and he loved the way they showed their regard for him. He loved them like a shepherd, because he knew if it were not for him, they would be like a sheep without shepherd. The lesson for us: when we do what we ought to and when we do it well, let us enjoy all the adulation of the crowd around, the appreciation of the world for accomplishments, the regard of the society for a job well done! But as Jesus, let us beware that the same crowd which celebrates will soon condemn...and we need to take the critique and denunciation, just as much as we enjoy the appreciation and adulation. And the second lesson is that we do not get lost in the crowd, be one in the crowd, get into the mentality of the crowd - so thoughtless and so blind, so mindless and so flimsy, so forgetful about the good and so aroused by the excitement of the evil.
The Crisis that lay before Christ was gross and clear. For him the crisis was not whether to suffer or not, it was not whether to believe this crowd or not, it was not even whether to confront the priests and the scribes or not. The crisis was whether to remain or go on! With the kind of welcome that Jesus received, he could have decided to remain with that popularity and praise. But Jesus knew, the journey was on and he decides to choose obedience! That choice brought him humiliation, suffering, and finally even death! He knew it would, but he decided to go on! He used the crisis to show his obedience to the Father; he saw in the crisis, an opportunity to live his life to the full - it was in dying that he lived to the full, and gave us the fullness of life. The lesson for us: when a moment of crisis comes, when sufferings and humiliation come our way, we cannot get stuck or get lost, the journey is on, and we need to go on. And when we choose to go on with the Lord, the crises can lead to a profound experience that can change my life, bring a new sense of fulfilment to it.
The Cross is what mattered for Christ - it lay before his eyes and shed light upon all his life, upon all that he did and all that he was. The Cross is the only explanation we can find for so many things that we go through on daily basis. Be it in personal lives or in the society or the world - to the myriad of sufferings that oppress humanity, war and disease, death and destruction, poverty and corruption... the Cross has to shine through all these situations to illumine our sense of meaning in life. We need to learn from Christ to keep our eyes fixed on the Cross and journey on, because it is in the Cross that the love of God invites us to see everything from the point of view of God and of our Saviour.
The journey is on. Jesus has begun the last lap, let us journey on with him this week. Let the lenten journey we began culminate with this journey to calvary, the journey to the Cross, that we may find there, the infinite love of God and the abundance of new life that Christ wishes to offer. The journey is on, with determination and hope, let us walk with Christ to the pinacle of new life.
