Sunday Reflection, April 1: The Essentials for Christian Discipleship

Palm Sunday

Scripture Readings
Isaiah 50: 4-7
Psalm 22
Philippians 2: 6-11
Luke 22:14 - 23:56

This Sunday’s Gospel is Luke’s account of the passion and death of Jesus. This narrative is the most sacred story ever told. It is sacred because it is the story of our salvation, the story of God’s life given to you and to me. The Gospel of the suffering and death of Jesus is ultimately the real life drama about the triumph of God’s love for us. As such, you and I need to do more than simply listen to this story. We are not meant just to ponder it with our minds. In order to begin to grasp the meaning of the passion of Jesus, we need to enter into this story. We must become a part of the story and allow it to touch our whole selves, to penetrate our hearts.

Each one of the four evangelists tells the story of Jesus’ suffering and death with his own particular accents and nuances. Luke’s account is very much connected with the rest of his Gospel and with his narrative of the early Church in the Acts of the Apostles. Daniel Harrington, a prominent Scripture scholar, points out three sayings of Jesus in the passion story that are found only in Luke (America, March 26, 2007, p. 31). With each one of these sayings, Jesus exemplifies what he has taught during his public ministry. After they crucify him, Jesus utters a rather astounding prayer: “Father forgive them, they know not what they do.” When the “good thief” asks Jesus to remember him, Jesus gives him a promise: “Amen I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.” And, at the very last moment of his life, Jesus utters a prayer of trust, a prayer that echoes Psalm 31: “Father into your hands I commend my spirit.” These three sayings of the suffering Jesus, found only in Luke’s passion narrative, speak volumes about the kind of Savior Jesus is. I believe that they also speak to us about connecting our own lives with the story of Jesus’ passion and death.

Earlier in his ministry, Jesus had uttered some very challenging words: “But to you who hear I say, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” In his passion, Jesus becomes the one who himself is the object of intense hatred, bitter cursing, and brutal mistreatment. He proves faithful to the principles of life he has taught through his prayer of forgiveness for his enemies, a prayer uttered at the moment of greatest darkness and pain. As we enter into Jesus’ passion this Sunday and during Holy Week, you and I are invited to ask for this same spirit of reconciliation and forgiveness.

How are we doing with forgiveness these days? It is an ongoing challenge isn’t it? It is just so tempting to hold people who have offended us as inner hostages in our hearts – to keep them as prisoners of our anger. Jesus’ prayer of forgiveness for his enemies is a summons to us to pray for those who have offended us – to ask God to bless those people and to help us understand them better. His prayer also invites us to ask for the grace we need to set those people free from the prisons of our hearts.

Throughout his ministry, Jesus reached out to those on the margins of his society. In Luke’s Gospel, he is found seated at banquets with all sorts of folks, including those considered “undesirable” by the religious leaders. Remember his words to the detested tax collector Zacchaeus, who was perched in the sycamore tree: “Zacchaeus, come down quickly, for today I must stay at your house.” As he hangs from the cross, he listens intently to the request of the condemned criminal hanging next to him, who asks that he simply be “remembered.” This man is another one of those “undesirables;” he is the “lowest of the low.” Jesus continues his ministry of reconciliation and hope even from the cross, as he promises this condemned criminal a place with him in eternal life.

Who are the marginalized, the undesirables of our society today? Who are the forgotten whose voices are not heard in the corridors of power? In our own lives, we encounter people who may be marginalized at school or work, in our neighborhood, or maybe even in our own homes. I think of Melvin, a homeless man whom I often encounter down the block from where I live. He stands outside the local Starbucks and asks for change. Melvin, it seems, has a problem with alcohol and needs to get some treatment. But as I saw him yesterday, it seemed that the Lord was simply inviting me to say hello to him and to offer a simple expression of human concern. It’s too easy simply to slip him some change and never even look at him in the eye. As we enter into the story of Jesus’ passion and death during these sacred days, you and I are invited to emulate this Jesus who shows compassion to the marginalized even in his moment of greatest human need.

Jesus had taught his disciples to live and to pray in a spirit of radical trust in God. Recall his words: “Are not five sparrows sold for two small coins? Yet not one of them has escaped the notice of God. Even the hairs of your head have all been counted. Do not be afraid. You are worth more than many sparrows.” At the final moment of his own life, Jesus embodies this spirit of profound trust as he prays, “Father into your hands I commend my spirit.” Jesus shows us how to die with trust in his Father.

What is the level of our trust in God these days? Are we entrusting our concerns and our very selves to God on a daily basis? I find this to be a tremendous challenge. The people with whom I live and work often kid me about how much I worry. I sometimes respond by joking, “My policy is, it’s never too early to worry.” I always want to make sure that everything is under control, that all the bases are covered. But, all kidding aside, I need to listen to Jesus’ prayer at the moment of his death, his compelling words of trust from Psalm 31: “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” Jesus entrusts his entire life to the Father – all that he has done and said, all of his achievements and even his apparent failures (at least what his enemies perceived to be failures). His prayer at the hour of his death stands as an abiding invitation to all of us to live in a spirit of profound trust in the One who has numbered the hairs on our heads. Even at the hour of our own death, we will not be alone. The Christian is one who experiences his or her death not alone, but in the company of Jesus, who has walked the same path. We live and we die holding on to the hand of Christ, just as he died holding on to the invisible hand of his Father.

Forgiveness, compassion, trust – these essentials of the life of discipleship are exemplified by Jesus in his passion. Our lives are intimately connected with his life and death as we strive to become more forgiving, as we endeavor to exhibit compassion in our dealings with people on the margins, as we seek to live out of a spirit of deeper trust in God. May we allow the words of Jesus to flow into our hearts and minds this week, as we celebrate the sacred mystery of his death and resurrection. This is our story – the most sacred story there is. It is the story of the lengths to which God would go to save us. It is the story of the triumph of God’s undying love for us.

Robin Ryan, CP