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1.Isaiah 50:4-7
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2.Philippians 2:6-11
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Mark 14:1-15:47
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“Each one of us has got a donkey to offer to
Jesus”
As we celebrate the Palm Sunday we hear Jesus
sending some of the disciples to go and bring a donkey that would be used by
Jesus as he headed to Jerusalem. A donkey during the days of Jesus was a very
big thing. The donkey was equivalent of a car, a truck, and a tractor all in
one. It was a car because people used to move around and do their shopping, a
track because it was used to carry loads, a tractor because it used to pull the
hoe cultivating the land. Adding to this fact that the donkey that Jesus requested
had not been ridden, it means that it was still new bland donkey and of very
high market value. We are told in this perspective that to give up the donkey
during that time was the sacrifice of high value.
How can we compare the response of the donkey
owner to that of many of the faithful in our church today? Going into deep
reflection about the donkey let’s have this in our minds about using our
donkeys for the service of the Lord. The donkey is an analogical expression of
our giftedness and our states of being. Everybody in one way or the other has
been endowed with talents and gifts from God freely; it is the call from each
one of us to let these talents and gifts to be freely given back to God for a
moment when He needs them for His mission. What makes some to hesitate in
giving back to God what has been given them freely? The answer is clear, that’s
because of being too selfish, lacking the sense of listening to the voice of
God in providing what we have for our Lord Jesus. All of us have donkeys. You
and I have something in our lives which if given back to God, could like the
donkey, move Jesus down the road. As we celebrate the Palm Sunday let’s have
this idea in our minds that each one of us has got something to contribute in
accomplishing the mission God is calling us to do.
Today having heard the passion narrative, we
have to bear in our minds that were no stranger to hardship, privation and
suffering long before the final day of his life. Jesus having assumed our human
condition as St Paul puts it “from the moment he came on earth, Jesus emptied
himself, taking the form of a slave, become as human beings are” (Phil 2:6ff).
He the most high suffered the hardships of the poor, and at times even not
having the place to lay his head. He endured hunger and thirst and after long
days surrounded by poor ones looking for food and cure, he spent whole night at
prayer in the hills. Despite his compassion to all who came to him, yet he
encountered oppositions, rejection and hatred from Pharisees and chief priests
who plotted against his life. We are all invited to have a word of gratitude to
our Lord Jesus for whatever He has done in our lives instead of revenge and
hatred. King Lear once said “ How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is, to have
a thankless child.” How do we feel when being rejected, insulted, and
hated by members of our own family, members who have been seeking help from us?
Likewise, Jesus grieved for having been rejected by His own people he had
chosen above all others.
The inner struggle of Jesus he faced in the
garden, his sweat became like drops of blood falling to the ground. Another
bitter pill was the knowledge that one of his own circle was to betray him, and
some like Peter, repeatedly denied to have known him before. We are all invited
to journey with grieved, and anguished. It is the call to partake in the
mystery of suffering. Do we journey and give courage with those in hard moments
in their lives? Are we united with our sick brethren at homes and in Hospitals,
in our context this is to re- live the memory of Jesus passion.(Memorial
Passionis). Jesus Christ died almost 2000+ Years ago, yet when we recall in
memory, He is still with us, and we see him on those who are grieving, those
who are in agony, and those whose rights have been deprived because of their
state of being. There are moments in the lives of Christians whereby the cry
“My God, my God why have you forsaken me” (Mk15:34, Psalm 22), This was also a
cry of Jesus when He was in agony. If it was not easy for God’s son to bear the
cross, thus it is our call to give a consolation to our brothers and sisters
who find it difficult to bear their daily crosses.
Looking on from a distance we realize that
there is a great hostility in the passion narrative we have heard. This hostility
is directed against Jesus. There is hostility from the chief priests, from
roman soldiers, from those who passed by and jeered as Hung from the cross,
alongside the hostility, there is those who had been close to Him, thus during
this dark moments have all disappeared, example, Judas betrayed him, and Peter
denied Him publicly, yet there were some people who accompanied Jesus in his
darkest moment, for example the disciple whom Jesus loved much, an anonymous
woman who in an extravagant gesture of love and respect anointed the head of
Jesus. Then there was a centurion who looked at Jesus and from there he
concluded, ‘this man was the son of God’ ( Mark 15: 39). All of these people
looked at Jesus with eyes of faith and love; we learn a lesson that from looking
we believe.
As we celebrate this Sunday, from the passion
narrative we have heard, it is a call to each one of us to identify with those
who saw Jesus with the eyes of faith and love, to be identified with those who
saw the light of God in the dark moment of Jesus Passion and death. When we
meditate on the passion and death of our Lord Jesus Christ with eyes of faith
we come to the conclusion about divine infinite love that is stronger than sin,
a divine light that shines in our darkness, a divine power that brings new life
out of all our deaths. In this Holy week we are all invited to Journey with our
Lord Jesus, we are invited to travel that journey with the eyes of the
anointing woman, the centurion, Joseph of Arimathea and the group of faithful woman.
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